INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi (1810.HK) took the wraps off its first electric vehicle on Thursday and promptly announced it was aiming to
become one of the world&s top five automakers.The sedan, dubbed the SU7 with the SU short for Speed Ultra, is a highly anticipated model
that Chief Executive Lei Jun touted as having &super electric motor& technology capable of delivering acceleration speeds faster than Tesla
(TSLA.O) cars and Porsche&s EVs, Reuters reported.But the car & likely to go on sale in several months & is making its debut at a time when
China&s auto market & the world&s largest & is wrestling with a capacity glut and slowing demand that have stoked a bruising price war.That
didn&t stop Xiaomi Chief Executive Lei Jun from outlining big ambitions.&By working hard over the next 15 to 20 years, we will become one of
the world&s top 5 automakers, striving to lift China&s overall automobile industry,& he said at the unveiling.Those plans include building
&a dream car comparable to Porsche and Tesla,& he added.The SU7 is also expected to appeal to customers due to its shared operating system
with Xiaomi&s popular phones and other electronic devices
Its drivers will have seamless access to the company&s existing portfolio of mobile apps.&Xiaomi is a well-established consumer electronics
brand with hundreds of millions of ‘Mi Fans&, or members of its smart device ecosystem,& said Bill Russo, CEO of Shanghai-based advisory
firm Automobility.The SU7 will come in two versions & one with a driving range of up to 668 km (415 miles) on a single charge and another
with a range of up to 800 km
By comparison, Tesla&s Model S has a range of up to 650 km.China&s fifth-largest smartphone maker has been seeking to diversify beyond its
core business to EVs amid stagnating demand for smartphones & a plan it first flagged in 2021
Other Chinese tech companies that have partnered with automakers to develop EVs include telecoms giant Huawei (HWT.UL) and search engine
firm Baidu (9888.HK).Xiaomi has pledged to invest $10 billion in autos over a decade and is one of the few new players in China&s EV market
to gain approval from authorities who have been reluctant to add to the supply glut.Its cars will be produced by a unit of state-owned
automaker BAIC Group (1958.HK) in a Beijing factory with an annual capacity of 200,000 vehicles.In an extremely crowded Chinese EV market,
its biggest competition will likely come from BYD (002594.SZ) which commands a one-third share while Tesla has 9%, according to
third-quarter figures from Zheshang Securities.The post China&s Xiaomi unveils first electric car first appeared on Ariana News.
