Xiaomi's electric vehicle (EV) business is expected to turn profitable in the second half of 2025, the smartphone giant's founder, chairman, and CEO Lei Jun said today.

Lei mentioned this timeline during today's Xiaomi Investor Day event. If the target is achieved, it will make Xiaomi EV the fastest to achieve profitability among China's new automotive brands.

Nio and Xpeng, both founded about 10 years ago, aim to achieve quarterly profitability this year.

Li Auto has remained profitable since the fourth quarter of 2022. Leapmotor saw its first quarterly profit in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Xiaomi officially announced its entry into the automotive industry in March 2021 and officially launched its first model, the SU7 electric sedan, in March 2024.

In the first quarter of 2025, Xiaomi's EV business generated RMB 18.1 billion ($2.5 billion) in revenue, according to the unaudited financial report published on May 27.

This represents an 11.04 percent increase from the RMB 16.3 billion reported for the fourth quarter of last year.

In the first quarter, Xiaomi's innovative businesses, including EV and AI, generated RMB 18.6 billion in revenue, with RMB 500 million from other businesses.

The gross margin for innovative businesses, including EV and AI, was 23.2 percent in the first quarter, up from 20.4 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

The operating loss for these innovative businesses — gross profit minus operating expenses — was RMB 500 million in the first quarter, down from RMB 700 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.