Making an EV in high volume is extremely difficult. Xiaomi, an electronics giant in China known as the Apple of China has introduced its first EV after three years of development. Their SU7 EV launch event presented by Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun is available on YouTube: Xiaomi EV Launch March 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsiyB5Es32s
Xiaomi has a dedicated website for its EV line at: https://www.xiaomiev.com. The site is in Chinese but Safari and other browsers can translate it to English.
The Xiaomi SU7 EV is a stunning looking car with high performance and smart features. Xiaomi used the Tesla Model 3 as its benchmark and it compared favorably to it. Its driving performance also compared favorably to the high end Porsche Taycan Turbo.
| Xiaomi SU7 Max | Taycan Turbo | Model 3 Performance | |
| 0-100km/h | 2.78s | 2.93s | 3.3s |
| 0-100km/h -15C | 3.38s | ? | 6.35s |
| 0-200km/h | 10.67s | 11.05s | |
| 80-120km/h | 1.61s | 1.95s | |
| 120-160km/h | 2.5s | 2.78s | |
| 0-400m | 11.13 | 11.25s | |
| Price | ? | 1518 kYuan | |
| Max Speed | 265km/h | ||
| 100-0km/h | 33.3m |
Wheelbase: 3000m
Length : 4997mm
Height: 1440mm
Width: 1963mm
Its V6s Hypber motor has the following specs:
max rpm: 21000rpm
horsepower: 673ps
electric power: 495kW
Torque: 838 N*m
Source: Slide at 1:09:16
| Xiaomi SU7 | Xiaomi SU7 Max | Tesla Model 3 | Tesla Model 3 Long Range | |
| 19 low drag wheel Range CLTC | 700km | 810km | 567km | 682km |
| 18 wheel Range CLTC | 606km | 713km | ||
| 19 wheel Range CLTC | 668km | |||
| Battery | 73.6 | 101kWh | 60 | |
| Cd drag | 0.195 | 0.195 | 0.219 /0.23 (old) | |
| 0-100km | 5.28s | 6.1 | 4.4 | |
| top speed | 210km/h | 200km/h | 200km/h | |
| peak output | 220kW |
Charging Time
Xiaomi SU7 has HUD display. Max model uses 871V battery architecture enables faster charge time.
15minutes 510km
5minutes 220km
Base model use 486V architecture and is bit slower.
15minutes 350km
5 minutes 138km.
| Xiaomi SU7 | Tesla Model 3 | |
| Architecture | 486v | 394v |
| 15 minutes | 350km | 250km |
| CLTC range | 700km | 606km |
| battery | 73.6kWh | 60 kWh |
Xiaomi sells home chargers. 7kW 220v goes for 3999Y. 11kw 380v sells for 5999Y. It can also provide power to home and camping. 2.8kW 220 799Y. Xiaomi will create fast charger network at 600kW.
Driver Assist
Xiaomi has smart driver system call Pilot Pro powered by Nvidia Drive orin x1 84TOPS and Pilot Max based on Nvidia Drive Orin *2 508 TOPS tested with 10million km road tests and 250 million km simulated road tests. They have tested its auto park feature in various cities and achieve 95% success rate.
Interior
In the interior, there are 5 screens, HUD, driver screen, main screen, two rear tablets. Main screen is 16.1 inch 3k display. Powering this a 6th gen Kyro CPU, 230 DMips, 6th gen Adreno GPU with 3.1 TFLOPS, and 30 AI TOPS. The main screen has good integration with phone. The phone screen is transferred to the main screen.
Factory
Xiaomi Hyper factory with 9100t hybercasting and is highly automated. It has single piece cast.
Tesla Comparison
In the YouTube launch presentation, CEO of Xiaomi identified two weakness relative to Model 3. The first is battery efficiency. Model 3 uses 11.3kWh/100km. Xiaomi SU 7 uses 12.3 kWh/100km. The second is AI computing power in number of floating point math operations per second. Model 3 HW4.0 ha s 720 TOPS. Nvidia Drive Orin has 84 TOPS. Tesla full sell drive option cost more at 64,000Y. Enhanced autopilot w/ auto lane change is 32,000. Xiaomi’s version is 18,000Y.
Price
Xiaomi base SU7 will be 21.59 * 10kY vs Tesla Model 3 at 24.59 *10kY. Xiaomi SU7 represent a strong competitor.
Xiaomi SU7 Pro has 19″ wheel, 830 km range, 94.3kWh batter( + 27.7kWh to base model) + 508 TOPS Nvidia AI processor, Free lifetime Pilot MAX w/ city NOA is priced 24.59 10kYuan.
Xiaomi SU7 MAX has 673 hp, V6s motor, 0-100 2.78s, 19″ wheels, max speed 265km/h, 800km range, 101kWh batter, 871v voltage architecture is priced 29.99 10kYuan or $41.55k.
Conlusion
The Xiaom SU7 is a good car and strong competitor. Some Tesla shoppers will choose the SU7 over a Tesla Model 3 since it is lowered price and offered over 90% of what one gets from Tesla Model 3. Xiaomi SU7 has seen huge demand. In 24 hours after reveal, it has received 88,898 units firm reservations with 5,000 Y deposit, refundable within 7 days. Source: https://www.teslarati.com/xiaomi-receives-88898-su7-orders-24-hours. The good news is this strong reception dispels the believe that EVs are saturated and EV adoptions has peaked. It may have plateau at the higher price range but there is plenty of demand for EV with lower price that has strong performance. If a company makes a new compelling EV, one that has high performance, smart driver assist, good range and priced affordability, more consumers will buy it. When Tesla comes back with a lowered priced next generation offering, they will see their demand pick up. Until that model comes out, competition is fierce.