With China EV launch, Xiaomi's 'Thor' takes on Elon Musk
With the launch of a much-hyped and against-the-odds electric car, Lei Jun, Xiaomi's co-founder and CEO, is taking on Elon Musk with a strategy that takes a page from Tesla's playbook.
Lei, 54, took the stage in Beijing on Thursday to unveil Xiaomi's SU7 car, a project three years in the making that has attracted a lot of attention but which, Lei has warned investors, will lose money.
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During Thursday's two-hour event — a livestream millions of Chinese tuned in to watch — Lei made a jibe at Apple for dropping its car project and declared Xiaomi's EV superior to Tesla's Model 3.
Fans dubbed the Xiaomi CEO «Thor» on social media, a play on his surname which means thunder in Chinese. Some commented that his outfit — a grey blazer over a black t-shirt — looked like something Musk would wear.
Already a household name in China, Lei's marketing strategy for his EV borrows directly from Musk, said Yale Zhang, managing director at Automotive Foresight.
«One person equals an entire marketing team,» Zhang said. «With every word he says, the attention he attracts online is of a different magnitude.»
Born in central China, Lei graduated from Wuhan University with a degree in computer science before working his way up to become chief executive of software firm Kingsoft.
In 2010, he co-founded Xiaomi. By 2014, the tech startup had a valuation of $46 billion.
The Beiijng-based company has grown with the popularity of its
