CarBrandLogos archive · Xiaomi · 2024

XiaomiSU7

A phone company's first car, and it landed better than anyone expected.

Photo: S5A-0043 · CC BY 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Xiaomi history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Xiaomi SU7, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

When Xiaomi announced in 2021 that it would build cars, the reasonable assumption was that it would badge someone else's. Instead the company built its own plant in Beijing, hired seriously — Sawyer Li as chief designer, James Qiu on exterior, with Chris Bangle consulting — and spent three years on a full-size electric saloon before showing anything for sale.

Interior of of Xiaomi SU7 Max · Shwangtianyuan · CC BY-SA 4.0

Design and engineering

The SU7 that emerged in late 2023 was a low four-door with a long bonnet and a fastback tail, offered with a single rear motor, dual motors driving all four wheels, or a triple-motor arrangement in the Ultra. Its resemblance to a Porsche Taycan was noted immediately and rarely held against it. The important engineering was elsewhere: an 800-volt architecture, a battery pack structurally integrated into the floor, and in-house motors developed to spin far faster than the industry norm.

Xiaomi SU7 Ultra prototype 001 · Zoerides · CC0

In production

What made the launch remarkable was demand. Xiaomi took orders in numbers that swamped its production capacity, leaving delivery waits measured in months, and it did so partly by treating the car like a consumer electronics product — a launch event with pricing revealed at the end, deep integration with the phones and home devices its customers already owned, and a founder, Lei Jun, presenting the car himself.

Xiaomi SU7 Ultra 0002 China · Navigator84 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Legacy

The Ultra version then went to the Nürburgring and set a lap time for a four-door production car, which settled any lingering question about whether the engineering was real. A facelift arrived in 2026. For the established Chinese makers, the SU7 was an uncomfortable demonstration that a well-run consumer brand with software competence could enter the car business from a standing start and be taken seriously in its first year.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

2026–present

Designer

Sawyer Li (chief designer)

Body

4-door sedan

Technical specification

The SU7, in detail.

Production: December 2023 – February 2026 (pre-facelift) ; March 2026 – present (facelift)
Class: Full-size car
Body style: 4-door sedan
Layout: Rear-motor, rear-wheel-drive ; Dual-motor, all-wheel-drive ; Individual wheel drive#Tri-motor; Triple-motor, all-wheel-drive
Transmission: Single-speed gear reduction
Designer: Sawyer Li (chief designer) ; James Qiu (exterior) ; Chris Bangle (consultant)
Assembly: China: Beijing (Xiaomi Auto Factory)
Manufacturer: Xiaomi Auto