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Smartphone maker Xiaomi on Tuesday said it has tied up with Hipad Technology for third-party manufacturing of its power banks in India.
This is the company’s third contract-manufacturing unit in the country and is located in Noida.
It has a capacity to make seven power banks a minute, Manu Jain, Vice-President, Xiaomi, and Managing Director, Xiaomi India, told reporters here.
The 10,000 mAh Mi Power Bank 2i and 20,000 mAh Mi Power Bank 2i will be made at the facility, he added.
Jain did not disclose the investment details.
Spread over 2.3 lakh sqft, the facility will initially employ over 500 people and the number will be ramped up gradually.
“We have seen phenomenal growth in a short span of time and a key reason for that has been our commitment to India. We want to bring the best-quality technology at an affordable rate and local manufacturing helps us in that,” Jain said.
Xiaomi has two other facilities in Andhra Pradesh for making smartphones in partnership with Foxconn.
These have provided employment to over 5,000 people with 90 per cent being women, Jain said.
“Today, more than 95 per cent of our smartphones sold in India are assembled locally... We are open to expanding capacity as well as setting up new factories if there is a requirement,” he added.
Catching up with Samsung
According to research firm IDC, Chinese handset maker Xiaomi caught up with industry leader Samsung to share the top spot in India’s smartphone market for the September quarter with each player accounting for 23.5 per cent share.
Talking about the power bank market in India, Jain said there is no third-party data available for the market.
“However, the potential is huge. A major challenge is fake power banks flooding the market. We are trying to address this by adding hologram security markers to help customers know they have bought a genuine product,” he said.
The hologram sticker has a scratch card that reveals a set of numbers that can be checked online to know if the product is genuine.
The 10,000 mAh power bank manufactured in India will be priced at ₹799, while the 20,000 mAh variant will be available for ₹1,499.
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