Best known for its smartphones and often referred to as the «Apple of China,» Xiaomi XIACFXIACY is experiencing massive success with its push into the electric vehicle market.
With demand so high for the company’s YU7, the CEO is even recommending consumers buy other EV brands if they want to take home their vehicles anytime soon.
What Happened: Xiaomi unveiled its YU7 electric SUV in June, marking the company’s continued push in the electric vehicle sector after the success of the SU7.
Featuring a longer driving range than the Model Y from Tesla Inc. TSLA and a cheaper starting price, the YU7 is taking over the Chinese EV market, according to a new report from Electrek.
Following the June unveiling, reservations for the YU7 hit around 240,000 orders within the first 18 hours, according to the report. For comparison, that’s close to the 265,400 vehicles Tesla sold in China in the first half of this year.
The starting price for the Standard YU7 is around $35,300, which is cheaper than the $36,700 starting price of the Tesla Model Y RWD. The Xiaomi vehicle range is around 519 miles, compared to the 368-mile range of the Tesla Model Y RWD.
Xiaomi has also integrated its vehicle with an 800V architecture to make charging times faster, allowing the car to charge to 80% in 13 minutes, compared to the Model Y, which takes around 18 minutes to reach 80%.
Read Also: Tesla Rival Xiaomi Wants To Sell Cars Internationally Starting 2027, CEO Lei Jun Says
Why It’s Important: Xiaomi had already achieved success with the SU7, which may have contributed to the weaker sales of the Tesla Model 3 in China.
The YU7 launch is likely to put pressure on Tesla in the region.
The good news for Tesla is that the long wait times for the YU7 could lead to consumers being sent to Tesla by the Xiaomi CEO himself.
Wait times for the Xiaomi YU7 are reportedly around 56 to 59 weeks, according to the company’s app, meaning some consumers may have to wait a year or more to receive their vehicle.
Chinese consumers previously had to wait one to three years to receive their Tesla Model 3 vehicles.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun is warning consumers about the long wait times and ensuring they understand that they may not receive their vehicles promptly.
«If you need to buy a car quickly, other China-produced new energy vehicles are pretty good,» Lei said on social media.
The Xiaomi CEO went on to recommend the Model Y from Tesla, the XPeng G7 from XPeng Inc XPEV and the Li Auto i8 from Li Auto LI.
It’s not every day that CEOs are encouraging their potential customers to go to the competition, but that’s how much demand Xiaomi has right now.
This could spell trouble for Tesla, which saw deliveries in China fall 11.7% year-over-year to 128,803 units in the second quarter.
The company initially said the Model Y refresh and discounts would help boost demand in China in the second quarter. But a sales decline happened even with the Model Y refresh and all variants of the top-selling electric vehicle available.
China is one of the largest electric vehicle markets in the world and a major source of deliveries for Tesla. While Tesla faces competition from other companies in the region, recent data suggest that it may be struggling even more than initially feared.
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