Smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has unveiled its first ever car - so are you swiping right..?
Xiaomi is a Chinese tech giant that’s said to be the second-largest manufacturer of smartphones and tablets in the world, behind only Samsung.
And now the Beijing-headquartered firm is dialling-into the vehicle market with this, the eye-catching ‘SU7’.
You’re looking at a high-performance electric saloon with power of up to 673 PS - with the range-topping ‘Max’ models - and a 0-62mph acceleration time of just 2.78 seconds.
The SU7, which is due to hit the Chinese car market later this year, also gets a maximum range of up to 497 miles between charges, which could really take the fight to rivals like the Porsche Taycan, Audi e-tron GT and the Polestar 3.
The ‘Smart Cabin’ features a Tesla-rivalling 16.1-inch central console, a 56-inch head up display, and a 7.1-inch rotating dashboard, while the vehicle’s operating system launches in just 1.49 seconds after the door is unlocked.
Xiaomi is promising full ‘Human x Car x Home Smart Ecosystem’ integration, where you can control every facet of the vehicle, including charging, at the touch of a button.
And the company isn’t messing about when it says that in the next 15 to 20 years it ‘aims to become one of the top five global automakers’.
The dedicated ‘Xiaomi EV’ motoring division has been busy behind the scenes patenting new tech and developing new motors and batteries.
Three E-motors have been created, ‘employing innovative technologies such as Bidirectional Full Oil Cooling Technology, S-shaped oil circuit design, and staggered silicon steel laminations design’, says Xiaomi, and which have been built to ‘rival the performance of traditional large V8 and V6 powertrains from the era of internal combustion engines’.
Xiaomi EV has even had to develop its own ultra high-strength steel to cope with a high-revving engine of up to 27,200 rpm.
If that all sounds a bit pricey, fear not, because Xiaomi EV will also deploy a more wallet-friendly ‘HyperEngine V6’ which has power of 299 PS and 400 Nm of torque.
On the battery front, Xiaomi has designed a ‘Cell to Body’ unit where the battery itself integrates into the vehicle body, which is said to improve handling and performance, as well as safety. It’s the sort of tech we’ve already seen with BYD’s patented ‘Blade’ battery.
And Xiaomi reckons that, all things considered, it could hit a ‘theoretical’ range between charges of up to 745 miles.
Autonomous driving is also at the forefront of minds at Xiaomi.
A spokesperson tells us: “Perception hardware includes one LiDAR, eleven high-definition cameras, three millimetre-wave radars, and twelve ultrasonic radars on the Xiaomi SU7 Max model. With top-tier configurations and full-stack in-house research, Xiaomi's intelligent Autonomous Driving system is set to join the industry's top echelon by 2024.”
Will the Xiaomi SU7 make it to the UK? Only time will tell.
But Xiaomi has already stolen a march on Apple, with rumours of an Apple vehicle first appearing back in 2015. So far, Apple’s EV hasn’t made the jump from drawing board to test track, so it’ll be interesting to see if Xiaomi’s announcement accelerates that development.
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