​Xiaomi, one of the major smartphone manufacturers, is starting to sell electric cars, and the first model is a premium model that promises a range of 800 km and will initially be sold in China. The company also wants to sell cars in Europe and North America.

Xiaomi is the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer with 40 million sales in the last quarter of 2023.

The Xiaomi SU7 is a premium electric car that was also presented at the MWC in Barcelona. The price has not been announced, the announcement will be published on March 28.

Photo credit: Joan Cros/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Editorial/Profimedia

The name SU7 comes from “Speed ​​​​Ultra”, and the company promises acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds. It won’t be a cheap car by any means, but some analysts expect annual sales to exceed 30,000 units.

The five-seat sedan can reach a top speed of 265 km/h and, depending on the version, will have batteries manufactured by Contemporary Amperex Technology or BYD.

The SU7 is built in Beijing at a plant owned by China’s state-owned automaker BAIC Group, a plant capable of producing 200,000 vehicles a year.

The head of Xiaomi stated that in the long-term plans of the company to enter the top 5 global car manufacturers, and for this he would allocate a budget of 10 billion dollars for the next ten years. Whether such an increase will be possible remains to be seen.

This year, the company will sell the car in China through 59 dealerships, but plans to launch cars in Europe and America in 2025 (and beyond).

The company hopes that customers will be attracted by the fact that the car will be easily synchronized with the brand’s phones and that they will have a lot of software in common.

Sources: BBC, Bloomberg, Reuters