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

Another week, one other Chinese electrical automotive poised to ship an extinction occasion to Western automakers.

This time it’s Xiaomi, a Beijing-based tech agency finest recognized for smartphones and the corporate behind the Porsche Taycan-baiting SU7, which in late-2024 was so widespread that Xiaomi elevated its gross sales forecast 3 times in a matter of months.

Now Xiaomi is again, and this time it has an electrical 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 the entire benchmarks you’d count on from an EV in 2025.

The $35,000 YU7 has prime specs for low cash: 0-62 mph in 5.88 seconds and 800-volt electrical structure.

Photograph: Xiaomi

There are three fashions, starting from the YU7 Standard, a single-motor automotive with 235 kW and a 0-62 mph time of 5.88 seconds, by way of the stronger, dual-motor YU7 Pro and, leaning into smartphone nomenclature, headed by the YU7 Max. That mannequin has 508 kW of energy—38 kW greater than the electrical Porsche Macan Turbo—and a supercar-like 0-62 mph time of three.23 seconds.

Using China’s considerably beneficiant CLTC take a look at cycle, vary claims span from 472 miles for the Max, to a whopping 518 miles from the much less highly effective Standard. Xiaomi claims the automotive’s 800-volt electrical structure delivers a 10-80 % cost time of simply 12 minutes, or can add 385 miles of vary in quarter-hour.

All very spectacular, however particularly so when you think about the Chinese market worth. The YU7 begins at 253,500 yuan, which is about $35,000 within the US—the precise worth Tesla briefly achieved with its first-generation Model 3 in early-2019, earlier than heading again as much as the $40,000 mark. The Pro and Max variations of the Xiaomi YU7 are priced at 279,900 yuan ($39,000) and 329,900 yuan ($46,000) respectively, whereas Tesla’s Model Y begins at 263,500 yuan ($36,500).

Meanwhile, Tesla has simply missed its personal deadline for placing extra inexpensive vehicles into manufacturing. Despite canning its so-called Model 2, the corporate stated in the beginning of 2025: “Plans for new vehicles, including more affordable models, remain on track for start of production in the first half of 2025.” We’re into July now and nonetheless ready.