China’s Electric Vehicle Factories Have Become Tourist Hotspots

Xiaomi published its first EV model, SU7, at the beginning of 2024. At the end of the year, foreign diplomats, investors and guests from other Chinese companies had already started to arrive at the company factory in Beijing to participate in unique visits, but the company has created standardized experience for the public until the beginning of 2025.

But the excursion proved incredibly popular, and Xiaomi quickly started planning many more slots. In July, the company said it would offer a visit every day during the week and six visits most weekends, welcoming more than 1,100 visitors in total. However, when the July recording opened its doors, more than 27,000 requests were flooded overnight, according to the Xiaomi application – so that the chances of taking a ticket remain slim.

Those who are fortunate to secure a place can expect to be taken to an exhibition hall to find out more about notable innovations in Xiaomi electric cars. Visitors then get on a shuttle and enter three line production lines in total in total to observe workers and robots in action.

Then they can test an Xiaomi SU7 model on a racetrack, where a driven car driver shows how the car can speed up from 0 to 60 mph in a few seconds. “It was great – takes place very quickly, with an instant kick,” Zhao told Wired. Recently, Xiaomi has also started to sell affordable meals at the factory and memories to complete the experience.

Another visitor notes that the shuttle will temporarily stop if it hinders a robot, which is programmed to do its job according to a strictly timed schedule and is therefore less flexible than a human worker. Yuanyuan remembers that after the end of the tour, his daughter pointed out: “I have to study harder, otherwise I will not be able to find a job in the future. These will be robots that will do all the work. ”

The Xiaomi factory is an excellent example of the way in which Chinese companies are quickly evolving from the high-intensity of labor with highly automated manufacturing, thanks to the new progress of robotics and artificial intelligence. In recent years, the Chinese government has strongly favored the idea of ​​”light factories” which require no human work, which means that machines can work in darkness without anyone needing lights. Companies that have managed to reach this high level of automation, Foxconn has Home apparatushave transformed their factories into marketing opportunities, inviting humans to marvel at technology rather than working.

NIO, another main manufacturer of electric vehicles in China, publicly presents one of its highly automated factories since the end of 2023. In 2024, more than 130,000 people visited the factory, where certain production lines such as the bodywork workshop reached 100%automation, according to a press release sent by the company. Zhang says that when his last group of tours visited the Nio factory in the city of Hefei last month, the participants were able to see three on the four production lines. (The automotive paint process, however, has been excluded from public visits.)