What just happened? Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone company known for its competitively-priced smartphones, has been showing off its first electric vehicle at Mobile World Congress (MWC). The SU7 Sedan is said to come with a premium price tag, but then it is supposed to be a rival to luxury vehicles like the Porsche Taycan and Tesla Model S.
Following its 2021 announcement that it would be investing $10 billion into electric vehicles over the following ten years, Xiaomi revealed its first EV, the SU7, in late December. The company said it had spent $1.4 billion developing the car, and that sales were due to begin this year. What it never revealed was the price.
Xiaomi had the SU7 on show at MWC but still didn't talk about an exact price, though it did essentially confirm that the EV would be expensive. That might not seem like the best idea during these economically challenging times when the world's electric vehicle market is in a slump, but Xiaomi believes the SU7 will appeal to many of its high-end-smartphone users.
"We think it's a good starting point for us in the premium segment because we have already 20 million premium users in China based on the smartphone," Xiaomi Group President Weibing Lu told CNBC. "I think the initial purchases will be very overlapped with the smartphone users."
The SU7 comes with a 73.6 kWh battery that promises a range of 668 km (415 miles), while the 101 kWh battery option is said to offer 800 km (497 miles) on a single charge. Customers can also choose between the rear-wheel option that comes with a single 220kW (295 hp) motor or dual 495kW (664 hp) combined output motors.
A big part of the SU7 is its integration not only with Xiaomi's smartphones, but also the company's many connected smart home appliances. That might sound like a privacy nightmare, but Xiaomi says that it has ensured data privacy will be respected when connecting the devices.
According to analyst firm IDC, Xiaomi was the third-largest smartphone company last year in terms of global shipments (145.9 million), sitting behind second-place Samsung (226.6 million) and leader Apple (234.6 million). Whether it can replicate that success in the competitive EV market remains to be seen.
