I was in mainland China a week ago and rode in a few different domestic electric cars when taking DiDi (Uber), from BYD and others. All pretty great experiences, good build quality. A surprising percent of the cars on the street in Kunming were electric - maybe 25%. The other cards make me expect good things from the Xiaomi.

I am glad they went to 800V. The acceleration stat race is getting a bit stupid. But I think 800V is very important, at least for charging. It will not only let you charge fast it will let other people use the charger after you are done.

I hope the industry moves both the fast chargers and the cars to 800V asap. (Naturally, fast chargers should retain 400V backward compatibility). When cars charge faster it is kind of like having more chargers.

Besides lots more pictures, carnewschina [1] also reports:

> According to Xiaomi, the SU7 is a pretty aerodynamic car with a drag coefficient of only 0.195 Cd, the lowest among production vehicles.

No doubt this was helped by hiring James Qiu who had previously worked on Mercedes-Benz's Vision EQXX design, a concept car with a record setting 0.17 Cd.

[1] https://carnewschina.com/2023/12/28/xiaomi-officially-unveil...

A few decades back, EVs were little econoboxes.

Has anyone considered making an inexpensive, reliable, simple EV for commuters?

> as well as chassis stamped by its die casting machines with a clamping force of 9,100 tons — beating that of Tesla's apparently.

This seems incoherent to me? Metal stamping is a process, and die casting is a separate process, from what I understand. Is there any reason to die cast a chassis? Does the press strength around the casting molds matter? I’d assume chassis parts would be built out of stamped and bent sheet metal?

Xiaomi is China's Apple, so what happened to the rumored Apple car? Haven't heard anything for a while, but Wikipedia claims it's still planned for 2024-25:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_electric_car_project

> Much like Volkswagen, Xiaomi already knows that car owners still prefer to have some physical buttons,

Despite decades of experience in the industry, until very recently Volkswagen weirdly thought the opposite was true. It's incredible it's taken them this long to U-turn on what's been a blindly obvious problem with their current interior designs. It got the point where every other manufacturer, that did the (old) sensible thing, was praised.

> The SU7 will have autonomous driving capabilities, too, thanks to its Xiaomi Pilot platform powered by up to two NVIDIA Drive Orin processors

Interestingly, NVIDIA is making good moves in all the areas related to AI.

Looks like a taycan

Another premium EV for a premium price. I wonder if it manages to find a spot in the market. It seems that at the moment there is a lot of premium EV supply while demand is cooling down.

It's going to be a fun time when your car is vulnerable because the manufacturer decided to stop software patches. Xiaomi isn't known for long term support, their phones get max 2-3y of updates (they release so many versions it's crazy). I am going to stay with my low tech 2013 Toyota for as long as possible that's for sure.

Are we having an Apple vs Nokia moment in the car industry, powered by the shift to EV?

In Europe it feels a bit that way.

This is the only EV that might make me reconsider my EV skepticism but I think price point will stop me from doing that.

And of course, repairability. How much do I have to pay for battery replacement after a decade of usage.

An actual HUD! The one major feature I wish teslas had, with carplay / android auto a close second.

I was told automakers have been ruining auto design and foisting gaping-nostril'd abominations on us for years due to the chinese market.

Xiaomi, more Chinese than Chinese, has released one of the most beautiful, nostril-less, vehicles in years.

Is every automaker stupid?

the wheels remind me of Taiwan's national flower

Why Porsche? Why not Tesla?

The only standout feature of this car is that it doesn't come in the usual white or black colors.

Will it show "suggested contents" in between the numbers of the speedometer?

Slightly off topic, but tengential : EV's range is usually measured using some sort of "mixed" cycle like WLTP where you do a bit of slow speed, a bit of high speed etc.

Is there a "dumb" test that just fill up the battery, put the car on a bench, goes up to 130km/h (or whatever a sensible value for "highway speed" is), and waits for the battery to be empty ?

If it's a completely stupid idea, why ?

If it is like their phones then every app and car part is going to ping back home to some servers in china