Xiaomi was one of the few new electric vehicle makers to receive approval from China amid a rush of new entrants looking to capitalize on the country's EV boom.
advertisementXiaomi has revealed that deliveries of its first electric car, named Speed Ultra 7 or SU7, will begin later this month, marking the Chinese technology company's entry into the global car market.
Following the news, Xiaomi's stock price rose 11.34%, the biggest intraday rise in a year, to HK$14.92 (€1.74) at market close on Tuesday.
When company CEO Lei Jun announced the venture in 2021, he said it would be the last major entrepreneurial project of his life and that he was prepared to put his reputation on the line for this vehicle.
Lei Jun added that when launching this car in 2023, Xiaomi strives to be among the five best car manufacturers in the world in the next 15 to 20 years. He also said that around $10 billion (9.15 billion euros) will be invested in the business unit over the next 10 years.
The company has announced that it is accepting orders for the car at approximately 59 stores and will announce the price of the car on March 28th.
China's EV market continues to heat up
Over the past few months, China's EV market has heated up considerably amid a price war between the world's top EV maker Tesla and Chinese manufacturer BYD.
Recently, Tesla has been forced to lower its prices in China in response to BYD's price cuts.
China has the largest number of electric vehicles, with approximately 20 million vehicles, accounting for more than half of the total number of EVs in the world. The company is also the largest EV producer, producing approximately 5.47 million vehicles in 2022, according to Statista.
With the increasing environmental awareness of consumers, the demand for electric vehicles, especially used cars, has increased significantly.
For this reason, several other Chinese companies have recently been hoping to enter the coveted market.
However, Xiaomi was one of the lucky few that was able to secure approval from regulators who are currently trying to regulate the number of new players.
The new manufacturing challenges in the auto sector are so overwhelming that other big tech companies like Apple have been forced to abandon their EV dreams.
According to Jun, Xiaomi's SU7 could accelerate even faster than certain Porsche and Tesla electric cars.
Xiaomi EV recently introduced five core technologies: Battery, Xiaomi Pilot Autonomous Driving, E-Motor, Xiaomi Hyper Die-Casting, and Smart Cabin.
According to the company, this is a new step toward closing the loop in the smart ecosystem of people, cars, and homes. The fact that the new electric cars run on the same operating system as other products such as phones is also expected to be a key selling point for the business.
