(Yicai Global) July 22 -- Xiaomi Auto, the electric vehicle unit of Chinese tech giant Xiaomi, has hired the former deputy general manager of SAIC-GM-Wuling Sales, a unit of SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile, as new head of marketing.

Zhou Xing will join Xiaomi Auto in August and will report directly to Xiaomi Auto’s Chairman Lei Jun, Yicai Global Learned from sources yesterday.

Zhou joined SAIC-GM-Wuling, a joint venture between Shanghai’s SAIC Motors, US General Motors, and Guangxi province-based Wuling Motors, in 2011. He became marketing director at SAIC-GM-Wuling Sales in 2018 and was later promoted to deputy general manager, Yicai Global learned.

Analysts pointed out that Zhou’s addition to the team means that Xiaomi Auto is running well and has begun to plan the sales side.

Before Zhou, Xiaomi Auto employed other executives from traditional car companies. In January, the Beijing-based carmaker named Yu Liguo, former president of Arcfox, a new energy sub-brand under BAIC Group, as new vice president, responsible for the comprehensive management and talents in the headquarters.

In September last year, Lei Jun, who is also Xiaomi’s founder, chairman, and chief executive, said that the core team members of Xiaomi Auto included Li Tianyuan, the main designer of the appearance of German carmaker BMW’s electric sport utility vehicle model BMW iX, Yicai Global learned.

Chinese leading smartphone maker Xiaomi announced in March last year that it would spend USD10 billion over the next decade to develop a smart electric vehicle business. Lei Jun is the legal representative of the EV unit, which was incorporated in Beijing last September with registered capital of CNY10 billion (USD1.6 billion).

According to a plan disclosed earlier, Xiaomi Auto will build a plant with an annual output of 300,000 units in Beijing, expected to achieve mass production in 2024.

Editor: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione