A little more than 3 years. That’s how long it took Xiaomi to go from the idea of making an electric car to actually shipping one.
Xiaomi’s impressive new EV up close in 10 photos
At Xiaomi’s Beijing EV factory, we saw the company’s first electric car SU7 up close and rode in one to test its boost mode. It's every bit as impressive as the company claims it to be.
Photo Andrea Nepori
Photo Andrea Nepori
Photo Andrea Nepori
Photo Andrea Nepori
Photo Andrea Nepori
Photo Andrea Nepori
Photo Andrea Nepori
Photo Andrea Nepori
Photo Andrea Nepori
Photo Andrea Nepori
Photo Andrea Nepori
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- Andrea Nepori
- 22 July 2024
Seeing the car up close, riding in one, and then taking a look at the insanely low price tag is enough for anyone to change their mind.
The SU7, announced by the Chinese company last March, is already being delivered to the tens of thousands of Chinese customers who ordered it. Xiaomi initially planned to sell at least 70.000 thousand units by year's end, but the goal has already shifted to 120.000.
Last week in Beijing, we saw the Xiaomi car up close and rode in it. We didn’t know what to expect, but the level of completeness of the SU7 left us surprised, considering the incredibly short time that has passed since the project started.
Xiaomi’s founder and CEO, Lei Jun, claimed that his company aims to rise to the world’s top 5 car manufacturers. Given Lei’s larger-than-life personality and communication style, dismissing this claim as another of his boastful and over-confident moments would be easy. Seeing the car up close, riding in one, and then taking a look at the insanely low price tag is enough for anyone to change their mind.
In our gallery, we collected some of our best shots of the car along with 10 facts you need to know about Xiaomi's extremely promising SU7 EV.
Lei Jun said that the decision of going for a somewhat classic sport sedan design came after long debates. The company decided to go for a classic and recognizable line because of a car's longer average ownership time compared to a smartphone. The SU7 resembles the Porsche Taycan and has taken design cues from Tesla's Model S.
The SU7 is available in 3 models. SU7, SU7 Pro, and SU7 Max. Each one has increasingly higher specs, as suggested by the naming coming straight from the smartphone market playbook.
The base SU7 and the SU7 Pro both come equipped with the HyperEngine V6, which produces 220kW of power and 400N•m of torque. On the SU7 Max, Xiaomi's V6s provide 495kW of power and 838N•m of torque. Both engines were developed in-house by Xiaomi.
The SU7 and SU7 Pro sport a 73.6 and 94.6kWh battery respectively, while the SU Max packs a 101kWh unit. Ranges are calculated according to the Chinese CLTC standard, which is higher than Western ones, and are as follows: 700Km (435 mi) on the SU7, 830km (516mi) on the SU7 Pro, 800km (497 mi) on the SU7 Max. EPA or WLTC ranges are not available yet.
According to Xiaomi, the SU moniker stands for Speed Ultra. These cars are indeed quite fast. The SU7 and SU7 Pro can reach a top speed of 210km/h (130 mph), whereas the SU7 Max has a top speed of 265km/h.
Xiaomi's powerful engines can also enable impressive 0-100km/h acceleration specs. The SU7 can reach that speed in 5.28 seconds. Due to its larger battery, the Pro is slightly less snappy at 5.7s. The SU Max, on the other hand, can do 0-100km/h in 2.78s in sport mode. We tested it, and it's every bit as impressive as one can imagine.
All three SU7 models come equipped with a 16.1-inch landscape touchscreen infotainment display with 3K resolution. The system is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 (SoC) and runs the car version of Xiaomi HyperOS, the same Android software running on Xiaomi's latest smartphone and smart home devices. There is no self-driving option yet, but a driver-assistance system called Xiaomi Pilot, based on Nvidia Drive Orin chips, is standard in all models.
The Xiaomi SU7 will be able to compete with Tesla's higher tier offering and beat Porsche Taycan's performance at a fraction of the price. Xiaomi sells the base SU7 for 219,900 Yuan (roughly £24,000), while the SU7 Pro and SU 7 Max costs 245,000 Yuan (£27,000). At 299,000 Yuan ($34,000), The SU7 Max is the most expensive configuration.
Xiaomi's Lei Jun shared that the company initially aimed to sell 70,000 SU7 during its first year. With tens of thousands of preorders within the first month, Xiaomi quickly revised its sales goal thanks to an extremely successful launch. The company now expects to sell 100,000 SU7 by the end of 2024.
To reach the sales goal and ship all the preorders, Xiaomi had to start double shifts in its EV factory. The facility just outside of Beijing was built in record time and covers a total area of 718.000 ㎡. When running at full capacity, Xiaomi's EV Factory can produce 40 SU7s per hour, with a new car rolling out of the production line every 76 seconds.
During its annual speech held in Beijing on Friday, July 19th, Lei June announced a new SU concept model, the SU7 Ultra. Thanks to Xiaomi's 27000rpm V8s engine, the electric supercar can reach a top speed of 350km/h, with a 0-100km/h acceleration of just 1.97 seconds.