Xiaomi released its first EV model, Su7, in early 2024. By the end of this year, diplomats, investors and guests from other Chinese companies began to the company's factory in Beijing to take part in a one -off tour.
But the tour was extremely popular, and Xiaomi quickly started scheduling more significantly. In July, the company said it would provide a tour of the week and six tours on most weekends, accommodating more than 1,100 guests. However, when registered in July was opened, more than 27,000 applications were flooded overnight, according to the Xiaomi application, so the opportunity to grab a ticket is still thin.
Those who are lucky enough to make sure a point can expect to be taken to an gallery to learn about the notable innovation in Xiaomi's electric cars. Visitors then jumped on a shuttle ship and entered three production lines working among six people to observe workers and robots in action.
They can then test a Xiaomi Su7 model on a racing, where a trained racing driver shows how the car can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles / hour in just a few seconds. It feels great when done very quickly, with an instant kick, Zhao Zhao told Wired. Recently, Xiaomi also started selling affordable meals at the factory and souvenirs to complete the experience.
Another visitor noted that the shuttle will temporarily stop if it hinders a robot, programmed to perform their work according to the schedule on time and therefore less flexible than a human worker. Yuanyuan recalled that after the tour ended, her daughter commented: I need to study harder, otherwise I will not be able to find a job in the future. It will be a robot to do all the work.
Xiaomi's factory is a typical example of how Chinese companies quickly developed from labor -intensive production to high automatic production, thanks to new advances in robots and artificial intelligence. In recent years, the Chinese government has promoted a lot of ideas about lighting factories, without human labor, which means that the machine can go in the dark without anyone to turn on the light. The companies have managed to achieve this high level of automation, from Foxconn ARRIVE Home appliances giantTurns their factories into marketing opportunities, inviting people to be more surprised by technology than working.
Nio, another leading EV manufacturer in China, publicly presented one of the high automation factories since the end of 2023. In 2024, more than 130,000 people visited the factory, where some body shops such as Body Shop have achieved 100 %automation, as sentenced by the company. Zhang said when her latest tourist group visited Nio's factory in Hefei city last month, participants were able to see three of the four production lines. (However, the car paint process was excluded from public visit.)