Xiaomi says SU7 EV orders reach 75,723
SINGAPORE/BEIJING: Xiaomi Corp has secured 75,723 orders for its SU7 electric vehicles since last month’s launch, paving the way for the Chinese electronics giant to challenge automakers from Tesla Inc to BYD Co Ltd in the world’s largest car market.
Deliveries of SU7 reached roughly 5,781 a month since the launch in late March, Xiaomi’s Chief Executive Officer Lei Jun said at Auto China in Beijing yesterday.
As of Saturday, SU7 orders were over 70,000, according to the company. “Within four days the orders still increased by almost 6,000. This indicates great competitiveness of SU7,” Lei said at the auto show.
Xiaomi priced the cars aggressively in a bid to win share of the increasingly cut-throat Chinese market, with the basic model costing less than $30,000. It is competing against Tesla’s Model 3 as well as the electric Porsche Taycan with its top-performance edition.
The company will start delivering the Pro version of SU7 at the end of May and aims to deliver more than 10,000 SU7s per month in June, according to Lei. He also confirmed an annual delivery target of 100,000 cars this year.
Calling the 6,000-employee EV unit his last start-up endeavor, the billionaire co-founder of Xiaomi pledged earlier this week on his WeChat account to invest up to 12 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) in the project, among other emerging businesses.
The debut of Xiaomi’s electric car comes amid growing uncertainty over demand for EVs as economic headwinds, including an ongoing property crisis, discourage spending among Chinese consumers.
At the same time, technologies including battery-powered vehicles are expected to be one of the targets of this year’s stimulus programmes as the government tries to shore up growth.