- Ford CEO Jim Farley praised the Xiaomi SU7, a new Chinese EV he’s driving.
- The Chinese electronics maker launched the SU7 in December with a starting price of about $30,000.
- Xiaomi has said it’s on pace to deliver 100,000 SU7 EVs to customers during its first year.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said during a podcast interview that he’d been driving the Xiaomi Speed Ultra 7, a Chinese electric vehicle, for the past six months and that he didn’t want to give it up.
“It’s fantastic. They sell 10,000, 20,000 a month. They’re sold out for six months,” Farley said, calling Xiaomi an “industry juggernaut.”
This raises some questions.
First: What’s so compelling about this car? It’s pretty rare to hear a chief executive publicly extol their direct competitor. Why is it so impressive?
Second: How did Farley get the car to the US? And why can’t Americans get a car like that in the US?
Let’s dig in.
What is the Xiaomi SU7?
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The SU7 is Xiaomi’s first vehicle, arriving nearly three years after the Chinese smartphone and consumer-electronics giant announced plans to build an EV.
It unveiled the compact battery-electric sedan in December 2023 to great fanfare. Xiaomi has said it expects to reach 100,000 customer deliveries by November.
The SU7 was built in partnership with Beijing Automotive, one of China’s largest carmakers. It also makes Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz vehicles for the Chinese market.
The Xiaomi SU7’s key features
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The SU7 comes in three versions — the SU7, the SU7 Pro, and the SU7 Max — that start at 215,900 yuan, or about $30,300. Even the most expensive version, the high-performance SU7 Max, won’t break the bank with a starting price of 299,900 yuan, or about $42,100.
By comparison, the base Tesla Model 3 starts at 231,900 yuan in China, while the range-topping all-wheel-drive variant starts at 335,900 yuan.
The SU7’s styling isn’t terribly original, but it’s attractive, drawing elements of its front end from the McLaren 750S supercar and its overall shape from Porsche’s Panamera sedan.
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The SU7 turns up the wow factor in the cabin. Though Xiaomi is best known outside China for its smartphones, the company is a consumer-electronics conglomerate that makes everything from TVs and smart speakers to connected housewares like lights and air conditioners.
The SU7 is integrated with other Xiaomi products, allowing for remote voice control of household appliances from the vehicle. It has a massive 16.1-inch infotainment screen with smartphone mirroring, and it offers Xiaomi Pilot, software that Xiaomi says allows for assisted self-driving and self-parking.
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The car also features some impressive performance. Xiaomi says the range-topping SU7 Max can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 2.78 seconds, which bests the high-performance Model 3’s time of 3.1 seconds.
Why you can’t buy the SU7 in the US
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Xiaomi’s EVs aren’t available for sale in the US. The US government imposes a 100% import tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles, making it hard for US residents to get their hands on them.
Farley said he flew the car to Chicago from Shanghai. It’s possible he got it through an exemption that allows vehicles not approved for sale in the US to be imported for research and development.
So you probably won’t see the car on US streets anytime soon — but it sure sounds like its elements could inspire future Ford EVs.