Chinese phone maker Xiaomi is wading into electric vehicles with a $10bn (£7.3bn) investment over ten years.
The Chinese tech giant's goal is to "offer quality smart electric vehicles," it said on Tuesday.
Xiaomi is the world's third largest smartphone maker behind Apple and Samsung, according to data firm Canalys.
The company will be entering a fiercely competitive electric car market that also includes rivals Apple and Huawei.
Xiaomi will set up a wholly-owned subsidiary with an initial investment of about $1.5bn, with the company's chief executive Lei Jun heading up the new venture.
"The decision was made after numerous rounds of deliberation among all our partners, and this will be the final major entrepreneurial project of my life," he said in a statement.
So far, the company has given no indication about whether it will produce budget models or target the top end of the market.
There are already hundreds of companies in China jostling for a share of the world's leading market for electric cars.
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