Chinese smartphone company launches electric luxury car for less than 65,000 euros

The nose of a McLaren 750 S, the body of a Porsche Taycan and the rear of a Tesla. This is how experts describe the Xiaomi SU7, a new Chinese electric car with a long range. The most striking thing about that car? It costs less than 65,000 euros.

The technical specifications look impressive: a 101 kWh battery that provides 800 kilometers of driving range and a top speed of 265 km per hour for the top version SU7 Max. The car goes from 0 to 100 km per hour in 2.78 seconds. It is not without reason that SU stands for this SpeedUltra.

But the basic model of the SU7 is also not doing badly. A 73.6 kWh battery and a range of 668 kilometers. (Read more below the tweet)

That is a lot more than what most of its European competitors achieve. And all for less than 65,000 euros for the basic version, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun promised before the official presentation in China on Wednesday. No price has yet been placed on the SU7 Max, the top version. The regular SU7 is ‘slightly slower’ than the Max and needs 5.28 seconds to go from a standstill to 100 km per hour.

Car manufacturer Beijing Automotive Industry Holding, with whom Xiaomi signed a deal, is busy producing the new Chinese luxury car. Initially, the car will only be marketed in China. But people are already looking towards Europe, where the Xiaomi will undoubtedly become a formidable competitor for Tesla and other electric models.

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At 65,000 euros, the SU7 also costs a lot less than what you pay for a Tesla model S in China: just under 90,000 euros. The model 3 from the same brand costs just under 40,000 euros. But sales of Tesla and a number of other domestic electric cars have plummeted in China due to the arrival of various Chinese brands that are in fact slightly modified copies of existing European models.

The Chinese telecom specialist Xiaomi, best known in China for its smartphones, is quite proud that they are ahead of the competition and are now the first mobile phone manufacturer to also launch an electric car. Others are also working on it as software plays an increasingly important role in electric car development, but their projects are slow to get off the ground.