Xiaomi has a good MWC. The Chinese tech company’s booth has been packed since the show doors opened this morning. It’s in stark contrast to neighbor Samsung, whose sparsely populated booth reflects what has largely been a quiet event for the Galaxy maker.
After popping in to check out Xiaomi’s new robotic dog earlier today, we returned to the venue this afternoon to take a closer look at the electric vehicle it announced at CES in January. The car is the latest in a long line of consumer electronics companies looking to make a mark in the automotive space, including Sony and, by most accounts, Apple.
But where Sony’s Afeela push is largely a partnership with Honda (with both companies owning a piece of the company), Xiaomi is going it alone on the branding front. Also, unlike others, the SU7 “full-size high-performance eco-tech sedan” has a rough release schedule, with plans to arrive in China sometime next year.
Image Credits: Brian Heater
As Sean noted in writing the original news, among other things, Xiaomi has access to China’s fast-growing EV supply chain. The company has also been working on “HyperOS” for years – it’s a kind of operating system that rules them all, so to speak. Hence, the focus of this year’s MWC is ‘Human x Car x Home’ or ‘Redefining Connectivity’.
The company notes,
Xiaomi’s first EV product – the much-anticipated Xiaomi SU7, is positioned as a “high-performance full-size eco-tech sedan” that pushes the boundaries of performance, ecosystem integration and the smart mobile space. Alongside the Xiaomi SU7 design, Xiaomi has developed the five key EV technologies: E-Motor, CTB Integrated Battery, Xiaomi Die-Casting, Xiaomi Pilot Autonomous Driving and Smart Cabin. Backed by a monumental investment of more than CNY 10 billion in R&D and a global team of more than 3,400 engineers and 1,000 technical experts in key fields, Xiaomi has created an extraordinary vehicle.
Apart from these details, the company is not offering many details about the vehicle. Xiaomi declined my request to sit down with a representative to dig into things a bit more. Instead, the company told me, it prefers to keep the information limited to the talks that representatives regularly give on the booth.
Here’s what I can say: the SU7 is a car – and a good looking one. It was parked inside Xiaomi’s MWC booth on a rotating platform. This model has the same blue color as the images released during CES.
Image Credits: Brian Heater
The specifics of HyperOS are also largely marketing speak at the moment. Here is Xiaomi again,
Xiaomi’s transition from “Smartphone x AIoT”, the “Human x Car x Home” smart ecosystem seamlessly merges personal devices, smart home products and cars. This facilitates seamless connectivity of hardware devices, real-time tuning and driving progress, and collaboration with industry partners. Designed with a vision to adapt to your needs, this proactive ecosystem is designed to seamlessly adapt to your needs, both current and future.
More than just an open source technological advancement, Xiaomi HyperOS features system-level innovation designed to encourage seamless collaboration between devices and ensure consistent operations across all areas of Xiaomi’s comprehensive smart life platform. As the foundation of the “Human x Car x Home” smart ecosystem, it integrates more than 200 product categories that integrate 600 million global devices and cover more than 95% of user scenarios.
The company says it’s working with third-party manufacturers, developers and other partners to deliver on some of those lofty promises.
