Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi has introduced its first electric vehicle and will soon start taking orders for more vehicles. The company’s chief executive Li Jun says that the price of Xiaomi’s car ‘Speed Ultra’ (SU7) will be 29 thousand 900 dollars.
Xiaomi’s move to introduce an electric car is being seen as an attempt to compete with Elon Musk’s company Tesla and BYD. However, those looking to buy the Xiaomi SU7 will have to wait around six months for it.
According to screenshots shared on Chinese social media, the company says customers will have to wait 27 weeks to get the vehicle. The company had earlier said that it had received around 89,000 pre-orders for the SU7 within 24 hours of its launch.
Xiaomi has introduced the electric car at a time when interest in these vehicles has waned worldwide and prices have become a tug-of-war between the companies.
Xiaomi hopes that ‘SU7”’s connected operating system to phones laptops and other embedded devices will increase consumer interest in EVs.
According to research company Counterpoint, Xiaomi is the world’s third-largest smartphone maker with a market share of 12 percent. Talks about the ‘SU7’ have been going on since last year and it is being compared to Porsche’s sports cars.
Initially, Xiaomi’s electric cars will be manufactured at the Chinese state-owned Bike Group’s plant in Beijing. This plant can manufacture 200,000 vehicles per year.
Making an electric car is a big deal, but putting its cars on the market would be a bigger honor for Xiaomi,” said Bill Russo of Auto Mobility, a car market analysis company.
It should be noted that last month, according to reports, Apple postponed the plan to make an electric car. Bill Russo says that Xiaomi’s entry into the electric car market proves that it has confidence in its brand in China, while Apple feels that its electric cars may not be well received outside of China.
Chinese technology company ‘Xiaomi’ introduced its first electric car in Beijing and entered the highly competitive sector of the world’s largest car market.
According to a report by the foreign news agency ‘AFP’, China’s electric vehicle (EV) sector has expanded rapidly, with dozens of local automakers engaged in price wars in the fiercely competitive market.
Xiaomi is known for its cheap smartphones and applications, the company’s chief executive Lee Jin said that it is now entering the market with EV U7, challenging the Chinese car company BYD and Elon Musk.
While giving a press conference at the opening ceremony, he said the price of the basic model of SU7 would be 215,900 yuan ($29,868). He said that SU7 will be available in 9 different colors. It also has karaoke facilities and a mini-fridge, he said. Xiaomi promises to be the ‘sexiest-looking, best-driving, and smartest car’ in the sub-5 lakh yuan price range.
