On Thursday, December 28, 2023, Chinese consumer electronics company Xiaomi unveiled its long-awaited electric car, but refused to reveal its price or specific launch date.
CNBC | Evelyn Cheng
BEIJING — Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi said Thursday it will sell its first car at a much lower price than the Tesla Model 3, as price wars intensify in China's hotly contested electric vehicle market.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said the standard version of the SU7 would sell for 215,900 yuan ($30,408) in the country — a price he admitted meant the company was selling each car at a loss.
Tesla Model 3 price starts at 245,900 yuan in China.
Lee claimed that the standard version of the SU7 outperforms the Model 3 in more than 90% of its specifications, except for two aspects that he said could take Xiaomi at least three to five years to catch up with Tesla. He also said the SU7 has a driving range of at least 700 kilometers (about 435 miles) versus 606 kilometers for the Model 3. The company said orders exceeded 50,000 cars in 27 minutes since sales began at 10 p.m. Beijing time on Thursday.
Deliveries are scheduled to begin by the end of April, Lee said. Li also claimed that Xiaomi's car factory, in which all “key” steps are fully automated, can produce an SU7 every 76 seconds. It was not immediately clear whether the factory was operating at full capacity.
Earlier this week, Xiaomi's CEO said on social media that the SU7 would be the best sedan “under 500,000 yuan” ($69,328).
The car is entering a highly competitive market in China, where companies are launching a large number of new models and cutting prices in order to survive. Chinese telecom giant Huawei has partnered with traditional automakers, most notably launching the Aito brand, whose cars are often displayed in Huawei's smartphone showrooms.
TeslaThe Model 3 is the best-selling new energy sedan in China that has a range of at least 600 kilometers (372 miles) and costs less than 500,000 yuan, according to data from industry website Autohome.
BYDPricing for the Han sedan starts at 169,800 yuan, according to Autohome.
NewThe price of ET5 starts at 298,000 yuan, while ExpingThe data showed that the price of the P7 starts at 209,900 yuan. The price of the Geely-owned Zeekr 007 sedan starts at 209,900 yuan, according to Autohome.
Sales of new energy vehicles, which include battery-powered vehicles only, have risen in China to account for about a third of new passenger cars sold, according to the China Passenger Car Association.
Supplements
The heads of rival electric vehicle startups Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto were among the distinguished guests at the Xiaomi SU7 launch event.
On Thursday, Lee showed off a range of accessories such as an in-car refrigerator, a custom front window sunshade, and a smartphone holder, some of which are available for free when purchasing a car before the end of April, and others at a separate price.
Lee said the SU7 supports Apple Car Play and can integrate with the iPad. He also revealed driver assistance technology for highways and cities, which is scheduled to be fully available in China in August.
Tesla's Autopilot is available to assist drivers on highways in China, but the company's “full self-driving” on city streets has yet to be released in the country.
Although he said Xiaomi wanted to compete with Porsche at an automotive technology event in December, Lei acknowledged that the SU7 had longer to go before it could compete at such a premium level. It was announced that the “Max” version of the SU7, which aims to compete with the Porsche Taycan, will be sold for 299,900 yuan.
Hardware ecosystem
The SU7 is part of Xiaomi's recently launched “Human x Car x Home” strategy that seeks to build an ecosystem of connected devices with its new HyperOS operating system. Most of the company's revenue comes from phones, with less than 30% coming from hardware and other consumer products.
Although Xiaomi is generally known for its affordable products, its president Lu Weibing told CNBC earlier this year that the company has been pursuing a premium strategy since 2020 — and that there are about 20 million users in this price segment who might buy the SU7.
Lu told CNBC that the SU7 will first be sold to consumers in China, and that it will take at least two to three years for it to be launched overseas.
The company displayed the car at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February, after unveiling the car's exterior and technology in Beijing in late December.
