Xiaomi’s YU7 Is an SUV-Sized Middle Finger to Tesla's Model Y

Another week, another Chinese electrical car poised to present an extinction lawsuit to Western automakers.

This clip it’s Xiaomi, a Beijing-based tech steadfast champion known for smartphones and the institution down the Porsche Taycan-baiting SU7, which successful late-2024 was truthful fashionable that Xiaomi accrued its income forecast 3 times successful a substance of months.

Now Xiaomi is back, and this clip it has an electric SUV up its sleeve. Resembling the lovechild of a Ferrari Purosangue and an Aston Martin DBX707 described down a patchy telephone line, the YU7 hits each of the benchmarks you’d expect from an EV successful 2025.

There are 3 models, ranging from the YU7 Standard, a single-motor car with 235 kW and a 0-62 mph clip of 5.88 seconds, done the much potent, dual-motor YU7 Pro and, leaning into smartphone nomenclature, headed by the YU7 Max. That exemplary has 508 kW of power—38 kW much than the electrical Porsche Macan Turbo—and a supercar-like 0-62 mph clip of 3.23 seconds.

Using China’s somewhat generous CLTC trial cycle, scope claims span from 472 miles for the Max, to a whopping 518 miles from the little almighty Standard. Xiaomi claims the car’s 800-volt electrical architecture delivers a 10-80 percent complaint clip of conscionable 12 minutes, oregon tin adhd 385 miles of scope successful 15 minutes.

All precise impressive, but particularly truthful erstwhile you see the Chinese marketplace price. The YU7 starts astatine 253,500 yuan, which is astir $35,000 successful the US—the nonstop terms Tesla concisely achieved with its first-generation Model 3 successful early-2019, earlier heading backmost up to the $40,000 mark. The Pro and Max versions of the Xiaomi YU7 are priced astatine 279,900 yuan ($39,000) and 329,900 yuan ($46,000) respectively, portion Tesla’s Model Y starts astatine 263,500 yuan ($36,500).

Meanwhile, Tesla has conscionable missed its ain deadline for putting much affordable cars into production. Despite canning its alleged Model 2, the institution said astatine the commencement of 2025: “Plans for caller vehicles, including much affordable models, stay connected way for commencement of accumulation successful the archetypal fractional of 2025.” We’re into July present and inactive waiting.