BEIJING (Xinhua) — Xiaomi, a Chinese consumer electronics company, detailed plans on Thursday to enter China’s oversaturated electric vehicle market and compete with automaker behemoths Tesla and Porsche with a car model that it claims cost more than 10 billion yuan to develop.
The Xiaomi SU7, the company’s car model, “is in trial production and will hit the domestic market in a few months,” CEO Lei Jun said in a post on the X social media platform. “The price has not been finalized yet.” The Xiaomi SU7, pronounced “Sue Qi” in Mandarin, outperforms Porsche’s Taycan and Tesla’s Model S in acceleration and other metrics, according to Lei during a presentation.
After more than three years of development sales are set to begin in 2024. This is an area where Xiaomi may have an advantage, as the company is best known for its smartphones and home appliances and has previously stated that it wants to create a “‘Human x Car x Home’ smart ecosystem.”
According to Lei, the SU7 is compatible with Xiaomi smartphones and internet-connected home appliances. He emphasized the company’s efforts to ensure data privacy among devices and to develop a car that outperforms US safety standards for rear-end collisions. Lei also stated that the vehicle will be compatible with Apple’s iPhone, iPad, CarPlay, and AirPlay.
