Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has revealed its first electric car, a sharp-looking sedan called the SU7.
Scheduled to go on sale in China next year, it’s another entry into an increasingly crowded electric vehicle market. It’s also another attempt in this software-obsessed world to match the technology people find on their phones with what’s going on inside their car.
Xiaomi may have a chance. That’s because the car will run Xiaomi’s “HyperOS,” a new architecture from the company has worked on for more than six years, it’s supposed to be powerful enough to power everything, including phones, smart home systems and cars. The goal is a more seamless experience, where your apps and preferences are ready to use wherever you are.
This is not a new idea by any means. It’s the same pitch that Faraday Future’s founder first took many years ago when he was promoting the electric vehicle prototype project in China, part of his technology group at the time.
That attempt failed, but there have been many different attempts in recent years to get closer to a world where car software is like the phones in our pockets. There are fairly literal versions of this in Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto, which mirror a phone’s software on the car’s display. Google has also developed a version of Android that can power a car’s entire infotainment system and has partnered with a number of automakers. Apple does something similar, although it’s much further back and just announced it two first customers last week.
However, attempts to get everything in-house tend to get complicated. Apple has spent years working on its own car project, but has repeatedly pivoted and changed focus. Volkswagen has tried to build its own software team for the car, but has struggled. Tesla has developed a robust in-car software experience for its vehicles, though it has resisted CarPlay and Android Auto to maintain control of its screens.
Xiaomi stands out, then. Thanks to the proliferation of a dominant EV supply chain in China, as well as the rapid progress (and falling costs) of EV technology, it’s now possible for deep-pocketed companies like Xiaomi to attempt something like building a software-ready car her. It’s not exactly alone, as Huawei is also backing its own EV startup in China. But Xiaomi’s is the most fully integrated effort to date.
As for the specs, they look impressive on paper. The company claims as much range on a full charge as 800 km, or just 500 miles, although that’s in China’s rosy testing cycle. This is the case in the higher-end model, which is built on top of a 101 kWh battery from Chinese giant CATL. A base model with a capacity of just 73.6 kWh is said to get close to 668 km, or 415 miles, on a charge. They will charge quickly (220 km in five minutes) and be fast (0-100 km/h in just 2.78 seconds). Pricing will come at a later date.
Nevertheless, Xiaomi’s biggest challenge will be the same as any new vehicle manufacturer: It’s an incredibly difficult task to design and build cars at scale that are reliable and safe, regardless of the underlying technology. With that in mind, making the in-car experience more seamless looks like a layup.
