Xiaomi’s YU7 Is an SUV-Sized Middle Finger to Tesla’s Model Y
Another week, another Chinese electric car ready to offer an extinction event to Western car manufacturers.
This time, it is Xiaomi, a technological company based in Beijing, better known for smartphones and society behind the Porsche Taycan-Appariant Su7, which at the end of 2024 was so popular that Xiaomi increased its forecasts of sales three times in a few months.
Now Xiaomi is back, and this time he has an electric SUV in his sleeve. Looking like the Lovechild of a Ferrari Purosangue and an Aston Martin DBX707 described on an unequal telephone line, the YU7 hits all the references you expect from an EV in 2025.
There are three models, ranging from the Yu7 standard, a single motor car with 235 kW and a 5.88 seconds of 0-62 MPH time, through the more powerful yu7 pro and, leaning in the nomenclature of smartphones, led by the Yu7 Max. This model has 508 kW of power – 38 kW more than the Porsche Macan Turbo Electric – and a time from 0 to 62 MPH of Supercar type of 3.23 seconds.
Using the somewhat generous CLTC test cycle of China, the litter claims extend from 472 miles for the maximum, 518 miles from the least powerful standard. Xiaomi claims that the 800 -volts electrical architecture of the car offers a charging time of 10 to 80% of only 12 minutes, or can add 385 miles of range in 15 minutes.
All very impressive, but especially when you consider the price of the Chinese market. The YU7 starts at 253,500 yuan, which represents around $ 35,000 in the United States – the exact price that Tesla briefly reached with its first generation model 3 in early 2019, before returning to $ 40,000. The Pro and Max versions of the Xiaomi Yu7 are at the price of 279,900 yuan ($ 39,000) and 329,900 yuan ($ 46,000) respectively, while the Y model of Tesla begins at 263,500 yuan ($ 36,500).
Meanwhile, Tesla has just missed its own deadline to put more affordable cars in production. Despite the preserving of its so-called model 2, the company said at the beginning of 2025: “New vehicle plans, including more affordable models, remain on the right track for the start of production in the first half of 2025.” We are in July now and we are still waiting.
