Auto Shanghai 2025 kicked off on 23 April and naturally, Chinese netizens placed their focus on the domestic automakers, including Xiaomi. Another reason for the interest in the tech giant-turned-EV-disruptor is that it is not only the first time the company has participated in the annual car show, but there was also the absence of the hotly anticipated YU7 SUV. Speculation suggests that it was due to the fatal accident involving a Xiaomi SU7 last month.
However, despite the absence of the vehicle and Xiaomi’s star CEO Lei Jun, the company managed to make it to go viral, nonetheless. The reason is that on the day of the opening, Xiaomi Auto announced that it would be giving away 5,000 hats every day to visitors at its booth during Auto Shanghai. The hat is a baseball cap in the same “lightning yellow” colourway of Xiaomi’s sporty SU7 Ultra and the viral stainless steel “paper cup”.
- #雷军每天免费送五千顶的帽子价值129元 The hat that Lei Jun gives away 5,000 units a day is worth 129 RMB: 46.70 million views on Weibo, ranking number 22 on the Hot Search list
- #小米王化回应雷军没去上海车展 Wang Hua of Xiaomi responds to the Lei Jun absence at Auto Shanghai: 5.91 million views on Weibo, ranking number 43 on the Hot Search list
Pundits observed that this year, without Lei Jun and other influencers, Auto Shanghai is more new release-centric, especially from the likes of XPeng and Huawei’s HIMA brands. But still, there are viral topics such as the “Unc” (卤鹅哥), who made a name for himself during the IShowSpeed China tour, and apologised after trying to feed Qihoo 360 CEO Zhou Hongyi, another CEO influencer, at the show (number 1 on Hot Search, 75.52 million views).
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