[Omkar]

When Xiaomi announced its plans to make an electric car, it raised a few eyebrows globally. A tech company making an electric car is surely unusual. Finally, in March this year, the SU7 was launched in China and 27,307 EVs were delivered in the second quarter of the year. The company is confident that it will reach the target of 1,20,000 EV sales by the year-end (Source).

What about Xiaomi’s plans for India? In simple words, nothing for the next 3 years at least. The SU7 has been developed ground-up by Xiaomi in China and the company wants to focus on its home market first before going global. Like the smartphone business, India would be one of the markets it will focus on for the electric car business, but not for the next 3 years. However, the company showcased the car in Bangalore and we got to see it up close.



If you think that the SU7 (SU = Speed Ultra) looks familiar, you’re not wrong. The car very much resembles the Porsche Taycan and the Tesla Model 3 from some angles. Xiaomi compares the SU7 with the Tesla Model 3 Performance in terms of battery life and charging speed. There are 3 models on sale – the base SU7 which comes in a single motor rear-wheel drive configuration with a 73.6 kWh BYD blade battery pack (700 km range), the mid variant SU7 Pro which also has a single motor rear-wheel drive configuration with a 94.3 kWh (830 km range) CATL Shenxing battery pack and the top variant SU7 Max (car on display) with a dual motor, all-wheel drive setup with a 101 kWh (810 km) CATL Qilin battery pack. Talking about performance, the SU7 Max makes 664 BHP and 838 Nm of torque and has a top speed of 265 km/h. Xiaomi claims that the SU7 Max can do 0-100 km/h in 2.78 seconds and 0-200 km/h in 10.67 seconds.

The SU7 is based on Xiaomi’s self-developed Modena platform which is claimed to have a higher torsional rigidity than the Bugatti Veyron. The base variant is based on a 400V architecture while the SU7 Pro and the SU7 Max are based on an 800V architecture. Read more about the difference in the 400V & 800V architectures here.

Here’s a detailed brochure of the SU7 - Xiaomi SU7 Brochure.pdf

At the front, the SU7 has a very Tesla-like design. You can tell that it is aerodynamic with smooth body lines and curves. Here is the car in the Aqua Blue paint shade which looks quite good in person. Interestingly, conventional paint shades like Black, White and Silver are available at an additional cost while the stand-out and funky colours are available at a standard price:


You can see that the car has a wide stance at the rear and also gets a connected tail-lamp design:


The SU7 has an aerodynamic drag coefficient of 0.195. If you look carefully, you will notice that the rear windows have a tint while the front windows don’t:


The SU7 measures 4,997 mm in length, 1,963 mm in width and 1,440 mm in height. It has a wheelbase of 3,000 mm. The overall fit and finish is excellent and is almost at supercar levels:


The quad headlamp cluster gets an LED DRL strip in the middle and has rounded edges:


You get air curtains at the front that direct the air towards the wheel wells;


The air is further channelled to the side of the car through another vent. Notice the cameras on the fender and the ORVM:


The long bonnet has subtle smooth creases and…


…carries the MI badge:


Under the bonnet, you have a big 105-litre frunk:


There’s a steel plate that lists out the performance figures of the car:


The SU7 has level 2 autonomous driving and is equipped with 1 Lidar, 12 ultrasonic radars and 11 exterior cameras. It has road mapping tech and high-resolution occupancy tech that can detect small objects as well:


Very sporty-looking 21-inch alloy wheels with Brembo brakes. The front wheels are shod with 245/35 R21 Pirelli P-Zero tyres:


The rear wheels are shod with wider 265/35 R21 tyres:


Flush door handles for better aerodynamics:


Very stylish ORVM design. Interestingly, the whole ORVM housing moves when you adjust it from the inside:


A look at the charging socket. Xiaomi claims that you can get a range of 510 km with a 15-minute charge:


The rear spoiler is adjustable to 3 positions apart from the fully closed position. You can manually set the angle or keep it on Auto mode where it adjusts the angle based on the speed:


Just like in the front, you get a performance plate at the rear as well:


The B-pillar also has a camera and an NFC key card reader:


Frameless doors look super classy. Doors get a soft-closing action:


Yes, this display car was a left-hand drive variant. The cabin has a black-and-white theme and the dashboard has no hard plastics. All the touch areas are soft. The overall quality of materials and the fit & finish are top-notch:


This flat-bottom steering wheel is also very Porsche-like. You get rotary dials near the horn pad for drive modes and exterior sensors:


You get a massive 56-inch head-up display:


Front seats are sporty and have adjustable side bolstering. The support adapts itself when on twisty roads to provide optimum support. The headrests have inbuilt speakers and the telephone call audio is played through the driver’s headrest only so that the other passengers aren’t disturbed:


The highlight of the cabin is this 16.1-inch, 3k console that is powered by the Snapdragon 8295 chip which has a tablet-like usability. The display is crisp and lag-free. In terms of connectivity, you can mirror your phone on the screen and use it for various operations. You can connect to 1000+ Xiaomi smart home devices for a complete ecosystem. For people who like physical buttons, Xiaomi has them available as an accessory that can be mounted on the touchscreen and programmed for different functions like A/C controls, music controls or anything else that you like:


There are no buttons for the adjustment of ORVMs, steering wheel or the head-up display. Instead, you have this option on the touchscreen for adjustment of each of the functions mentioned where you select one and you can use the buttons on the steering wheel to adjust it. Pretty handy!


Wireless fast charging pads on the centre console have a cooling function:


Centre console also houses the Start/Stop button and physical buttons for A/C controls, spoiler position and the ride height adjustment:


A look at the passenger side of the dashboard. See the metal point at the end? That’s an action camera mounting point:


The rear doors open wide enough, but the window doesn’t roll down all the way. The position of the window you see in this picture is up to the limit it rolls down. Getting in and out of the rear seat isn’t as cumbersome as it would be in a sportscar, but it is low. The floor is high which results in a knees-up seating position. The space at the rear is fair, but you wouldn’t term this as spacious. The backseat space is very much comparable to a C-Class. The seats themselves are quite comfortable though:


All the doors have electronic release buttons. There is a manual latch below in the bottle holder area if the electronic release doesn’t work. Notice the subtle ambient lighting:


There are rear A/C vents along with Type-C USB charging ports:


Below, you get a temperature-controlled storage compartment. You can set a temperature of 5-50 degrees centigrade in this compartment:


The glass roof blocks out a lot of the light. It doesn’t go fully opaque:


The SU7 Max has a boot space of 493 litres:

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[GTO]

Great first look, Omkar! Really gives us a fair understanding of the car. Now, can't wait for the driving experience.

The Chinese car brands are very ambitious, extremely capable and have learned 100 years of car manufacturing knowledge in just 10 years. Whoever has driven the BYD Seal is impressed, and I am sure it might be a similar story with the Xiaomi SU7. The Chinese bet their house on EVs and are now the king of Electric Cars worldwide.

But, they are all making a big mistake. In a market obsessed with SUVs & Crossovers - and where sedans are dying - they are still focused on sedans. Just look at the BYD Seal, no one in the market is really talking about it anymore. On the other hand, if it was a really fast, modern, techladen SUV, that would have 20 times the recall. What the Chinese brands need is SUVs & Crossovers. What has MG really sold in India? The Hector & ZS EV. Xiaomi's crossover was recently spotted testing (link to news article), but they need something more SUV'ish (that car being tested looks like a station wagon to me).

[zandot]

3 years is far too long to wait! If this was released here, I would be one of the first in line but after 3 years I'm sure there will much better options available.

[PreludeSH]

Absolutely oozes quality. With Foxconn having big plans in India, hope they can build such cars. Will help some startup with great automobile/engineering minds to have them build it just like Xiaomi is using another entity.

[Jupizire]

Great design. Looks suave! Just wondering why our homegrown car makers cannot think of such a design. Let's ignore the highly capable motors for a moment. We may not have that tech yet. But at least we should come up with such great design appeal which oozes elegance.
I expected Curvv to be something like this, but alas! it has sharper edges.

[SRTPorsche]

Originally Posted by zandot

3 years is far too long to wait! If this was released here, I would be one of the first in line but after 3 years I'm sure there will much better options available.

Yes, I am in the same boat. I was hoping for a launch by the end of 2025. 3 years down the road, we might get lot more options or Chinese EV's can be banned or taxed heavily like in the EU.

[G13BB]

Looks really cool overall! Chinese are often known for providing great products at relatively low prices, Xiaomi might be aiming to eat into Porsche Taycan sales with somewhat similar performance at a much lower price.

To me, the headlights look like those of a McLaren and when viewed from the front quarter angle, it looks so much like a Taycan (especially the bulge on the rear fender)


Image credits Omkar


Image credits: https://ev-database.org/car/2144/Por...aycan-Turbo-GT

[Ph03nix]

To me it looks better than the porsche taycan. We are almost at the tipping point on electric car adoption. If manufacturers can give 400 km range in 30 minutes of charging time, there will be a lot more takers.

[volkman10]

Ford’s CEO is daily driving a Xiaomi SU7 EV and loving It.

Jim Farley has been driving an SU7 for six months and described the Chinese sedan as “fantastic”.

Ford’s CEO has revealed he’s smitten with a Chinese electric sedan he’s been driving for the past six months.
Jim Farley described the Xiaomi SU7 as “fantastic” and told the Fully Charged podcast that he didn’t want to give it up.
The SU7 is smartphone-maker Xiaomi’s first EV and currently only available in China.

Link:

Meanwhile Xiaomi is ready for its SUV7 Ultra!

The Ultra variant is presented on October 29.

[volkman10]

Xiaomi SU7 Ultra.

- It has three electric motors with a total of 1,548 hp. It does 0 to 100 km/h in 1.98 seconds
- Xiaomi brought a SU7 Ultra prototype to the Nürburgring Nordschleife to prepare for a record lap time. He completed a lap in 6 minutes and 48.874 seconds.
- Xiaomi plans to try to break the record for the fastest four-door production electric vehicle by 2025. Which is currently from the Taycan.







Source: Xiaomi

[Venkatesh]

The 100,000th Xiaomi SU7 has officially rolled off the production line.

Leijun: Congratulations to our Xiaomi EV team! For our first model, reaching this milestone in just 230 days is an incredible achievement!

Link

[fiat_tarun]

There seems to be an issue with the SU7's brakes, where the pads are too small.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/w...ly-242120.html