Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi on Wednesday said it has received more than 100,000 orders for its first car – a sporty electric vehicle called the SU7 – as it began deliveries.
CEO and founder Lei Jun declared at a ceremony in Beijing commemorating the first deliveries, “Xiaomi’s car officially debuts, the real revolution in smart cars has officially begun, and China will surely give birth to a great company like Tesla.”
Xiaomi had previously manufactured a restricted run of 5,000 automobiles, known as the “Founder’s Edition.” These initial deliveries include additional accessories for early purchasers.
As a sign of strong demand, Xiaomi warned customers of its car that they may have to wait four to seven months after the SU7, short for Speed Ultra 7, was introduced last week.
The SU7 attracted a lot of interest, leading to Xiaomi’s shares shooting up to 16% on Tuesday. However, a stockbroker predicted that the company would lose around $10,000 on each car this year. In contrast to the 1.1% decline in the overall Hang Seng Index, its shares saw a more than 3% decrease in trade on Wednesday morning.
The corporation was valued at $55 billion at its peak on Tuesday, when the share price was HK$17.34. This is more than the $52 billion and $53 billion of traditional American manufacturers, General Motors and Ford, respectively.
With an eye-catching price tag of less than $30,000 for the base model, Xiaomi’s SU7 joins the congested China EV market at a lower cost than Tesla’s Model 3.
Amid a fierce price war and declining demand for electric vehicles in the world’s largest auto market, newcomers face challenges. Analysts observe that Xiaomi, with larger resources than most EV companies, holds an advantage. Its experience with smartphones provides an edge in smart dashboards, a feature highly valued by Chinese consumers.
The corporation sells cellphones for the majority of its $37.5 billion in revenue.
The SU7 debut satisfies Lei’s goal, as he declared the company’s entry into the electric vehicle market in 2021 and committed to investing $10 billion in the industry as “the last major entrepreneurship project” of his life.
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