The new Xiaomi product, the SU7 sports car, which entered the Chinese electric vehicle market this spring, attracted the interest of many with its technical solutions and the possibility of integration into the proprietary ecosystem, but production definitely did not keep up with demand, so production volumes have to be constantly increased. So for each of the remaining months of this year, Xiaomi is going to release 24,000 cars.
Image source: Xiaomi
This was reported by CnEVPost with reference to the publication 36kr. So far, the production of SU7 electric vehicles is carried out by the only Xiaomi enterprise in Beijing, which was initially registered with partner BAIC in order to speed up obtaining a license for this type of activity. Its annual capacity corresponds to the production of 150,000 electric vehicles, but the Xiaomi enterprise is unlikely to reach this level by the end of the year, since the company’s management previously set a goal for it to deliver 120,000 cars to the market by the end of the year, and the milestone of 100,000 units must be overcome by results of the current month.
And yet, as Chinese sources explain, after the introduction of a second work shift since the summer of this year, the Xiaomi plant in Beijing was able to significantly increase productivity, and by October reached a volume of 12,500 monthly electric vehicles produced. At the end of October, the manufacturer managed to ship more than 20,000 electric vehicles to customers. Even in this case, the conveyor is loaded at 160%, which was made possible by the introduction of a second work shift, and to reach 24,000 electric vehicles produced monthly, the load rate will have to be increased to 200%.
Even Xiaomi’s similar efforts to meet demand for its first electric car are not yielding significant results, since customers placing orders now have to wait on average more than five months to receive a finished car. Since August, customers have been ordering an average of 4,000 SU7 electric vehicles per week.
In March next year, Xiaomi expects to start selling the most powerful SU7 Ultra, which recently updated the world record for the Nürburgring Nordschleife time among production cars with four doors. This version of the SU7 will be offered at a price of about $115,000. Pre-orders have already begun to be accepted, and Xiaomi managed to accept 3,680 applications in the first ten minutes.
According to rumors, next year Xiaomi will introduce a sports electric crossover with the symbol MX11. To cover the demand for two models, Xiaomi will have to delay the construction of its second plant in Beijing, which should be commissioned between July and August next year. Together, the two enterprises will be able to assemble 300,000 electric vehicles annually. As noted by Chinese media, builders at the second Xiaomi site have already begun working in two shifts. Xiaomi representatives previously admitted that for now the company is forced to sell SU7 electric cars at a loss, losing $9,200 on each car. From this point of view, the rapid expansion of production allows us to quickly get rid of losses, although it requires an increase in operating costs.