BYD president negates his recent comments about discouraging Xiaomi from entering the car production business.
According to BYD President Wang Chuanfu, the negotiations between the two firms are ongoing.
Wang said, "In the future, BYD will fully support the development of Xiaomi's automobile business, with many projects to work on."
Earlier, at the Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum on June 9, Wang Chuanfu stressed the lengthy time period it would take for Xiaomi to produce cars. He said, "if you have a good strategic direction, you should avoid detours, otherwise you will lose three or four years and there may be no development opportunities in the fierce competition." The statement was taken by the media as suggesting Wang wanted Xiaomi not to enter the carp production track.
Wang pointed out that the problem was misread by the media. In fact, Xiaomi and BYD have a very good cooperative relationship because BYD has manufactured a large number of Xiaomi mobile phones in the past.
In response to speculation in the industry about BYD's OEM Xiaomi automobile, BYD said it would not comment and Xiaomi has not responded yet.
On March 30, Xiaomi Group officially announced that it would enter the car manufacturing business. Lei Jun, the chief executive of Xiaomi, will also be the chief executive of the auto business. The initial investment in the auto business is about CNY 10 billion and the investment in the next 10 years is expected to reach more than CNY 50 billion.
Since Xiaomi announced the car building plan, the industry has tended to believe that, as a technology enterprise, the best way to build a car is to choose the OEM model.