China’s Xiaomi unveils first EV in bid to compete with Porsche, Tesla

BEIJING — Chinese consumer electronics company Xiaomi on Thursday detailed plans to enter China’s oversaturated electric car market and launch a model to compete with automaker giants Tesla and Porsche, saying it is spending more than $100 billion (US$1.4 billion) to develop this model.

The company’s CEO Lei Jun said in a statement that the company’s model, called Xiaomi SU7, “is in trial production and will be launched in the domestic market in a few months.” tuesday post on the X social media platform (formerly Twitter). “The price has not yet been finalized.”

Xiaomi’s SU7, pronounced “Sue Qi” in Mandarin, beat Porsche’s Taycan and Tesla’s Model S in acceleration and other metrics, Lei Jun said during a three-hour speech on Thursday.

He laid out his ambition to become an industry leader, including in autonomous driving, noting that the SU7 design team had previously worked at BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

After more than three years of development, electric vehicles have taken off in China’s highly competitive market, and domestic automakers have begun to differentiate their products through ambitious automotive-compatible technologies, with sales expected to begin in 2024 .

This is an area of ​​potential advantage for Xiaomi, which is famous for its smartphones and home appliances and has previously stated that it wants to create a “‘people x car x home’ smart ecosystem.”

Lei Jun announced on Thursday that the SU7 will be integrated with Xiaomi smartphones and connected home appliances. He emphasized the company’s efforts to ensure data privacy between devices and create cars that exceed U.S. crash safety standards.

Lei said the car will also be compatible with Apple’s iPhone, iPad, CarPlay and AirPlay. Despite widespread speculation about such plans, the American giant has yet to launch a car.

Two Xiaomi SU7 models appear on the list of tax-free new energy vehicles Announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Tuesday.

The document describes the cars as being purely battery-powered with a range of 628 kilometers (390 miles) to 800 kilometers. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology lists a subsidiary of state-owned BAIC Group as the manufacturer of the Xiaomi SU7.

Although the car is not yet on the market, Xiaomi has started selling its flagship smartphone and smartwatch in the “aqua blue” and “olive oil green” colors of the SU7 sedan.

The price of the SU7 has not yet been announced, but Lei Jun hinted that the purchase price will not be cheap and denied rumors of a price of 99,000 yuan or 140,000 yuan.

On the occasion of the Xiaomi Auto Technology Conference, several domestic electric vehicle manufacturers have recently released new electric vehicles.

• Nioh The 800,000 yuan ($113,090) ET9 was first launched on Saturday, with deliveries expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025.
• Huawei’s Aito brand launched the M9 SUV on Tuesday, with a starting price of 469,800 yuan and mass deliveries expected to begin in late February 2024.
• Geely-backed Zeekr announced on Wednesday that its 007 sedan will start at 209,000 yuan, with deliveries starting on January 1.

XpengThe projects supported by Xiaomi in 2019 are The X9 model will be launched on January 1, 2024.Ahead of Thursday’s event, Lei shared photos on Weibo, China’s popular social media platform, which showed Buildings lit up with information Xiaomi said it paid tribute to BYD, NIO, Xpeng Motors, Li Auto and Huawei.

Xiaomi shares closed down 0.25% in Hong Kong trading on Thursday. The company’s Hong Kong-listed shares have risen more than 40% so far this year. The company claimed that during this year’s “Double Eleven” shopping festival, sales across various e-commerce platforms hit a record of more than $3 billion.

Xiaomi has already said Estimated cost of 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) This year’s investment in development research is 25% higher than in 2022 and more than double the 2020 expenditure.