China: Xiaomi, the Chinese technology giant, has announced that it will start delivering its inaugural electric vehicle (EV) this month. This marks Xiaomi’s first foray into the highly competitive automotive industry. The price of the car is anticipated to be revealed later this month.
China’s fifth-largest smartphone manufacturer affirmed that their 59 stores in 29 cities across the country are now open for orders. This move comes amid an escalating price war between companies like BYD and Tesla in China, which is the world’s largest car market.
Last year, at the launch of the Speed Ultra 7 (SU7), Xiaomi’s CEO, Lei Jun, professed the company’s goal of becoming one of the top five car manufacturers worldwide. The smartphone giant committed to funding $10 billion (£7.8 billion) in its vehicle business over the next decade.
According to Lei, their new car SU7 features ‘super electric motor technology,’ which enables it to accelerate faster than certain Tesla and Porsche EVs. Xiaomi is also looking forward to attracting its existing customer base through the car’s shared operating system with its phones and other devices.
The SU7 car will be manufactured by a unit of the state-owned car manufacturer, BAIC Group, at their plant in Beijing. This plant can produce up to 200,000 vehicles annually. Xiaomi Automobile is launching amid a price war in China’s EV market, which is escalating.
In recent months, Tesla, which is owned by Elon Musk, lowered its prices in China by thousands of dollars in response to rivals like BYD doing the same. Xiaomi’s announcement sent the company’s shares up more than 10 percent in Hong Kong.
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