Xiaomi has boldly entered the luxury electric vehicle market with its SU7 Ultra sedan, priced at $72,929. In a stunning debut, the SU7 Ultra outpaced a Porsche Taycan Turbo GT on the Shanghai International Circuit, signaling a disruptive shift in the high-end automotive industry.
With Thursday’s formal launch of the SU7 Ultra, its most expensive model to date, the Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi—which has made a successful push into electric vehicles (EVs)—entered the luxury segment of that market.
Priced at 529,900 yuan (US$72,929), the four-door car was revealed in April and is 35% cheaper than the 814,900 yuan mentioned during presales in October. According to Xiaomi, the Hyper-Autonomous Driving (HAD) feature, which was introduced in November, comes pre-installed in the Ultra edition.
Founder and CEO Lei Jun announced at Thursday’s launch event that Xiaomi fulfilled 135,000 EV orders in the first nine months of 2024 out of a total of 248,000.
On Thursday, the business also unveiled a new smartphone, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Lei stated on Monday on the Chinese social media site Sina Weibo said the phone and the SU7 were the most “high-end” items that Xiaomi has ever made and that they heralded a shift to “ultra-high-end” markets, SCMP reports.
According to Lei, “the SU7 Ultra will redefine the standards of luxury cars.” And just this month, it became the fastest mass-produced four-door sedan to lap the Shanghai International Circuit, surpassing even the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT.
The CEO of Xiaomi also stated in another Wednesday post that the company was 90% sure the SU7 Ultra will sell 10,000 units each year.
The SU7, SU7 Pro, and SU7 Max were the company’s premiere models, and their March entry into China’s congested electric vehicle industry was one of the most closely followed business changes by a Chinese tech company.
From 2021–2025, Xiaomi will spend 105 billion yuan on research and development, according to Lei. This includes 30 billion yuan in 2025. He announced that 25% of the entire investment in research and development will go toward artificial intelligence (AI) and related businesses.
In Hong Kong on Thursday morning, the company’s shares temporarily reached a record high of HK$58.70 before closing at HK$53.10, a 5.7% decline. Earlier this month, when shares touched HK$40.10, its market value first surpassed the HK$1 trillion level.
According to what Lei mentioned at the occasion, in the first month of 2025, Xiaomi had a 16.8% market share, which was second only to Huawei’s 19.5%.
The company’s third-quarter revenue soared 31% year-on-year to 92.5 billion yuan, surpassing market expectations, as announced in November. There were 39,790 shipments that contributed to the 9.7 billion yuan in sales, 17.1% gross margin, and 1.5 billion yuan adjusted net loss for the EV sector.
Strong vehicle sales have kept Xiaomi afloat in the face of intensifying trade concerns between the United States and China, leading analysts to maintain a bullish outlook on the company.
In a research released earlier this month, experts from China Renaissance Securities predicted that the company’s revenue will surpass 1 trillion yuan in the fourth quarter, marking a first, due to a growth rate of 40% year-on-year.
According to analyst Liu Rui’s prediction, Xiaomi will earn 16.3 billion yuan in the fourth quarter from the delivery of approximately 70,000 electric vehicles.
The YU7 SUV, another electric vehicle model, will debut later this year.
“As Xiaomi enriches its automotive product line, it is expected to better cover more consumer groups and drive the growth of its automotive sales,” written last week in a note by Chen Mengzhu and others at Sealand Securities.
The original goal of founder Lei was to ship over 300,000 cars by the year 2025. According to Sealand, the automotive industry is expected to generate 1.77 trillion yuan in revenue by 2026.
Luis Gochoco is a seasoned managing editor and writer with over a decade of experience covering politics, technology, gaming, and entertainment news. With a keen eye for breaking stories and in-depth analysis, he has established himself as a trusted voice in digital journalism. Luis is one of the key forces behind the success of GameNGuide, contributing to 12 million views through engaging and high-traffic content. He also played a pivotal role in generating 8 million views on International Business Times, shaping the platform’s technology and gaming coverage.
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