China’s electric vehicle factories have become tourist points

Xiaomi released the first EV model, SU7, in early 2024. By the end of the year, foreign diplomats, investors and guests from other Chinese companies had already begun to reach the company’s factory in Beijing to participate in only one time rounds every month.

But the journey proved incredibly popularity, and Xiaomi quickly started to schedule more holes. In July, the company said it would offer one round every day of the week and six rounds in most weekends, and accommodate more than 1,100 visitors in total. When the July registration was opened, more than 27,000 applications were immersed overnight, according to the Xiaomi application – so that the ticket opportunities remain minimal.

Those who are lucky can be enough to secure a spot first expecting them to the exhibition hall to identify prominent innovations in Xiaomi electric cars. Then the visitors jump on a shuttle and go to three of the six -year production lines to monitor workers and robots while working.

After that, they can test Xiaomi SU7 ride on the horse racing circuit, where a coach’s race driver explains how the car can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just a few seconds. “I felt comfortable – very quickly, with an instant kick,” Zhao told Wire. Recently, Xiaomi has also started selling reasonable meals in the factory and souvenirs to complete the experiment.

Another visitor notes that the shuttle will stop temporarily if he is on his way to a robot, and he is a programmer to do his work according to a completely timely time schedule, and therefore it is less flexible than the human factor. Yuanua recalls that after the tour ends, her daughter noticed: “I need to study more hard, otherwise I will not be able to find a job in the future. Robots will do all the work.”

The Xiaomi factory is a major example of how Chinese companies rapidly evolve from labor intensive manufacturing to very automated manufacturing, thanks to new developments in robots and artificial intelligence. In recent years, the Chinese government has greatly strengthened the idea of ​​”lighting factories” that did not require any human action, which means that machines can excel in the dark without anyone needing the lights. Companies that managed to achieve this high level of automation, from Foxconn to Home appliance giantsThey turned their factories into marketing opportunities, and calling people to marvel at technology rather than doing work.

NIO, the pioneering EV maker in China, offered one of its very automatic factories since late 2023. In 2024, more than 130,000 people visited the factory, where some production lines such as Body Shop made 100 percent automation, according to a statement sent by the company. When she visited the latest tourist group of NIO factory in Hefei last month, Chang says, the participants were able to watch three of the four production lines. (However, the paint process was excluded from public visits.)