Tag Archives: Xiaomi

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This Xiaomi SU7 Just Drove 265,000 Kilometers—and Its Battery Is Still On 94.5 Percent Capacity

If you want to understand the future of electric cars, sometimes it helps to look not at shiny auto-show concepts but at a very tired driver and a very not-tired battery.

Somewhere in China, a Xiaomi SU7 owner known online as Feng has quietly done what most EV skeptics insist can’t be done: he drove his electric sedan 265,000 kilometers in just 18 months—nearly the distance from Earth to the Moon—and the battery still looks like it just finished its break-in period.

According to a diagnostic report issued by Xiaomi’s own service center, the SU7’s 94.3-kWh pack is still holding 94.5 percent of its original capacity. In battery-speak, that’s astonishing. Feng averaged almost 500 kilometers per day, every day, for a year and a half. That’s the kind of usage that normally turns lithium-ion packs into cautionary tales. Instead, this one came back with barely a wrinkle.

To put that number in perspective, most automakers promise that after eight years or roughly 150,000 to 160,000 kilometers, your EV battery won’t degrade more than 20 to 30 percent. Tesla, for example, guarantees its Model 3 and Model Y will retain at least 70 percent capacity over that span. Feng’s SU7 has already blown past those mileage figures—and it’s still sitting north of 94 percent.

A High-Mileage Stress Test

The service report suggests the battery has gone through roughly 506 full charge cycles. That’s not light use. That’s the sort of cycling you’d expect to expose weaknesses in cell chemistry, thermal management, or charging strategy. Instead, the SU7’s pack seems to be taking it in stride.

And it’s not just the battery that’s holding up. Xiaomi’s technicians also noted that Feng hasn’t needed a brake-pad replacement yet, a reminder of how effective regenerative braking can be when used this heavily. Even the cooling system passed with flying colors—the coolant showed no water contamination, a detail that quietly signals good long-term system integrity.

In other words, this SU7 isn’t just surviving. It’s aging gracefully.

Why This Matters

Xiaomi may be new to the car business, but this kind of real-world data is exactly what separates marketing promises from engineering reality. Anyone can quote lab numbers. Feng delivered something far more valuable: a brutal, everyday stress test.

High-mileage EVs are still rare enough that every one of them becomes a rolling experiment. And this experiment suggests that Xiaomi’s battery management and thermal systems are doing something very right. If a pack can keep more than 94 percent of its capacity after 265,000 kilometers of near-constant driving, that’s not a fluke—that’s a design philosophy paying off.

The Road to 600,000

Feng isn’t done. His next target is 600,000 kilometers, which he expects to reach within three years. When he gets there, he plans to publish another full wear-and-tear report, effectively turning his SU7 into one of the world’s most documented long-term EV tests.

If the battery keeps degrading at this rate, that future report might be even more impressive than the first.

And for an industry still fighting doubts about durability, that may be the most important data point of all.

Source: Xiaomi; Photo: EPA-EFE

News

Xiaomi Hits 500,000 EVs—and Puts the Industry on Notice

In the world of electric cars, speed isn’t just measured in seconds to 60. It’s measured in how fast a company can go from zero to relevance. Some newcomers flame out as quickly as they appear, but Xiaomi—the Chinese tech giant best known for smartphones and smart-home gadgets—has launched itself into the EV arena like a silicon-powered rocket.

The company has just built its 500,000th vehicle, an achievement that would be impressive for any young automaker. What makes it staggering is the timeline: one year and seven months after the first Xiaomi EV rolled off the line. That makes Xiaomi one of the fastest companies on the planet to hit the half-million mark.

From Phones to Four Wheels

Xiaomi officially declared its entry into carmaking in March 2021, but the real ignition switch was flipped in March 2024 with the SU7, a sleek electric sedan that aimed straight at the segment’s benchmark. With multiple variants and a design philosophy borrowed from the gadget world—clean, modern, minimalist—the SU7 helped Xiaomi go from “curious experiment” to “credible threat” overnight.

By June, Xiaomi doubled down with the YU7, expanding its lineup and signaling that the company wasn’t here to toy with the market; it was here to compete across segments.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

Production milestones tell one story, but shipments reveal the truth: people are actually buying these cars.

  • 135,000 Xiaomi EVs sold in 2024, the company’s first full sales year.
  • 315,376 shipments from January to October 2025.
  • 108,796 units shipped in Q3 alone, up a massive 173% year over year.
  • 48,654 units shipped in October, proving demand is accelerating, not leveling off.

Founder and CEO Lei Jun now expects Xiaomi EV to surpass 400,000 total shipments in 2025, up from an earlier 350,000-unit target. And that 500,000th car already built? It’s scheduled to reach its buyer within days—evidence that Xiaomi’s supply chain moves as fast as its assembly lines.

The Gamble That Paid Off

Jumping from phones to cars isn’t a pivot; it’s a moonshot. But Xiaomi’s EV division is showing signs that the risk was worth it.

For the first time, Xiaomi’s “innovative businesses”—driven almost entirely by EVs—posted a quarterly profit.

  • RMB 700 million net income (~€84 million).
  • RMB 29 billion in revenue, with EVs contributing a massive RMB 28.3 billion.

In short: cars are now Xiaomi’s biggest moneymaker.

Yet, the stock market remains unconvinced. Despite the record quarter, Xiaomi’s share price dipped 2.22%, part of a larger 33% drop over two months. Investors seem jittery about China’s hyper-competitive EV landscape and uncertainties elsewhere in the company’s portfolio.

It’s a reminder that even blowing past milestones doesn’t guarantee smooth sailing on Wall Street.

A New EV Powerhouse?

Xiaomi’s sprint from smartphone manufacturer to high-volume EV producer is the kind of story legacy automakers once dismissed as impossible. Not anymore.

Reaching 500,000 cars built in under two years—and pushing toward 400,000+ annual deliveries—cements Xiaomi as a major player in the global EV race. Whether traditional automakers like it or not, the frontier of electric mobility is no longer guarded by the “old guard.”

Xiaomi didn’t just enter the EV market.
It blasted its way to the front of the pack.

Source: Xiaomi

News

Xiaomi’s Carbon Fiber Fiasco: When Form Fakes Function

You’d think that in 2025, the car industry had learned its lesson about pretending to be something it’s not. Yet, here we are—watching a tech giant better known for smartphones than supercars getting schooled in the fine art of authentic performance.

Xiaomi, still basking in the glow of its much-hyped SU7 and YU7 EVs, has stumbled into a rather sticky legal mess involving what should have been a piece of engineering theatre: the SU7 Ultra’s carbon fiber hood. On paper, it looked the part—carbon weave glistening under showroom lights, aggressive vents screaming “race car.” It was supposed to be a £4,600 slice of cutting-edge aero trickery. Instead, it turned out to be… well, cosplay.

Because when owners decided to peek under the bonnet—literally—they found out that those muscular ducts were about as functional as the hood scoops on a 2000s tuner special. Decorative. Non-breathing. Aerodynamically inert. In short, the vents were fake.

And in China, at least one furious SU7 Ultra owner wasn’t about to let that slide. They sued, claiming false advertising. The court agreed. Twice. A judge in Suzhou upheld a ruling ordering Xiaomi to refund the customer’s ¥20,000 deposit (around $2,800), cough up ¥126,000 ($17,640) in damages, and foot the ¥10,000 ($1,400) legal bill.

For a company the size of Xiaomi, that’s pocket change. But it’s the principle that stings—especially when your brand is built on trust in engineering precision. It’s one thing for a smartphone’s “AI-enhanced cooling vent” to be a decorative flourish; quite another when your supposed track-ready EV’s carbon fiber hood is nothing more than a designer hat.

Xiaomi insists the part was “aesthetic, not functional,” inspired by the brand’s record-breaking SU7 Ultra prototype. To soothe the crowd, they tossed out 20,000 Xiaomi Reward Points to each owner—roughly 2,000 yuan, or $280. A gesture, sure. But when you’ve paid nearly $6,000 for what amounts to carbon fibre wallpaper, a few loyalty points don’t exactly make the air flow any smoother.

The real danger here isn’t the payout—it’s precedent. This wasn’t a class action, just one owner’s case. But now that Xiaomi’s been publicly humbled, you can bet other SU7 Ultra drivers will start doing their own forensic hood inspections.

Because while Xiaomi’s electric ambitions have been impressive—its cars stylish, fast, and surprisingly well-priced—this episode reminds us of a crucial truth: performance isn’t just about how something looks. It’s about how it works.

And when you sell function, but deliver fiction, even the glossiest carbon fiber can’t cover the cracks.

Source: Reuters