Xiaomi SU7 isn’t just a pound shop Porsche, it could be the most important electric car of the year

Xiaomi first revealed the SU7 in late 2023 with a “pre launch“, before showing the car off again at Mobile World Congress in early 2024. A strange place to reveal a car, perhaps, but a demonstration of Xiaomi playing to its audience. It could have taken a stand at the Geneva Motor Show – which was running at the same time – but it didn’t. Why? Because most of the car world have no idea who Xiaomi is, whereas everyone in the mobile space knows all too well.

Xiaomi is the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer according to Counterpoint Research data, but it’s not just about smartphones: Xiaomi is a player in a huge range of products and brands, it’s the youngest company in the Fortune Global 500 and it’s fair to say its growth has been meteoric. The company is just 14-years-old and the scale of its operation is huge – as is the $10bn investment over the next 10 years in Xiaomi EV.

That makes Xiaomi slightly different to other electric car startups: this isn’t a Lightyear or a Fisker, this is a company with deep experience in manufacturing, in AI, in establishing supply chains with the likes of Qualcomm and Nvidia and a master of the technology it will need in a car. Xiaomi started life as a software company and in an era of software-defined vehicles, it’s perhaps uniquely placed to succeed.

Don’t fall into the trap of calling this a pound shop Porsche, because the Xiaomi SU7 could be a serious disruptor in the electric car space.

Highlights of the Xiaomi SU7

There’s no denying that from some angles, the Xiaomi SU7 looks like a Porsche Taycan – especially around the nose. The roofline looks a little like a Tesla (which in turn looks like a Jaguar), while the wheels look like something off an Alfa Romeo. Tesla and Porsche were mentioned numerous times as benchmark vehicles during the official launch presentation in Beijing, with company co-founder Lei Jun delivering over 2 hours of detail on the new model.

The interior of the car takes a minimalist approach that, at first glance, looks a bit like a Tesla (especially in the light colour), but there’s a twist of genius with the central 16.1-inch display. While most of the interaction is using touch or voice – with the display running Xiaomi HyperOS like its phones – there’s the option for a row of physical buttons you can clip onto the bottom if touch drives you crazy.

There’s seamless integration of your phone into the car, allowing you to pin phone apps to your car display for instant access, and you can simply swipe on the display to access your phone’s interface. Then there’s a heads-up display which claims a 56-inch size (I’m assuming that’s the perceived size at the projected point ahead of you) while the driver display is a 7-inch screen that rotates when you start the car.

Xiaomi is also playing to its phone-loving customers with phone storage spaces in the interior, as well as the option for a phone mount on the dash – no need for a suction mount or vent mount – there’s a bespoke connection port. There’s a torch that doubles as a powerbank, while the passengers have a refrigerated draw in the back, with mouldings inside to keep cans from rolling around, so they won’t explode when you open them.

You can mount Xiaomi tablets on the back of the seats for rear-passenger entertainment, there’s also a karaoke mic option, and the glovebox has been designed to accommodate a laptop, so you can easily slip it out of sight. It’s not only about Xiaomi devices – there’s support for wireless CarPlay and the iPad can also be mounted for rear passengers so Apple users don’t miss out.

A brand like Xiaomi needs these sorts of highlights – and dare I say gimmicks – because they are expected in the Chinese market. But this also reveals a lot more about who this car is being designed around.

China is enjoying an electric car boom and Xiaomi joins the likes of Nio, Xpeng and BYD in a market that’s clearly ready to accept new brands. Outside China we’ve seen the likes of BYD starting to make inroads and this is what established brands must compete with. BYD is sponsoring the UEFA Euro 2024 competition so brand exposure is about to go stratospheric, while the BYD Seal (the closest competitor to the Xiaomi SU7) costs just over £45,000 – only a little more than the Tesla Model 3.

For these Chinese EV makers, price is important tool. No prices have been revealed outside of China, but they range from around £25,000 to £33,000 on current exchange rates. Considering the benchmark models are the Tesla Model 3 and the Porsche Taycan, if the Xiaomi SU7 arrives in Europe or the UK at anywhere near that price, it will undercut every other brand on the market.

Xiaomi SU7 performance specs

Xiaomi wants this car to make an impression with performance and as I said, Xiaomi isn’t scared to make comparisons to other models. With acceleration, it was the Porsche Taycan Turbo (the 2022 model), while for handling Xiaomi made plenty of comparisons to the Tesla Model 3 Performance. This is classic Xiaomi: across its phone launches it has often compared itself to Apple or Samsung and it’s no surprise to see direct references to other car models here too.

There will be three models of the car, named like smartphones: the Xiaomi SU7, the Xiaomi SU7 Pro and the Xiaomi SU7 Max. Amusingly, while presenting spec sheets comparing these models to Tesla and Porsche, Xiaomi pointed out areas where it’s rivals were better. This, joked Lei Jun, gave Xiaomi plenty of targets to improve. That received enthusiastic applause from the audience, but you better believe that beating its rivals on the spec sheet is what Xiaomi will aim to do.

The standard Xiaomi SU7 will offer 430 miles range from a 74kWh battery, a 0-62mph time of 5.28s, a max speed of 130mph, feature a 468V platform and be rear-wheel drive. The Xiaomi SU7 Pro bumps the battery to 95kWh and a range of 516 miles, 0-62mph time of 5.7s and keeps the same top speed. Both these models will have a 220kW (299PS) motor.

The all-wheel drive Xiaomi SU7 Max will feature a 101kWh battery, 500 mile range, a 0-62mph time of 2.78s and a max speed of 165 miles per hour. This model will have a 871V platform and twin motors for 495kW output (about 673PS). All these ranges are on the CLTC standard, which tends to be a little more generous than WLTP that’s standard in Europe and the EPA used in the US – but there are some impressive figures here – especially for the price.

To top it all off, there’s a 105-litre frunk, 517-litres of boot space, and 32 storage spaces across the interior.

Xiaomi is well known in China, it’s a success story, the “local boy done good” – and it’s entering a fiercely competitive local market. We’re already seeing Chinese EV brands stage an assault on Europe where the appetite for electric cars is strong.

Xiaomi may be a newcomer, but it does have a good-looking car. It’s packed full of technology, it’s pushing some impressive specs and it’s making all the right noises. But it also has brand presence and market knowledge outside China that some of its contemporaries lack. The Xiaomi SU7 is definitely a electric car to keep an eye on, because it could be the model that opens the floodgates into Europe.