Group launched the Xiaomi SU7, whose design is reminiscent of a luxury sports car
The Chinese group Xiaomi, which has been preparing to enter the automotive sector for years, launched its first electric car in China, where an intense price war is taking place between dozens of manufacturers.
Xiaomi is one of the main Chinese brands of mobile phones, touchscreen devices, connected watches, headphones or electric motorcycles.
Based in Beijing, the group announced in 2021 that it would enter the electric vehicle market, where many Chinese brands are challenging the main German, North American and Japanese manufacturers.
The group launched the Xiaomi SU7, whose design is reminiscent of a luxury sports car and is equipped with a sound system that “recreates the emotion of driving a sports car”, stated the brand.
“I risk my reputation” with this model, warned the head of the group, Lei Jun, on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
Evergrande NEV, a subsidiary of the real estate group facing insolvency proceedings, gave itself “three to five years” when it was founded in 2019 to become the “most powerful” electric car maker in the world.
The brand’s survival is now at stake, weakened by the parent company’s problems and poor sales.
Xiaomi has not yet released the price of the car, but the boss had mentioned a price of less than 500 thousand yuan (around 64 thousand euros).
Analysts said they expect the price to be half that amount.
“The range between 200,000 and 250,000 yuan is currently the most competitive in China for electric vehicles”, highlighted Johnson Wan, an analyst at the investment bank Jefferies, cited by the Bloomberg agency.
The launch of the SU7 follows the publication on Tuesday of a record annual profit in 2023 from electric vehicle champion BYD, based in Shenzhen in southeast China.
The Chinese electric vehicle market has expanded at breakneck speed in recent years, driven in particular by purchase subsidies, which expire at the end of December 2022.
To accompany the economic slowdown, dozens of local manufacturers have launched a price war in China, which risks compromising their profitability.
