Xiaomi received over 200,000 real orders for its Tesla killer in just 3 minutes

Xiaomi has confirmed receiving over 200,000 real orders for its Tesla killer, the YU7, in just three minutes. We are referring to actual orders, with a soon-to-be non-refundable deposit.

Today, Xiaomi launched its second vehicle, the YU7, coming just four years after establishing its EV division and less than a year after introducing its first car, the SU7.

For years, we laughed at the media calling every new EV a ‘Tesla killer’, but over the last few weeks, we have reported how the YU7 might be the first real one.

At the launch event, CEO Lei Jun was not shy about making comparisons to Tesla.

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While the CEO praised the automaker for its leading efficiency and ADAS system, Lei Jun released a series of slides that favorably compared the YU7 to the Model Y.

It started with a comparison of the entire dimensions of both vehicles (image translated via Google):

Xiaomi’s CEO then claimed that the new YU7 had a significantly quite cabin with much less road noises than Tesla’s best-selling SUV (image translated via Google):

In my first drive of the YU7, I did note that the cabin was ultra quiet and demonstrated it briefly in my Youtube video about the new electric SUV:

The double-panned acoustic glass all around helps with that, but the vehicle’s suspension is also optimized for noise, as well as active noise cancellation throughout the car.

Xiaomi also claimed that the vehicle, especially its electro-shading sunroof, was able to keep the cabin much cooler in extreme heat than Tesla’s Model Y (image translated via Google):

Lei Jun even shared a tweet that he posted about challenging Tesla Model Y’s best-selling crown and then truly went on the attack with pricing.

Ahead of today’s event Xiaomi had already shared a lot of information about the YU7, but pricing was the last significant piece of the puzzle.

The CEO decided to release with a direct comparison of each variant to Tesla’s own Model Y variant, and it was pretty brutal.

The base YU7 starts at just 253,500 RMB (equivalent to $35,300 USD) – 10,000 RMB less than Tesla, and it offers more than 200 extra km in range (image translated via Google):

As for the YU7 Pro, it starts at 279,900 RMB (equivalent to $39,000 USD), more than 30,000 RMB less than Tesla’s Model Y Long Range and it also compares quite favorably on the main features, including range (image translated via Google):

Finally, the YU7 Max was announced at 329,900 RMB (equivalent to $46,000 USD), 25,000 RMB less than Model Y Performance, and the specs are not even close:

With these incredibly favorable comparisons to Tesla’s best-selling SUV, it’s not surprising that Xiaomi has received record demand for the YU7.

It reported having received over 200,000 orders for the new electric vehicle within 3 minutes of opening orders at 10PM local time on Thursday.

It’s also important to note that these orders represent a genuine show of interest. This is not a Cybertruck situation where Tesla claimed to have over 1 million reservations, but ended up only selling about 50,000 units.

People ordering the vehicle need to place a 5,000 RMB (~700$) deposit, which only remains refundable for a few days before the order becomes locked in.

Xiaomi has already started production of the YU7 and made units available for delivery (with configurations limited to those pre-arranged by their designers) for almost immediate delivery.

Electrek’s Take

It’s hard to overestimate just how much this shook up the industry. At an average sale price of $40,000, that’s about $8 billion in sales that Xiaomi booked in 3 minutes.

I would expect the tally to increase past 400,000 in the coming days, and it will likely lock up a significant portion of potential buyers in the segment, particularly Model Y, for an extended period.

Tesla was already experiencing problems in China and had to offer record incentives to maintain its sales, but it will now face even greater challenges in the second half of the year.

I expect that Tesla will quickly launch its lower priced stripped down Model Y to try to help demand following this beating.