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Xiaomi’s YU7 Is an SUV-Sized Middle Finger to Tesla's Model Y

wiredmagazine | 2025-07-01 13:11 | 123 views

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wiredmagazine 2025-07-01 13:11

Another week, another Chinese electric car poised to deliver an extinction event to Western automakers. This time it’s Xiaomi, a Beijing-based tech firm best known for smartphones and the company behind the [Porsche Taycan-baiting SU7](https://www.wired.com/story/phone-maker-xiaomi-made-the-car-that-apple-couldnt/), which in late-2024 was so popular that Xiaomi increased its sales forecast three times in a matter of months. Now Xiaomi is back, and this time it has an [electric](https://www.wired.com/tag/evs-and-hybrids/) SUV up its sleeve. Resembling the lovechild of a Ferrari Purosangue and an Aston Martin DBX707 described down a patchy phone line, the YU7 hits all of the benchmarks you’d expect from an [EV in 2025](https://www.wired.com/story/the-17-best-evs-coming-in-2025/). All very impressive, but especially so when you consider the Chinese market price. The YU7 starts at 253,500 yuan, which is about $35,000 in the US—the exact price Tesla briefly achieved with its first-generation Model 3 in early-2019, before heading back up to the $40,000 mark. The Pro and Max versions of the Xiaomi YU7 are priced at 279,900 yuan ($39,000) and 329,900 yuan ($46,000) respectively, while Tesla’s Model Y starts at 263,500 yuan ($36,500). Meanwhile, Tesla has just [missed its own deadline](https://www.wired.com/story/theres-a-very-simple-pattern-to-elon-musks-broken-promises/) for putting more affordable cars into production. Despite canning its so-called Model 2, [the company said](https://ir.tesla.com/_flysystem/s3/sec/000162828025002993/tsla-20250129-gen.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com) at the start of 2025: “Plans for new vehicles, including more affordable models, remain on track for start of production in the first half of 2025.” We’re into July now and still waiting. Read more: [https://www.wired.com/story/xiaomis-yu7-is-an-suv-sized-middle-finger-to-teslas-model-y/](https://www.wired.com/story/xiaomis-yu7-is-an-suv-sized-middle-finger-to-teslas-model-y/)

Engunnear 2025-07-01 14:53

I dunno... given the styling, I'd say it's a middle finger to Porsche's Design and Legal departments.

boogermike 2025-07-01 15:12

The interesting part of this story, is how quickly they iterated on their first version to produce this one.

Apprehensive-Box-8 2025-07-01 15:26

„Tesla will not fail because Tesla is a tech-company, not a legacy car maker.“ Well… now what? 😆

GoldfishTX 2025-07-01 18:25

Their SU7 is basically a ripoff of the Taycan so this checks out.

Underradar0069 2025-07-01 18:51

Xiaomi is not a car company. It is more of a marketing agency. The company is good at stealing from Apple, Uniqlo..:now Porsche and Tesla. They can only sell their stuff in China and third world countries bc of various IP issues. People are comparing shit to Apple literally

Underradar0069 2025-07-01 18:52

The cars are cheap bc they don’t have RD cost

2leftarms 2025-07-01 21:31

I want this car

Jonesy1966 2025-07-01 23:28

Xiaomi's entire China allotment has sold out for at least a year already.

[deleted] 2025-07-02 02:34

[removed]

neliz 2025-07-02 23:09

I hate the Chinese copying mentality as much as humanly possible, but saying their r&d is free is literally re*ded

Hi_Im_Ken_Adams 2025-07-03 01:27

Apple ripped off Xerox when they created the Mac. Microsoft ripped off Apple when they created Windows.

Purple_Xenon 2025-07-03 05:33

ferrari not porsche - [https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/auto/ferrari-purosangue](https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/auto/ferrari-purosangue)

Ok-Bill3318 2025-07-04 11:12

wtf is xiaomi? Not a tech company? 😂

Apprehensive-Box-8 2025-07-04 11:15

That’s what I was implying. Tesla bulls are always „but it’s a tech company, not a car maker.“ Now that argument has gone, too. Realistically had been gone since BYD entered the market, but Xiaomi is more widely considered a tech company.

za72 2025-07-05 03:49

unfortunately it's a tech company making cars... it's the myspace of car makers

btbtbtmakii 2025-07-09 16:57

It’s so good to be the underdog

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