Apple may have decided not to go the car route, but in China, a growing number of mobile phone producers are becoming more and more involved with making cars. Huawei was the first with its rapid integration of various services into cars, culminating in its HIMA model, creating joint brands with so far four producers. Meizu, after its acquisition by Geely, became increasingly involved in the human-machine interface of various Geely products. And then, of course, this year, Xiaomi started producing its own cars.
On July 26, at the ChinaJoy 2024 exhibition, Liao Qinghong, Meizu’s COO, said that Meizu Automobile would launch this year and that it would have a different functional performance from traditional car OEMs.
As we reported last year, Meizu wants to replicate Xiaomi in the production of cars. The Meizu DreamCar MX should be unveiled later this year. It will be produced by Geely and it’s believed that the design has already been finalized.
In January this year, Meizu created the DreamCar MX community, an interactive communications platform for Meizu fans. It allows them to exchange ideas and expectations and participate in the vehicle design and development process. This will help the company meet users’ needs and create more lifestyle scenarios.
In the community, members can co-create and discuss personalization details such as color coordination, Flyme Auto theme, and display their own creativity and ideas.
When the Meizu car production plan was first announced, purchasers of the Meizu 21 phone were given the right to deduct the purchase price from a subsequent purchase of a Meizu DreamCar MX.
As a mobile phone company, Meizu has a long history and a long-standing rivalry with Xiaomi. The move into producing its own branded cars is certainly interesting, and we will have to see how the cars do against Xiaomi.
Being a Geely Group product, the car will use the SEA (sustainable experience architecture) platform as its base. The pictures make the car look like a sedan of a similar size to a Lynk & Co Z10. We can expect the car to use some form of Flyme Auto to control its ecosystem.
Meizu was founded in 2003 as an electronics producer before moving into smartphone production in 2008. In 2015, it was the eleventh largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world. A Geely-controlled company bought a 79% controlling share of Meizu in July 2022.
Source: Fast Technology
