BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s Xiaomi on Thursday slashed its initial sticker price for its luxury electric sedan SU7 Ultra by over a third to 529,900 yuan ($72,931.72), mounting a bigger challenge to the likes of Tesla and Porsche in the world’s largest auto market.
The Chinese electronics manufacturer turned automaker started taking pre-orders for the car at the end of October at a sticker price of 814,900 yuan, but CEO Lei Jun said at the car’s official launch in Beijing on Thursday that it was now cutting that price by 35%.
Lei said drivers of BMW 5 series, Audi A6 and Mercedes-Benz E-class cars were showing interest in the SU7 Ultra but thought it was a bit too expensive, as their cars sold for 500,000 and 600,000 yuan.
“Our mission is that we should let more people who like us afford luxury cars. Then after discussions for three to four months, we’ve decided on the price of 529,900 yuan.”
After the event, Xiaomi said it had received 6,900 orders for the car within 10 minutes.
Xiaomi entered China’s crowded EV market last year with the launch of its hit SU7, a Porsche lookalike starting at less than $30,000. The SU7 outsold Tesla’s Model 3 in the fourth quarter of last year, a trend that has been extended to 2025.
The SU7 Ultra was initially priced to be on par with the Tesla Model S Plaid, that sells for 814,900 yuan ($114,200) in China, and Xiaomi said in October that it outperformed the Porsche Taycan Turbo in acceleration and top speed specifications.
The SU7 Ultra has more premium exterior and interior materials, seats and audio speakers compared to other cheaper SU7 models, Lei said. A limited-edition of the SU7 Ultra luxury EV, whose specifications are yet to be disclosed, still sells for 814,900 yuan.
Buyers placing orders for the SU7 Ultra before the end of March are entitled to perks including lifelong free access to Xiaomi HAD end-to-end intelligent driving system that retails for 26,000 yuan, said Lei.
Lei also took aim at Tesla, making reference to the U.S. carmaker’s update to its autopilot software in China, which “has gone viral over the past two days, but still needs (users) to pay more than 60,000 yuan,” he said.
The Tesla update disappointed some Tesla owners who complained on social media that it fell short of CEO Elon Musk’s promises to bring full Autopilot and FSD systems to China.
($1 = 7.2657 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Che Pan and Brenda GohEditing by David Goodman and Susan Fenton)
