Buyers who placed orders for Xiaomi’s first electric car, the SU7, are now being advised to wait for up to 6 months to have their cars delivered as orders for the car swelled to almost 89,000 in the first 24 hours alone.
This does not come as a surprise bearing in mind the firm is pricing the car at a fraction of what Tesla costs. The standard SU7 model is priced at 215,900 yuan to Tesla Model 3’s 245,900 yuan price tag. The Max version goes for 299,900 yuan.
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The car has a longer range too; its minimum range is 700km to Tesla Model 3’s 567km.
Current users of XIaomi products will be enticed with the fact that the EV shares the same operating system as their Xiaomi phones and laptops.
The cars are currently being manufactured at a plant in Beijing owned by a unit of state-owned car manufacturer BAIC Group.
While there is a global slowdown in the uptake of electric cars, Xiaomi is betting big with a $10bn investment in its vehicles business over the next 10 years. This investment is meant to take on the two biggest players in the EV market; Tesla and BYD who have slashed prices of their electric cars in a bid to woo more customers and grow their market shares.
