In brief: Xiaomi has achieved enough brand recognition and financial power to start its venture into the world of electric cars. In the concurrently, smartphones and IoT products are yet the Chinese company'due south bread and butter, which is why it's also edifice a second Xiaomi Smart Manufacturing plant in the Beijing commune.

Xiaomi today appear information technology volition acquire democratic driving startup DeepMotion in a deal evaluated at around $77.3 million, joining the listing of big Chinese tech companies that have signaled their involvement in the electric car market.

Earlier this year, Xiaomi explained that it would bound with both feet into the EV swimming with the cosmos of a wholly owned subsidiary dedicated to making electric cars. The new venture will be led by Xiaomi co-founder and CEO Lei Jun, and will receive a cash injection of 10 billion yuan ($1.54 billion) over the next x years.

Details are scarce at this indicate, simply judging past its other businesses, Xiaomi volition likely blueprint the cars in-house and contract other companies to manufacture them. As with phones and smart home products, the cars would be sold at or close to their manufacturing cost while profits would exist extracted from a variety of services around "smart EVs."

The news comes but every bit Xiaomi reported on its fiscal results for the second quarter of this year. The visitor saw net income of 8.26 billion yuan ($1.28 billion) on revenue of 87.8 billion yuan ($thirteen.57 billion). This is a 64 percent yr-over-year increase in revenue and an fourscore per centum surge in net income over the same period a twelvemonth agone.

Xiaomi has benefited greatly from Huawei'due south downfall and Samsung'southward production issues, which propelled the Chinese tech behemothic to the top position among global smartphone brands in terms of sales. Phone revenue alone was $9.1 billion, and the visitor says it shipped over over 12 one thousand thousand units priced at $350 or above.

Revenue from IoT and lifestyle products was up 36 pct twelvemonth-over-yr to $three.2 billion, thanks in no small-scale part to electrical scooters and the smart Goggle box lineup which sold two.5 one thousand thousand units worldwide. Cyberspace services brought an boosted $ane.08 billion.

The company told investors during a conference phone call that structure of its Changping Smart Manufacturing plant in the Beijing district is well underway, with a planned annual production capacity of up to 10 meg smartphones of the high-end diversity.

The plant is said to operate with a minimal man workforce when ready, only Xiaomi is likely to run into similar issues as Apple when trying to automate every pace of the manufacturing process.