Xiaomi Automotive will demo its first-ever prototype by the end of August 2022

Xiaomi may be best known as a personal electronics company, yet is reportedly so committed to a foray into the electric car market that its CEO, Lei Jun, now allegedly spends up to 66% of all the time he spends at the OEM's headquarters in the Automotive department's office there. This reported level of dedication may indicate that the company is truly closing in on an inaugural public reveal for one of its prototypes.

The latest word from the Chinese media again endorses the idea of this event being set for August 2022, suggesting that the OEM might indeed make the Indonesia International Auto Show with its first-gen concept vehicle.

In the meantime, Xiaomi is also now said to have engaged the HVST Automobile Design group to aid it in this endeavor. That Shanghai-based company is also credited with the design of the high-end MW Maven EV. However, Xiaomi may not be going quite that high-end with its oneday production-ready cars.

The OEM is rumored to target 2 distinct categories in the market. Termed "A+" and "B" in China, they fall into 150,000-200,000 (~US$22,000-30,000) and 200,000-300,000 (~US$30,000-44,000) yuan price-bands respectively. Each tier is rumored to get 2 new Xiaomi models each from the off.

Interestingly, Xiaomi allegedly intends to equip all of them with autonomous driving tech of either level 2+ (L2+) or L3 . Then again, they are not predicted to be here until 2024 at the earliest.