Tragic accident involving SU7 electric car forces Xiaomi to delay premiere of YU7 crossover

At the end of March, in the Chinese province of Anhui, an electric car Xiaomi SU7 crashed at high speed into a concrete barrier, killing three female students. This event received wide resonance in Chinese society, and the company itself was forced to postpone until better times the debut of the electric crossover YU7, which was scheduled for the first half of the summer.

Image source: Weibo, Xiaomi

In any case, informed sources cited by Bloomberg insist on postponing the debut of the second model of Xiaomi’s electric car. The long-awaited sports crossover YU7 will not go on sale in June or July of this year, and new dates for the debut have not yet been determined. This car will not be demonstrated at the upcoming Shanghai Auto Show, which will begin this week. Xiaomi simultaneously postponed its annual event for investors from late April to June.

In March of this year, encouraged by the results of the first year of sales of the SU7 model, Xiaomi raised its production plan for this year to 350,000 units, for which it hoped to launch a second plant in Beijing and bring the YU7 crossover to market by summer. The Chinese company’s entry into the electric vehicle market allowed it to achieve its highest revenue growth rate since 2021 last year. An investigation into the causes of a March accident involving the company’s active driver assistance system caused Xiaomi’s stock price to fall by more than 20%. Moreover, Chinese authorities have since put forward stricter requirements for the designation of the capabilities of such systems in automakers’ advertising materials.