Chinese tech giant Xiaomi, world's third largest smartphone manufacturer, has made its initial mark in the new electric vehicle business with brisk sales of its first electric car SU7. The company has announced that it has managed to deliver more than 27,000 units of the SU7 in the second quarter of the year. This has helped the tech giant to witness record growth during these three months with the EV business contributing around $898 million (roughly converted to ₹7,537 crore) in revenue and helped beat earlier estimates. It has also helped to increase valuation of Xiaomi shares by about 16% since launch in March.

Buoyed by the initial success of its first electric car, Xiaomi has now revised the estimates for the year. The EV maker had earlier projected to sell around one lakh SU7 electric cars this year. However, after selling 27,307 units between April and June, it aims to achieve the estimated target ahead of schedule by November. In fact, Xiaomi now expects to end the year with around 1.20 lakh electric cars sold.

Xiaomi launched the SU7 electric car in March this year which is currently sold only in China. It is aimed to take on the likes of Tesla and BYD, world's two largest electric vehicle manufacturers. Xiaomi currently sells the electric car in two variants which include the SU7 and SU7 Max. The company will also introduce the top-end SU7 Ultra in the next few months. "To meet user demand, our Xiaomi EV factory has continuously increased production, with double-shift operations starting in June 2024 and production line optimisation and maintenance starting in July 2024," said the company while announcing the results.

Xiaomi's EV business continues to be in the red. However, the company claims it has enough fund for five years to deal with Chinese EV price wars. “Scale is important. As we grow in scale, costs will be better distributed. We are in a good position in terms of orders as of August. That means we’ll gain scale and costs will continue to come down," said Lu Weibing, President at Xiaomi.

Lu also said the company aims to sell the SU7 electric vehicles in global markets soon. His remarks fuelled speculation that Xiaomi is keen to enter the European market despite the European Union’s move to slap steep tariffs on imports of made-in-China EVs. The company is now developing more models in its EV lineup to compete with global giants and plans to sell a sport utility vehicle similar to Tesla Model Y as early as 2025.

Xiaomi SU7: Highlights

The Xiaomi SU7, which is also known as the Speed Ultra came as the first-ever car from the Chinese technology giant. It was showcased in India for the first time in July. It has received good response within the first few months clocking more than 70,000 bookings. Priced at $30,000 (around ₹25 lakh), the Xiaomi SU7 is approximately $4,000 cheaper than Tesla Model 3 in China.

Besides Tesla Model 3, the Xiaomi SU7 also rivals the likes of BYD Seal EV. The standard version of the SU7 comes with a range of up to 668 kilometres in a single charge, while the mid-spec variant promises an impressive 800-kilometre range. Xiaomi SU7 claims to be capable of performing like a sports car with a top speed of up to 265 kmph and the ability to sprint 0-100 kmph in under three seconds.

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