One other week, one other Chinese language electrical automobile poised to ship an extinction occasion to Western automakers.
This time it’s Xiaomi, a Beijing-based tech agency greatest recognized for smartphones and the corporate behind the Porsche Taycan-baiting SU7, which in late-2024 was so well-liked that Xiaomi elevated its gross sales forecast thrice in a matter of months.
Now Xiaomi is again, and this time it has an electrical SUV up its sleeve. Resembling the lovechild of a Ferrari Purosangue and an Aston Martin DBX707 described down a patchy telephone line, the YU7 hits all the benchmarks you’d count on from an EV in 2025.
There are three fashions, starting from the YU7 Normal, a single-motor automobile with 235 kW and a 0-62 mph time of 5.88 seconds, by way of the stronger, dual-motor YU7 Professional and, leaning into smartphone nomenclature, headed by the YU7 Max. That mannequin has 508 kW of energy—38 kW greater than the electrical Porsche Macan Turbo—and a supercar-like 0-62 mph time of three.23 seconds.
Utilizing China’s considerably beneficiant CLTC check cycle, vary claims span from 472 miles for the Max, to a whopping 518 miles from the much less highly effective Normal. Xiaomi claims the automobile’s 800-volt electrical structure delivers a 10-80 % cost time of simply 12 minutes, or can add 385 miles of vary in quarter-hour.
All very spectacular, however particularly so when you think about the Chinese language market worth. The YU7 begins at 253,500 yuan, which is about $35,000 within the US—the precise worth Tesla briefly achieved with its first-generation Mannequin 3 in early-2019, earlier than heading again as much as the $40,000 mark. The Professional and Max variations of the Xiaomi YU7 are priced at 279,900 yuan ($39,000) and 329,900 yuan ($46,000) respectively, whereas Tesla’s Mannequin Y begins at 263,500 yuan ($36,500).
In the meantime, Tesla has simply missed its personal deadline for placing extra inexpensive vehicles into manufacturing. Regardless of canning its so-called Mannequin 2, the corporate stated initially of 2025: “Plans for brand new autos, together with extra inexpensive fashions, stay on observe for begin of manufacturing within the first half of 2025.” We’re into July now and nonetheless ready.