TMTPost -- China’s leading smartphone maker Xiaomi Corporation announced it would officially launch SU7, its first electric vehicle (EV) model on March 28, according to a post at Chinese microblogging social media Weibo from Xiaomi’s auto unit on Tuesday.

Credit：Xiaomi

Xiaomi Auto said it will deliver SU7 vehicles on March 28, the same with the official launch date, and 59 retail stores across 29 cities in China will start pre-orders the same day.Hong Kong-lised shares of Xiaomirose nearly 6% at  Tuesday’s morning trade right after the announcement.

Xiaomi announced in March, 2021 to set up a wholly owned subsidiary to make EVs, with the initial investment of RMB10 billion and the total input in the coming decade expected amount to US$10 billion. Two years later, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said his company aims to become one of the top five automakers in the world within the coming 15 to 20 years. He then revealed late October 2023 that the company plans to launch its car in the first half of next year, without giving any details. In an interview with China Central Television (CCTV) in December, Lei said Xiaomi invested in 3,400 engineers and the research and development (R&D) spending totaled more than RMB10 billion. He added that Xiaomi has input out-sized resources in its first EV model, ten times of that traditional automakers invest in a model.

At an event on December 28, Xiaomi unveiled technologies that empower SU7 and its specs.  “Xiaomi’s goal is to make a dream car comparable to (those from) Porsche and Tesla,” Lei said during the event. Lei explained SU stands for Speed Ultra in a post on the social media platform X earlier this week. While Lei said SU7 isn’t built to chase any specific competitor, the executive suggested the smart sedan will compete with the Porsche Taycan and Tesla’s Model S.

Xiaomi at the event underlined five core technologies in the EV era, including the e-motor, the battery, the hyper casting, the autonomous driving and the smart cabin. The basic version SU7, namely, the rear-wheel-drive variant, backed by BYD’s LFP battery, has a single electric motor, with the peak power of 220kW and the maximum speed of 210km/h. The CATL battery-powered premium variant will be a dual-motor setup that combines the front motor and the rear motor, which enables the vehicle to drive as fast as 265km/h. Moreover, it has a zero to 100km/h acceleration time of just 2.78 seconds, beating the Porsche Tycan Turbo, and officially join the “2 seconds Supercar Club” with a single step.

Xiaomi didn’t reveal the launch timetable or price tag at the event late December. The CEO Lei reiterated Xiaomi wants to become the top five automobile club in the world in the next 15 to 20 years. He said it’s impossible to set a price of RMB99,000 or RMB149,000, and noted vehicles powered by batteries with the same specs as SU7 are sold for more than RMB400,000 at average.  “Let’s show respect for the underlying technology ,” Lei said. In a post on X prior to the event, Lei said SU7 is in trial production and it will hit the domestic market in a few months. “The price has not been finalized yet, but we promise it will exceed your expectations,” according to Lei.

At a post to answer frequently asked questions released at Weibo in January, Xiaomi denies any possibility of low-cost EV version as an effort to lower the starting price and said it feels very confident that SU7 is incomparable in the price segment below RMB500,000. The company also said it doesn’t have any to to work with third party automobile companies to launch EVs, signaling it will not follow the collaborative way of Huawei. Backing the collaboration auto brand, Huawei usually participates in auto definition, design, marketing, user experience, quality control and provides intelligent vehicle software and hardware for traditional automobile manufacturers. Xiaomi, instead, from the very beginning has determined to conduct a full-stack development spanning design, research and development (R&D) and manufacturing, build the car entirely with its own capital and bear all the risks.