Xiaomi Shows Signs of Slowing: EV Sales Miss, Phones Hit by Memory Costs

Toyo Keizai reports that China's Xiaomi is showing signs of slowing: Q1 EV sales missed targets, while its smartphone business took a direct hit from rising memory prices. For Taiwanese readers tracking the Taiwan-Japan tech supply chain, the value here is a real-time read on Chinese tech demand and global component costs. Both signals reward unpacking. The EV miss may reflect intense competition and cooling demand after subsidies fade; the phone hit points to a pressure true for all consumer electronics — recovering memory prices lift input costs and squeeze margins. That last point is striking, because it is the flip side of today's 'Kioxia tops market cap' story: pricier memory is sweet for makers but bitter medicine for the brands that use it. For the supply chain, Xiaomi's slowdown is a leading indicator of Chinese end demand; for investors, it is a reminder that the tech-growth narrative is not one-way. Watch the recovery in Chinese consumer electronics demand and memory pricing, the key variable in how profit is shared across the industry.