The billionaire co-founder of Xiaomi Corp has unveiled the company’s first-ever electric vehicle Thursday, December 28.
With SU7, the first-ever EV of Xiaomi, the company is poised to compete with prominent EV brands including billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla and Porsche AG.
The abbreviation of SU stands for Speed Ultra, hinting the electric vehicle will be a performance model.
Lei Jun, the Chairman and CEO at Xiaomi said the vehicle has been designed in “manner to fulfil the desires of its customers.” While Lei claims Xiaomi SU7 is not aimed at competition, it is well within its league to take on the likes of the Tesla Model S in terms of looks and performance.
With production on the EV already kicking off, the cars would be manufactured in Beijing at one of the facilities owned by Chinese carmaker BAIC Group.
The Xiaomi SU7 is a four-door electric sedan which stands 4,997 mm in length and 1,963 mm in width with up to 1,455 mm in height. The EV features a wheelbase of 3,000 mm.
Besides this, the SU7 will be available in two configurations differentiated by the energy storage capacity of its battery.
According to Xiaomi, the entry-level variant of the SU7 will come with a 73.6 kWh battery pack. The top-of-the-line variant will feature a much larger 101 kWh battery pack.
Xiaomi developed its own CTB (Cell-to-Body) technology, which integrates the battery into the vehicle significantly improving the structural rigidity. This also eliminates the floor, and reduces the height for a more spacious cabin.
Xiaomi claims the SU7 will offer range up to 800 kms in a single charge.
The company is also geared to introduce a new variant called V8 with a larger 150 kWh battery pack with 1,200-km range later in 2025.