Although it has been almost half a year since the launch of Xiaomi's electric vehicles, its "overwhelming popularity" remains undiminished.

This is partly due to the presence of Lei Jun, the "walking data package," but also because competitors often lend a helping hand, especially SAIC.

Shortly after Xiaomi's electric vehicles debuted, IM Motors, a subsidiary of SAIC, repeatedly mentioned Xiaomi during their own press conference. However, due to a mistake in parameter labeling, a big blunder occurred, leading to two apologies and various "large-scale documentaries" created by netizens.

Image source: Weibo @IM Motors

Recently, comments made by SAIC executives have once again pushed Xiaomi's electric vehicles into the spotlight (it must be said that the value of Lei Jun's five-word mantra continues to rise).

According to a video from Oriental Finance, Yu Jingmin, Executive Deputy General Manager of SAIC Passenger Vehicle Company, directly criticized Xiaomi's appearance during a media interview. "I'll just blast Xiaomi directly. We say that copying is a successful business model, but ultimately, it must lead to the same destination. We'll come back and carefully consider what your brand is all about."

Despite the SAIC executive's efforts to mitigate the criticism by pleading with viewers not to harass him online at the end of the video, his accusation of plagiarism against Xiaomi has still drawn the ire of many netizens.

Some argue that in business, it's all about sales figures, and if the sales data is good and not just a flash in the pan, there's not much point in nitpicking over appearance, which may only come across as sour grapes to outsiders.

Others believe that since even the President of Porsche China has commented on the issue, this executive has no business getting involved and using the word "plagiarism." If Xiaomi's legal department takes this seriously, it could get messy.

The blogger who was previously found guilty of infringing on Xiaomi's reputation also didn't forget to remind this executive about his choice of words.

In short, "sit quietly and reflect on your own mistakes, and don't gossip about others in idle talk," especially in public settings, where executives' words and deeds can easily be interpreted as brand opinions, potentially damaging the corporate image and resulting in more harm than good.