After announcing its entry into the car industry, it has become a mystery as to how Xiaomi will name its business.

The smartphone giant has recently applied for several "米汽" (Mi Qi) trademarks, with international classifications including website services, advertising and sales, and transportation, according to data provider Tianyancha. The current status of the trademarks is mostly pending.

Xiaomi has also applied for registration of trademarks including "米车" (Mi Car), "Xiaomi汽车" (Xiaomi Car) and "xiaomicar".

(Source: Tianyancha)

The large number of these trademarks and the wide range of classifications make it impossible to know how Xiaomi's car business will be named.

Xiaomi announced on March 30 that it would enter the smart electric car market with an expected investment of $10 billion over 10 years, with an initial investment of RMB 10 billion yuan ($1.54 billion), and that Lei Jun, the company's CEO, would also serve as CEO of the smart electric car business.

On April 6, Lei launched a poll on Weibo asking fans whether the Xiaomi car business should use the Xiaomi brand. The vast majority of participants chose to use the brand.

In terms of the price range, 37% of users wanted the Xiaomi car to cost less than RMB 100,000, 26% wanted the price range to be between RMB 100,000 and RMB 150,000, and only 8% wanted the price to be more than RMB 300,000.

Lei said his fans want the company to make mid- to high-end cars, so the first Xiaomi car will be priced in the range of RMB 100,000-300,000.

Analysts at Pingan Securities said on March 31 that Xiaomi's car will mainly target the price band below RMB 200,000.

Xiaomi president says car building hasn't started yet, decision was announced to get better resources

(Source: Xiaomi)