Xiaomi, a Chinese brand that was once synonymous with affordable smartphones, is now trying to make an even bigger impact with its first electric car. Presented today at an event in Beijing, the Xiaomi SU7 – pronounced "soo chee" in Chinese, it is a sedan based on the company's own Modena architecture with HyperEngine electric motors of up to 21,000 rpm, as well as a chassis stamped by its die-casting machines with a clamping force of 9,100 tons, apparently surpassing that of Tesla . The lineup will come in two versions: the dual-motor SU7 Max with all-wheel drive and the single-motor SU7 with rear-wheel drive.
It will be a few more months before Xiaomi announces pricing, but it already claims the SU7 Max has a range of up to 800 km (497 miles; based on the China Light Vehicle Test Cycle, also known as CLTC), as well as a Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h of only 2.78 s, which apparently surpasses the Tesla Model S and the Porsche Taycan Turbo. This is partly due to battery manufacturer CATL's generous 101 kWh 800 V high-voltage platform, which offers a range of 220 km on just a 5-minute charge, or 390 km in 10 minutes, or 510 km in 15 minutes. The base model, however, only supports 400V charging for its smaller 73.6 kWh battery, which has a range of up to 668 km or 415 miles.
Xiaomi hired talents from the automotive industry to carry out this project. In particular, CEO Lei Jun claimed that Tianyuan Li, formerly of BMW's iX series and iVision concepts, was offered to Xiaomi's car design team. Li was also joined by James Qiu, who had previously worked on Mercedes-Benz's Vision EQXX design. They later hired Chris Bangle, a BMW veteran, to be their design consultant.
The SU7 is approximately the same size as the BMW 5 Series, measuring 1,440 mm high, 1,963 mm wide and 4,997 mm long. You have three color options: the signature "turquoise," gray or olive green. At her event, Lei highlighted the apparently generous legroom, as well as the trunk space: 517 L in the rear and 105 L in the front.
At the launch event, Lei highlighted details such as the "water drop" lighthouses, each of which resembled the Chinese character for "rice" (Which is the "my" in "Xiaomi"), as well as the halo rear brake light composed of 360 LEDs. The executive also noted that his team opted for half-hidden door handles, because the flusher handles are apparently more difficult to use in cold climates.
As Xiaomi previously teased, the SU7 offers a HyperOS in-car entertainment system, which is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8295 processor and takes just 1.49 seconds to boot up. You can access your media, adjust your seats or even control your Xiaomi appliances through the 16.1-inch 3K center display, as well as optional Xiaomi Pad tablets that can be mounted on magnetic docks (up to 22.5W output) behind the two front heads. rest. The user interface on the center screen allows up to three split windows for multitasking, and you can even cast your Xiaomi phone screen for a seamless experience. As for music and video entertainment, it will be complemented by the 23 internal Dolby Atmos speakers.
Lei also mentioned opening up the Xiaomi CarIOT ecosystem to third parties, an example being a smart booster car seat that can remind you if your seat belt is not fastened. The executive added that even iPhone users can take advantage of some of the Xiaomi car's features, with support for CarPlay and AirPlay wireless connectivity, as well as iPad mounting for rear passengers.
Like Volkswagen, Xiaomi already knows that car owners still prefer to have some physical buttons, so some are retained for the climate control, as well as two additional buttons: one to toggle the spoiler (Lei said this is mainly for show off) and another to adjust the ride height (to avoid scratching the bottom, if necessary). You can also get an optional row of buttons mounted below the center screen.
The SU7 will also have autonomous driving capabilities thanks to its Xiaomi Pilot platform powered by up to two NVIDIA Drive Orin processors (the base model only has one) and an array of sensors. These include a top-mounted Lidar, with a visual range of up to 200m and pixel accuracy of up to 0.1m; the latter means better detection of thinner and smaller obstacles. In a series of video demonstrations, Xiaomi showed how the SU7 could navigate through a live, busy street with mixed obstacles, as well as perform valet parking on its own and even park in a robotic parking lot with tight spaces. Being a Beijing-based company, Xiaomi claims that the SU7's sensors can also cope with snowy and rainy weather.
Lei added that his company aims to complete autonomous driving trials in 100 cities in China by the end of 2024, although it is unclear how soon local authorities will open autonomous driving nationwide.
In addition to future software updates, Xiaomi also teased its upcoming HyperEngine V8s with a record 27,200 rpm, all hidden inside a stronger silicon steel casing to keep the motor under control. This is apparently already ready for mass production, with plans to equip it in cars by 2025. The company then followed up by teasing a next-generation electric motor technology based on carbon fiber, which will apparently be capable of reaching a whopping 35,000 rpm, but apparently this won't be ready anytime soon.
Xiaomi has not yet shared prices for the SU7 line, although Lei has already hinted that they will be expensive, which is subjective, of course. We'll know in a few months, and hopefully by then we'll also know about availability outside of China, but we wouldn't count on a US launch anytime soon, if ever. In the meantime, you can get the Xiaomi 14, 14 Pro smartphones, and the Xiaomi Watch S3 eSIM in their limited edition colors, either aqua blue or olive green, to match the upcoming SU7.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/xiaomi-says-its-su7-ev-can-outperform-porsche-and-has-more-tech-than-tesla-095637762.html?src =rss
