On March 17, Lin Min, Deputy Director of the SEM Professional Master's Center, led faculty and 2024 and 2025 professional master's students through the Xiaomi Auto factory for a hands-on study tour themed "smart manufacturing, green future."
At the Xiaomi Auto exhibition hall, faculty and students viewed the Xiaomi SU7 and YU7 models up close and experienced their intelligent cockpits and driver-assistance systems. They also raised questions about battery safety, algorithm design, and supply chain management, prompting lively discussions.
The group then toured six key production workshops: die casting, stamping, body manufacturing, painting, battery production, and final assembly. The visit offered a firsthand look at the full vehicle manufacturing process and the facility’s highly automated production system. According to the figures presented during the visit, the large-scale die-casting equipment operates with a 100% automation rate; the stamping workshop can complete a part in as little as four seconds; the body manufacturing workshop achieves assembly precision of ±0.5 mm; the painting workshop can switch colors in 40 minutes; and the battery workshop conducts 100% online inspection. In final assembly, a new vehicle rolls off the production line every 76 seconds on average.
More than 700 intelligent robots are deployed throughout the facility, working alongside a proprietary AI-based vision system to conduct real-time quality inspections, with a reported accuracy rate exceeding 99.9%. These technologies illustrate the facility’s capabilities in intelligent manufacturing.
Alongside its advances in manufacturing automation, the facility also incorporates energy-saving and environmental protection measures. Its rooftop photovoltaic system generates 16.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. The large-scale die-casting process uses 30% recycled aluminum, while the painting workshop achieves a reported 99% efficiency in exhaust-gas treatment. These practices demonstrate efforts to combine manufacturing efficiency with environmental sustainability.
At the conclusion of the visit, Lin Min noted that the experience had provided students with a valuable opportunity to learn directly from industrial practice. By connecting classroom knowledge with real-world manufacturing operations, the visit would help lay the groundwork for future collaboration among universities, research institutions, and industry.
China’s new-energy vehicle industry is currently undergoing a transition from quantitative expansion to qualitative upgrading. The visit served not only as a practical learning experience but also as a platform for students to gain insights into emerging technologies and industrial developments. Going forward, SEM will continue to strengthen its industry–academia–research collaboration platforms and cultivate innovative talent to support the high-quality development of the industry.
