Gagoo Munich- The 2026 World Intelligent Connected Vehicle Conference runs from October 21 to 23 at the Beijing Yizhuang Beiren Yichuang International Convention Center. During the plenary session on the afternoon of the 21st, Xiaomi Founder, Chairman, and CEO Lei Jun spoke to share updates on the company's automotive plans and outline three key insights.
Xiaomi's automotive venture began in early 2021, with its first model launching in April 2024. In the two and a half years since, cumulative deliveries have exceeded 800,000 units, with an average price of over 260,000 yuan. Last month, the company unveiled the Pengcheng series (N70, N90), completing a dual-product matrix alongside the SU7 and YU7 series.
Lei Jun also shared three perspectives during the event.
First, AI is driving the transition from fragmented intelligence to whole-vehicle intelligence.
Lei Jun described the automobile as a simplified physical terminal for embodied intelligence. Integrating AI isn't just about adding features—it's about "changing the brain." True whole-vehicle intelligence must rely on a unified, powerful base model. Upon the release of the Xiaomi Mimo Base Model 2.6, it ranked fifth globally among base models on the AA leaderboard and first among open-source models worldwide.
Second, safety is the foundation and the prerequisite—it comes before everything else. "Without safety, everything else is zero," Lei Jun emphasized.
Xiaomi aims to build the safest car in its segment. To achieve this, it has established an independent VSR Automotive Safety Research Center for end-to-end investigation and analysis that feeds back into R&D. The company has also set up a global safety department and a specialized safety unit, strengthened its automotive safety committee, and formed a safety advisory board featuring experts from industry, universities, and research institutions. Its safety-related workforce now exceeds 3,000 people. On the product side, Xiaomi requires rigorous real-world testing, conducting large-scale road trials, multiple Beijing-Shanghai range tests, and 24-hour endurance challenges. It also uses live-streamed vehicle teardowns to transparently demonstrate quality, craftsmanship, and safety standards.
Third, the next phase of competition won't just be about how smart the car is—it will be about how powerful the ecosystem is.
He argued that China possesses the most complete industrial chain, the most active environment for AI innovation, and the world's largest single market. Leveraging its "Human x Car x Home" full ecosystem strategy, Xiaomi has built the world's largest consumer-grade IoT platform. As of the end of the second quarter, global AIoT device connections surpassed 1.1 billion. The company has invested 105.5 billion yuan in R&D over the past five years and expects to invest more than 200 billion yuan over the next five. Its automotive ecosystem is now open, offering over 30 types of hardware and interfaces. Xiaomi is collaborating with automakers and developers—including BYD, GAC Toyota, Great Wall Motors, and Zhengzhou Nissan—to build the future together, and it welcomes more partners to join.
Lei Jun concluded that building cars is a marathon. Xiaomi is willing to learn from industry peers as it works to help Chinese automobiles succeed globally.
