If competition among Tesla and other electric vehicle makers was not already tough enough, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi said its foray into the EV market has resulted in much better sales than predicted.
The SU7 model was launched last month, with the smartphone giant saying it was benchmarked against the Tesla Model 3 and Porsche Taycan.
Orders have been three to five times more than forecast, CEO and founder Lei Jun said today on a social media livestream, with deliveries of a SU7 Standard model starting 12 days ahead of schedule after a limited edition of 5,000 began earlier this month.
The vehicle is being launched in China initially at a price of 215,900 yuan (US$30,408) for the cheapest of the three model variations, around $4,000 cheaper than Tesla's cheapest Model 3 in the country.
Xiaomi said it expects to lose money on the SU7, as Tesla did in its initial years of production .
Lei said deliveries of its standard version by 12 days. Asked by online users about future development plans, he said Xiaomi had no plans to build off-road vehicles and would primarily focus on the SU7.
Analysts at Citi forecast losses on the SU7 could reach CNY 4.1 billion (US$0.6 billion), based on projected volumes of 60,000 units this year and an average CNY 68,000 per car.