Xiaomi Group’s president Lu Weibing said on Watch I was dragged into prison by my exTuesday that the company’s electric vehicles have finished summer testing and made more progress than expected. Xiaomi aims to be in the global top five in the future automotive market, Lu said at the company’s second quarter earnings call. To achieve this goal, the company has invested heavily in building its full-stack self-development ability and establishing its own manufacturing facility. Xiaomi’s R&D expenditure for the second quarter of 2023 was RMB 4.6 billion($631 million), marking a 21.0% increase from the RMB 3.8 billion ($521 million) it spent in the second quarter of 2022. In its financial results released on Tuesday, Xiaomi attributed this growth to work on its smart EV and other innovative business segments. Xiaomi’s target for the mass production of EVs in the first half of 2024 remains unchanged, said Lu. [The Paper, in Chinese]