After 960 days, the first Xiaomi car finally appeared, and here is all the information we know.
At the end of March, 2021, Xiaomi held a press conference in Beijing Headquarters Science and Technology Park for two consecutive nights. Lei Jun officially announced Xiaomi’s plan of "building a car" at this event, in which Lei Jun also mentioned that this would be "the last major entrepreneurial project in my life" and "putting all my reputation in my life and fighting for Xiaomi Automobile".
In the past November 15th, the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the 377th batch of new product announcements of Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products, in which the information of Xiaomi brand automobile appeared, and the company name was "Beijing Automobile Group Off-road Vehicle Co., Ltd.". This is also the first time that Xiaomi’s design and some configuration parameters have been officially disclosed to the outside world, and it has been 960 days since Lei Jun announced that he would "build a car".
For a brand-new "new force" from scratch, this time span is already remarkable. Xiaomi really entered this industry later than the big army-and from all angles, Xiaomi’s "building a car" is almost the last window of entry (including the relationship between the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology). It is basically impossible to have similar new entrants after Xiaomi.
Especially since this year, there have been more news about Xiaomi automobile, and there have been many exposure pictures of test vehicles, until this high-definition big picture of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (really high-definition big picture). Compared with the "ID photo" of the mobile phone published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in the past, the picture of the car is really much better.) Debut, everyone’s imagination of Xiaomi car has a concrete look, and then we can also expect the real release and delivery of Xiaomi car.
In addition to the information released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Xiaomi actually had a round of internal communication last week (some netizens in Weibo also shared the conspicuous "black box" in Xiaomi Park), and we also learned about it at the scene and saw the real car (but we couldn’t shoot it), and some feelings were more intuitive.
Xiaomi’s first car was named "SU7" (pronounced "Speed 7"), and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced two models, namely SU7 (model BJ7000MBEVR2) and SU7 Max (model BJ7000MBEVA1). The SU7 Pro mark appears in the latter matching signal). They are all pure electric cars, which solves the previous speculation that Xiaomi will build an extended-range car (but it does not mean that Xiaomi will not consider it in the future).
The length and width of the two SU7s are 4997 x 1963mm (nearly 5 meters long), the heights are 1440 and 1455 mm respectively (SU7MAX has a lidar on its head), and the wheelbase is 3000 mm.. Like the previous exposure news, this is the C-class car standard. Compared with many "new forces", the first car first made an SUV and then tried a car. Xiaomi chose to do it first, "I have to take this hurdle sooner or later."
And because of the late arrival, the first car must be started at one time, and the way of "running in small steps" in Xiaomi’s past won’t work (plus the product logic of cars and mobile phones is completely different), Lei Jun’s decision for Xiaomi’s car is "the first battle is the decisive battle", and Xiaomi’s car-making team has no reservations about the construction of SU7 from the beginning ("If the first car is unsuccessful, it will be very difficult later").
The picture published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology should be silver. The two cars we saw at the scene before were dull gray and blue (slightly green and very bright), both of which were beautiful colors. At the same time, the design is consistent with the picture, but the look and feel of the real car is much better.
Several designers led by Xiaomi’s car-making team have worked in BMW and Mercedes-Benz headquarters respectively (for example, Li Tianyuan, who is in charge of exterior design, has led the design of BMW iX, and Qiu Zhen, who is in charge of interior design, has been in charge of the interior of Mercedes-Benz EQXX). For the design of SU7, the proportion and lines are emphasized (including the rounded rearview mirror and laser radar), and the overall lines have been treated. Although the drag coefficient has not been revealed, it should be an exaggerated data, which should be left to the press conference to be announced by Lei Jun).
At the same time, SU7 doesn’t pursue fancy and too avant-garde in concept. Xiaomi mentioned that he prefers it to be classic and out of date-but there is no conflict between good-looking and out of date. SU7 will almost certainly make people think of Porsche Taycan, but such a voice should also be "turned over" soon with the announcement of more information. It embodies the pragmatic side, and no matter from the audience’s preferences or the low threshold of use, this is the choice that Xiaomi seriously considers and embodies long-term.
SU7 is equipped with Michelin PS EV tires, with electric tail, and yellow Brembo calipers can be seen in the selection. The front SU7 uses xiaomi’s "Mi" logo, and the rear is the "Xiaomi" letter logo (this is also the logo system that Kenya Hara has previously remodeled for Xiaomi)-there is no special logo specially designed for cars. At the same time, the words "Beijing Xiaomi" were marked on the rear of the car.
In addition, the SU7 uses a semi-hidden door handle, the rearview mirror is frameless, and there is a camera on the B-pillar. The whole vehicle has multiple air guide slots.
According to what we saw at the scene, our favorite car light may be SU7. Although it reminds people of McLaren, it is actually different. The daytime running light of SU7 is a strip-shaped car light with a short section above and below, which looks like a "meter" with the headlights. Not surprisingly, this design will be a continuation of Xiaomi’s family-style design.
According to the announcement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the SU7 peak power of a single motor is 220kW, and the maximum speed is 210km/h. The SU7 Max peak power of a double motor is 220kW and 275kW respectively, and the maximum speed is 265km/h.. The two SU7s use the lithium iron phosphate battery of BYD’s Foday battery and the ternary lithium battery of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited respectively.
At present, the interior of SU7 has not been announced, and we have not seen it at the scene. This can be used as the content we expect to announce in the next stage. At the same time, there is a lot of discussion about the final pricing of SU7, and this part of Xiaomi has not been finalized (thinking that mobile phones were often priced at the last minute).
At present, everything is still in progress, and it is gradually accelerating-including Xiaomi 澎湃 OS released by Xiaomi before, which is also the layout of "human-car-home ecology" in advance (in fact, in addition to the car design and the three electricity, software, interaction and linkage with the whole ecosystem are probably the biggest competitiveness of SU7 and even the entire Xiaomi car product line).
According to the current news, SU7 is expected to be released in the spring of 2024, and delivery will begin soon after release. At the same time, Xiaomi Automobile "will definitely have action" at the Shanghai Auto Show next year.
According to our forecast, the Xiaomi team is likely to strive to launch before the "two sessions". Lei Jun, a deputy to the National People’s Congress, has suggestions or voices during the conference every year, and his appearance next year will be an excellent opportunity for Xiaomi Automobile to make its debut in public channels.