Chinese consumer electronics company Xiaomi unveiled its long-awaited electric car on Thursday, December 28, 2023, but refused to reveal its price or a specific release date.
CNBC | Evelyn Cheng
BEIJING – Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi said Thursday it will sell its first car for significantly less than Tesla's Model 3, as price wars intensify in China's fiercely competitive electric car market.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said the standard version of the SU7 will sell in the country for 215,900 yuan ($30,408) – a price he acknowledged would mean the company was selling each car at a loss.
Tesla's Model 3 starts at 245,900 yuan in China.
Lei claimed that the standard version of the SU7 outperforms the Model 3 in more than 90% of its specifications, except for two aspects in which he said Xiaomi could take at least three to five years to catch up with Tesla. He also said that the SU7 has a minimum range of 700 kilometers (nearly 435 miles), compared to 606 kilometers for the Model 3. The company said that orders had increased in the 27 minutes since sales began at 10 p.m. Beijing time on Thursday The 50,000 car mark had been exceeded.
Deliveries are expected to begin at the end of April, Lei said. Lei also claimed that Xiaomi's car factory, where all “key” steps are fully automated, can produce an SU7 every 76 seconds. It was not immediately clear whether the factory was fully operational.
Earlier this week, Xiaomi CEO said on social media that the SU7 is the best sedan “under 500,000 yuan” ($69,328).
The car is entering a fiercely competitive market in China, where companies are launching a range of new models and cutting prices to survive. Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has partnered with traditional automakers, most notably launching the Aito brand, whose vehicles are often displayed in Huawei smartphone showrooms.
TeslaAccording to data from industry website Autohome, the Model 3 is the best-selling new energy sedan in China, with a range of at least 600 kilometers (372 miles) and costing less than 500,000 yuan.
BYDAccording to Autohome, the Han sedan starts at 169,800 yuan.
NioThe ET5 starts at 298,000 yuan XpengAccording to the data, the P7 starts at 209,900 yuan. According to Autohome, Geely's 007 sedan Zeekr starts at 209,900 yuan.
According to the China Passenger Car Association, sales of new energy vehicles, which include purely battery-powered cars, have surged in China, accounting for about a third of new cars sold.
Accesories
The heads of rival electric car startups Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto were among the featured guests at the Xiaomi SU7 launch event.
Lei on Thursday unveiled a range of accessories such as a car refrigerator, a custom windshield shade and a smartphone holder, some of which are available for free with a car purchase before the end of April, and others at a separate price.
The SU7 supports Apple's Car Play and can be integrated with the iPad, Lei said. He also unveiled driver assistance technologies for highways and cities that are expected to 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 roads has yet to be released in the country.
Although Xiaomi said it wanted to compete with Porsche at an automotive tech event in December, Lei admitted that the SU7 would take longer to compete at that premium level. He announced that the “Max” version of the SU7, intended to compete with Porsche's Taycan, would sell for 299,900 yuan.
Ecosystem of devices
The SU7 is part of Xiaomi's recently launched “Human x Car x Home” strategy, which aims to build an ecosystem of devices connected to its new HyperOS operating system. The majority of the company's sales come from telephones, with almost 30% coming from household appliances and other consumer goods.
Although Xiaomi is generally known for cheaper products, President Lu Weibing told CNBC earlier this year that the company has been pursuing a premiumization strategy since 2020 – and that there are about 20 million users in this price segment who could buy the SU7.
Lu told CNBC that the SU7 will initially be sold to consumers in China and that it would take at least two to three years to be launched overseas.
The company presented the car at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February, after revealing the vehicle's exterior and technology in Beijing at the end of December.
