TMTPost -- China’s leading smartphone maker Xiaomi Corporation officially launched its long-anticipated first electric vehicle (EV) model SU7, with starting price cheaper than its major competitor: Tesla’s affordable Model 3.

Credit：Xiaomi

An an event in Beijing late Thursday, Xiaomi co-founder and CEO Lei Jun presented the complete lineup of SU7 before attendees including the CEOs of three high-profile Chinese EV makers--Nio Inc., Xpeng In. and Li Auto In and the chais of BAIC Motor Corp. and Great Wall Motor Co., a view that citizens called Lei gathered his brothers in the industry. SU7 comes with a wide range of color options for the exterior, such as Radiant Purple, Basalt Gray, Meteor Blue, and four new inteiro colors to match the outside, including Galaxy Gray, Twilight Red, Mist Purple and Obsidian Black.  Xiaomi highlighted SU7 boasts both quick acceleration and high top speed, which are rare for EVs, and more impressive is so-called the epitome of speed as its acceleration takes only 10.67 seconds to go from zero to 200km/h.

Xiaomi has already unveiled technologies that empower SU7 and its specs at an event last December.  “Xiaomi’s goal is to make a dream car comparable to (those from) Porsche and Tesla,” Lei said during the event. Lei explained SU stands for Speed Ultra in a post on the social media platform X prior to that event. While Lei said SU7 isn’t built to chase any specific competitor, the executive suggested the smart sedan will compete with the Porsche Taycan and Tesla’s Model S. Xiaomi has engineered the SU7 to offer a level of driving performance that stands among the best in its class, including the Porsche Taycan Turbo, and has prioritized intelligent technology, drawing inspiration from the advanced systems in cars like the Tesla Model S, Lei  said. He noted choice of making a sedan reflects Xiaomi’s vision for car manufacturing: technology plus ecosystem and advanced mobile smart space. SU7 is positioned as a C-class high-performance tech ecosystem sedan.

Xiaomi at the December event underlined five core technologies in the EV era, including the e-motor, the battery, the hyper casting, the autonomous driving and the smart cabin. The basic version SU7, namely, the rear-wheel-drive variant, backed by BYD’s LFP battery, has a single electric motor, with the peak power of 220kW and the maximum speed of 210km/h. The CATL battery-powered premium variant will be a dual-motor setup that combines the front motor and the rear motor, which enables the vehicle to drive as fast as 265km/h. Moreover, it has a zero to 100km/h acceleration time of just 2.78 seconds, beating the Porsche Tycan Turbo, and officially join the “2 seconds Supercar Club” with a single step. The CATL battery, with a capacity of 101 kWh, delivers a CLTC range of 800 km.

One of the highlights at Xiaomi’s presentation Thursday  is SU7’s pricing, which remained a secret at the December event and stirred rumors since then. Lei presented  SU7 has a layered pricing since it has three variants. The standard SU7 will cost RMB215,900 (US$29,872), and the Pro and Max version will be priced at RMB245,900 and RMB299,000, respectively. Lei said the SU7 is RMB30,000 cheaper than Model 3, which starts at RMB245,900 in China.

The Max version enables the driver back onto the road with a 510 km of range in just 15 minutes of charging. Even the standard version isn't far behind, offering a 350-kilometer range boost in the same timeframe. Xiaomi, at the presentation, compares Max version to the electric Porsche Taycan. Lei said SU7 beat Tesla's and Porsche's vehicles by many capabilities, such as its minimum range of 700 km exceeds Model 3’s 567km.

SU7 is equipped with Xiaomi ’s self-developed autonomous driving technologies. The automated driving system (ADAS), Xiaomi Pilot, is powered by two Nvidia Orin-X chips with 508 TOPs computing power. provides two sets of Xiaomi Pilot options: Pro and Max. The Pro utilizes a cutting-edge vision-based system, while the Max takes it a step further with a vision-plus-LiDAR solution for enhanced capabilities. Xiaomi plans to initiated autonomous driving tests for Xiaomi Pilot Max in Chinese cities in April, expand the test across China in August. Calling intelligence the soul of a vehicle, Lei said Xiaomi aims to become the leading player in the autonomous driving sector this year.

Xiaomi started presales on Thursday for SU7, and offered a hand of freebies worth of up to RMB22,000, such as Nappa leather seats and a built-in fridge, to anyone who place the order of the Standard and the Pro version by April 30. The company disclosed at Chinese social media Weibo that it received more than 10,000 preorders in just four minutes since the launch, and preorders topped 50,000 within 27 minutes. These preorders come from customers who had paid a deposit of RMB5,000 that is refundable within seven days since the order is effective. Xiaomi said it will commence delivery of the Standard and Max version at the end of April, while delivery of the Pro version will begin a month later.  The U.S.-listed shares of Xiaomi surged around 12% after the event Thursday.