Xiaomi To Start Delivering Its First EV Model SU7

China's smartphone company Xiaomi announced Tuesday that it would start delivering its first electric vehicle (EV) model SU7 on March 28, it said in a social media post on Weibo.

SU7 launch

Xiaomi said its EV will be delivered as soon as it's launched, adding that the waitlist will be opened in 59 stores across 29 cities in China.

In December, the company announced the car's design and tech features but didn't share the price or the delivery date.

The company was targeting the premium segment with the car, and indicated deliveries could begin as soon as the second quarter, said Xiaomi's President Weibing Lu in an interview with CNBC last month. He added that it would likely take at least another two or three years before Xiaomi starts selling the vehicle out of China.

Xiaomi plans to become one of the world's top five automakers, Lu said during the car's unveiling in December.

The company's shares were up around 11% on Tuesday, following the announcement.

China's EV Sales

Chinese EV sales growth eased to 18.2% in the first two months of 2024, down from 20.8% for the entire year of 2023, according to data released last week by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). The sales of new energy vehicles (NEV) and plug-in hybrids surged 37.5% in the January–February period, against 36.2% for the 12 months of last year.

The growth in the sales of these two automobile categories outstripped the overall 16.3% expansion in the number of cars sold across all automotive types, as automakers' wide-ranging price reduction boosted consumer demand.

Chinese automaker BYD, which became the largest EV seller in the world after dethroning Tesla, led the recent trend of offering discounts in the automotive sector. It slashed prices by an average of 17% for 13 car models that collectively accounted for 93% of its domestic sales in 2023, according to a Reuters report.

A dozen other automakers have followed the trend to cut car prices, including Geely Auto, GAC Aion, Leapmotor, and Xpeng, who have decreased their selling prices by 9–17%.