Chinese consumer electronics company Xiaomi unveiled its highly anticipated electric vehicle on Thursday, December 28, 2023, but declined to reveal its price or specific release date.
CNBC | Evelyn Cheng
BEIJING — Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi said Thursday it will sell its first car for much less than a Tesla Model 3 as price wars escalate in China’s fiercely competitive electric vehicle market.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said the standard version of the SU7 will be priced at 215,900 yuan ($30,408) in the country, a price he acknowledged would mean the company is selling each vehicle at a loss.
Tesla Model 3 starts with 245,900 yuan in China.
Lay said the standard version of the SU7 beats the Model 3 in more than 90% of its features, except for two aspects where he said it could take Xiaomi at least three to five years to catch up with Tesla. He also said the SU7 has a minimum driving range of 700 kilometers (nearly 435 miles), compared with 606 kilometers for the Model 3. The company said orders topped 50,000 vehicles within 27 minutes of sales going live at 10 p.m. Beijing time on Thursday.
Deliveries will begin by the end of April, Lay said. Lei also said that Xiaomi’s car plant, in which all “key” steps are fully automated, can produce an SU7 every 76 seconds. It was not immediately clear whether the plant was operating at full capacity.
Earlier this week, Xiaomi’s CEO said on social media that the SU7 will be the best sedan “under 500,000 yuan” ($69,328).
The car is entering the fiercely competitive Chinese market, where companies are launching a slew of new models and slashing prices to survive. Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has established partnerships with traditional automakers, most notably the launch of the Aito brand, whose cars are often displayed in Huawei smartphone showrooms.
TeslaThe Model 3 is China’s best-selling new energy sedan, with a range of at least 600 kilometers (372 miles) and costing less than 500,000 yuan, according to industry website Autohome.
BIDAccording to Autohome, the Han sedan starts at RMB 169,800.
NioET5 starts from RMB 298,000 and ShpengAccording to the data, the price of the P7 starts at 209,900 yuan. Geely’s Zeekr 007 sedan starts at RMB 209,900, according to Autohome.
Sales of new energy vehicles, including battery-powered vehicles, have risen in China to account for about a third of new passenger cars sold, according to the China Passenger Car Association.
Accessories
The heads of rival electric vehicle startups Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto were among the invited guests at the Xiaomi SU7 launch event.
On Thursday, Lay showed off a number of accessories, such as a car refrigerator, a special front window shade and a smartphone holder, some of which are available free with the purchase of a car until the end of April, and others for a separate price.
The SU7 supports Apple Car Play and can integrate with iPad, Lei said. He also talked about driver assistance technology for highways and cities, which will be fully available in China in August.
Tesla’s Autopilot for driver assistance on highways is available in China, but the company’s “Full Self-Driving” for city streets has yet to be released in the country.
Even though Xiaomi wanted to compete with Porsche at an automotive technology event in December, Lei admitted that the SU7 needs more time before it can compete at that more premium level. He announced that the SU7 “Max” version, designed to compete with the Porsche Taycan, will be sold for 299,900 yuan.
Device ecosystem
The SU7 is part of Xiaomi’s recently launched ‘People x Car x Home’ strategy, which aims to create an ecosystem of devices connected to the new HyperOS operating system. The majority of the company’s revenue comes from phones, with just under 30% coming from appliances and other consumer products.
While Xiaomi is generally known for more affordable products, its president Lu Weibing told CNBC earlier this year that the company has been pursuing a premiumization strategy since 2020—and that around 20 million users could buy the SU7 at that price point.
Lu told CNBC that the SU7 will be sold to consumers in China first, and any overseas product launch will take at least two to three years.
The company showed off the car at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February, after unveiling the car’s appearance and technology in Beijing at the end of December.
