Xiaomi has reportedly entered into a partnership with Dixon Technologies for producing ‘Make in India’ Mi TVs in the country. With this partnership, Xiaomi is reported to make about 55,000 TV units locally every month.
According to a report by The Economic Times, the new Make in India televisions set will be made official in August this year. Further, the local production of the new sets of TVs will begin next month at Dixon’s new plant in Tirupati. The report adds that Xiaomi will make 32-inch and 43-inch models with this partnership, which may be expanded to newer models.
Xiaomi is also reported to partner with Foxconn to expand its TV production locally. Foxconn will likely manufacture the 55-inch and models at its Chennai facility that also produces TVs for Sony. Further, the report highlights that the local production in Dixon plant will take place through ‘open cell’ route, where the company will import the TVs via the open-cell state, that needs to be assembled before using them in making televisions. This is the same route that other big manufacturers like Samsung and LG follow.
With this, the prices of the Mi TVs will surely go down. Currently, Xiaomi has to pay 20 per cent for importing televisions along with 2 per cent surcharge. The partnership will bring the import duty charges to just 5 per cent via open cell route along with additional 1 per cent surcharge. To recall, Xiaomi increased the price of its Mi LED TV 4 by Rs 5,000 in April due to increase in tax. The TV will now retail at a price of Rs 44,999 and it will be available from Mi.com, Mi Home Store and Flipkart.