You greater than seemingly know Xiaomi, so-called Apple of China, as a maker of smartphones that supply a good various to Samsung. You may also find out about its smartwatches, robotic vacuums and electrical scooters. Good, if typically unoriginal design, bought at a aggressive worth.
However do you know it additionally sells cars? Xiaomi Auto leapt into the packed EV market solely in March 2024, but already has a success on its palms with the SU7. An electrical sedan not dissimilar to the Porsche Taycan, it attracted nearly 90,000 orders inside 24 hours of happening sale—a stat that seemingly makes it the fastest-selling automotive of all time.
In addition to flying out the door, the SU7 flies across the racetrack, too. A pumped-up model, referred to as the SU7 Ultra and packing greater than 1,500 horsepower, set a brand new Nurburgring lap document in November, beating each the Rimac Nevera and Porsche Taycan Turbo GT by over 15 seconds across the 12.9-mile course. Much more remarkably, it set the 6:46.9 record on a moist observe and with an obvious lack of energy part-way spherical.
Images: Xiaomi Press
Earlier than we get too carried away, it’s necessary to caveat this by saying, sure, smartphone maker Xiaomi set a stonking lap time, but it surely did so utilizing a stripped-out prototype that isn’t avenue authorized. It’s additionally value stating how the Nio EP9—additionally an electrical idea—went fractionally faster approach again in 2017, and the Volkswagen ID.R holds the outright electrical lap document, at 6:05.3.
Again to the street-legal SU7. The automotive bought so effectively at launch that Xiaomi Auto has raised its 2024 supply forecast thrice since, up from an preliminary purpose of 76,000 to 130,000 by mid-November.
In line with Chinese language auto trade professional Mark Rainford, that revised determine is “greater than even XPeng managed to ship within the yr to September,” regardless of promoting vehicles for the previous six years and working in a number of worldwide markets. November additionally noticed Xiaomi put up a 30.5 % enhance in third-quarter income.
Even Ford Boss Loves Xiaomi
However don’t simply take a look at the gross sales figures. Ford CEO Jim Farley just lately admitted to not solely driving a Xiaomi automotive within the US, however after six months he didn’t need to give it again. Talking on the Everything Elecctric Show podcast in October, Farley stated: “Everybody was speaking concerning the Apple automotive. However the Xiaomi automotive, which now exists and it’s unbelievable; they promote 10,000, 20,000 a month—they’re bought out for six months. That’s an trade juggernaut, and [it comes from] a client model that’s a lot stronger than automotive corporations.”
“I don’t like speaking concerning the competitors a lot,” continued Farley, “however I drive a Xiaomi. We flew one from Shanghai to Chicago and I’ve been driving it for six months now and I don’t need to give it up.”
Images: Xiaomi Press
The Chinese EV market is extremely crowded, however Xiaomi’s first entry stands out owing to its premium styling (even when it seems to borrow considerably from the Taycan) and low worth. The SU7 begins from beneath $30,000, inserting it $4,000 beneath the Tesla Model 3 in China. Even the hypercar-powerful SU7 Extremely looks as if good worth, with a manufacturing model set to price round $112,500 when it goes on sale in March 2025.
With only one mannequin in manufacturing, Xiaomi will already look to make full use of its personal, 20,000 cars-per-month manufacturing facility—itself a rarity amongst auto startups, who normally choose to outsource the huge expense of constructing vehicles to others in a bid to sidestep the rising pains Elon Musk as soon as described as “manufacturing hell”.
There is no such thing as a scarcity of Chinese language electrical automotive corporations queuing as much as tackle Tesla. BYD has come closest when it comes to outright gross sales, whereas beneath new Chinese language possession a resurgent MG has seen success by undercutting Tesla within the UK market. After all, prohibitive tariffs imply Chinese language-made vehicles are usually not viable, or certainly welcome, within the US—and keep in mind, that features automobiles inbuilt China by manufacturers from elsewhere, such because the Mini Cooper and Aceman, and the Polestar 2, at the least till manufacturing within the UK and US comes on-line.
