Inside the Xiaomi SU7, the $30K Chinese EV that Ford's CEO loves

Business Insider

Xiaomi, the third-largest smartphone maker, launched its first electric car early in 2024, the SU7. The self-driving vehicle is priced under $30,000.

Transcript

00:00Xiaomi is a cell phone and appliance company sometimes referred to as the Apple of China.

00:11It's built an affordable self-driving electric vehicle that starts at under $30,000, a direct

00:17effort to compete with Tesla.

00:20Within days of the car being released, the whole of the planned production run for 2024

00:25was sold out.

00:27When I get in the car, I actually have to put the key here, which tells the car that

00:32I'm starting it up.

00:33Once I've done that, I can then actually move the key and put my phone there or whatever

00:37to charge it.

00:38So we've got quite a large screen.

00:40I believe this might be 16.1 inches, which is larger than a lot of the screens.

00:45So to start the car, I need to press this button here.

00:48Off we go.

00:53Right now we're driving the Max version of the Xiaomi Su7.

00:57There are three versions of the car, the Standard, the Pro, and the Max.

01:01The Max comes in at $41,500.

01:05For the Standard, we are looking at $29,000.

01:09Now the Standard and the Pro are both rear-wheel drive, single motor cars using a 220 kilowatt

01:16motor on the rear axle, that's 299 horsepower.

01:19With the Max version, it becomes a dual motor for a combined power of 495 kilowatts, which

01:27is 673 horsepower.

01:32Rangers, the Max version that we're driving, can supposedly get a range of around 500 miles,

01:38800 kilometers.

01:39The Standard has a range of around about 438 miles.

01:45Now something I should point out, that is using the CLTC Standard.

01:50Now this generally is quite biased towards city driving and is really very generous.

01:59I would say in real-world conditions, you're looking at about half that sort of range.

02:10So we're driving now using Navigation and Autopilot.

02:13Xiaomi were uncomfortable with letting me try this out, although I've actually driven

02:18multiple cars with this before.

02:20This will work following the navigation on the system, so you basically put in a destination

02:26that you want to go to, and you activate it by pressing a button on the steering wheel.

02:32You can see here a representation of the road, and we've got a little two-wheeler there,

02:41coming up to a junction, there's cars going there as you can see.

02:46Compared with some of the other systems I've driven, this does not seem very smooth so far.

02:52So this is used, I should point out, uses a LiDAR-based system, so we've got a LiDAR

02:57unit on the top of the windshield.

03:00It's also got cameras surrounding the car, and we've got ultrasonic sensors and millimeter

03:05wavelength radars.

03:06This will supposedly work in most places in China, and it's working in urban areas

03:13as well as on highways.

03:17When Xiaomi launched the SU7, they managed to immediately sell out the year's production

03:22in a matter of days.

03:23Now they're working double shifts and are producing and selling 20,000 a month.

03:27They're producing one car every 76 seconds.

03:30This car is the first car from Xiaomi, but is far the last.

03:35Next year we'll see an SUV, and following on from that will be an EREV, which stands

03:40for an extended range EV, which should come in cheaper than this car and presumably the

03:45SUV as well.

03:46A lot of people have also compared the looks to this with, let's say, a Porsche Taycan.

03:52Yes, perhaps there are similarities, but there are also a lot of differences.

03:56This car has a lot going for it.

03:59Perhaps I'm a little bit disappointed with the looks as it's perhaps a bit derivative,

04:03but it isn't a copy.

04:06There are a lot of new features with this car.

04:09It offers very, very good value for money in the China context, and obviously Xiaomi

04:15have global ambitions.

04:18Will it make it globally?

04:19Well, time will tell.

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