(Yicai) Dec. 8 -- Xiaomi Automobile, the electric vehicle unit of Chinese handset giant Xiaomi Group, is recruiting managers for its showrooms, among other positions, in cities across China, a move that suggests its Beijing car factory will soon become operational.

Xiaomi Auto has posted many job listings for auto sales and service positions on recruitment websites recently, Yicai found, including for store managers and operators, after-sales service managers, user managers, online service experts, delivery invitation specialists, and other sales and engineering roles.

The showroom manager positions are for Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Changsha, Chongqing, Foshan, Dongguan, Xiamen, and other cities. In addition, some of Xiaomi's customer service centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and elsewhere have begun to pick locations for future car exhibitions, Yicai learned.

The first phase of Xiaomi's car factory was completed in June, with an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles. The Beijing-based company is in the trial production stage, making about 50 prototype cars a week, according to an institution that inspected the plant.

Xiaomi's vehicles will carry the Beijing Xiaomi logo as they are filed with the authorities by the company’s auto partner BAIC Group Off-Road Vehicle, a unit of Chinese state-owned carmaker BAIC Group, according to a catalog released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Nov. 15.

Its first EVs, the five-seater Xiaomi SU7 and SU7 Max sedans, appeared in the monthly catalog, which lists new vehicle models that have passed official testing, been certified, and are about to go to market. Xiaomi’s EVs have interconnectivity with its smartphones and household products, and its new operating system HyperOS, announced in October, to be installed in its phones and cars.

Xiaomi has invested heavily in its EV business, building a plant and making a long-term auto business layout aiming to rank in the top five globally, President Lu Weibing said during its earnings conference call on Aug. 29. Xiaomi Auto finished its summer tests with better-than-expected progress, keeping to the goal of starting mass production by the first half of next year, he noted.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev