I had the chance to test drive the Xiaomi YU7 ahead of its launch today in China, and I came out of the entire experience both impressed and frustrated.

Let me try to explain why, and also why Western automakers are scared of these new Chinese EVs.

When I was a kid, I remember asking my dad why good-looking vehicles, like exotic supercars, cost so much more than regular cars. In my childish innocence, while I could understand that more performance and higher quality materials cost more, I couldn’t wrap my head around why automakers couldn’t make average performing cars with regular materials but with more aggressive and cooler designs.

My dad tried his best to explain the concept of scarcity and the limitations of different form factors in achieving higher sales volumes, but we ultimately agreed that automakers could technically produce more affordable vehicles with better, more aggressive designs.

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Of course, concepts like manufactured scarcity are complex to understand as a child, but the thought did stick with me that a company could mass-produce great exotic-looking cars for more reasonable prices.

That’s basically what Xiaomi is doing now.

One of Xiaomi’s taglines is “make innovative technology accessible to everyone.” That sounds like corporate talk, but I have to admit that it is living up to it with its electric vehicles. I’m not as familiar with its electronics, but I am hearing it’s a similar situation.

The company is facing criticism for the SU7’s resemblance to the Porsche Taycan, and now the YU7’s similarity to the Ferrari Purosangue is undeniable. However, you can’t tell me there’s no market for an all-electric Purosangue with actually higher performance, better tech, more utility, and for a tenth of the price?

That’s basically what the Xiaomi YU7 is and more.

Ultimately, every great car design is heavily inspired by other vehicles. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun has been spotted driving the Purosangue, Ferrari’s latest $400,000 performance SUV, and it sounds like he thought: “Wouldn’t be nice if this were all-electric, with Xiaomi tech, and more affordable so hundreds of thousands of people could experience it?”

It turns out that, yes, it would be nice.

Xiaomi YU7 electric SUV Specs

Xiaomi is calling it an “SUV” due to the true meaning of the word: “sport utility vehicle,” but it doesn’t look like your average SUV.

When you lift the air suspension to the max (3″ of travel), it does look like more like one, but most of the time, it looks like a sporty wagon, which I love.

Xiaomi hasn’t been shy about going after the Tesla Model Y with the YU7, which is not a bad target considering it’s the best-selling vehicle in the world. The goal is drawing a lot of comparisons, so here are the dimensions compared with Tesla’s SUV:

As you can see, it is about a foot longer than the Model Y, 3 inches wider, and a little shorter.

It’s also quite a bit heavier, but that’s because it’s equipped with a significantly larger battery pack.

Tesla doesn’t officially disclose the capacity of its battery pack, but in the latest Model Y, they are estimated to be about 62 kWh for the base version and ~80 kWh for the long range version.

As for the YU7, it features a 96 kWh battery pack with LFP cells from BYD in both the standard and Pro versions.

The YU7 Max, the version I tested, is equipped with a 101 kWh battery pack with NMC battery cells from CATL.

The result is that the base YU7 achieves 835 km of range on a single charge, while the Max version achieves 760 km. The base version is equipped with a single RWD motor, making it the most efficient and therefore, the longest range.

Here are all the ranges of the different variants compared to Tesla’s own CLTC range in China:

The CLTC standard is based on the average driving cycle in China, which is more city driving-based than most other markets, and the range would be slightly lower on the WLTP or EPA cycles.

It is a heavy vehicle, but Xiaomi countered that with significant energy capacity. In my experience with the performance electric SUV, you could easily get 500 km of highway driving on a single charge with the Max as long as you don’t go too much over the speed limit.

I looked at the energy stats of the YU7 Max that Xiaomi let me test, and it had consumed 1,113 kWh over 4,868 km:

However, the vehicle had been used as a press car, with people, including myself, driving it quite aggressively up and down mountain roads, mostly in “sport mode,” for the last week.

Even then, it still achieved an efficiency 4.3 km per kWh. I could see the efficiency improve by double digits if driven more normally, with a higher mix of comfort or eco modes, and with the smaller wheels.

But if I only get a few hours with a vehicle, I’m likely to spend most of my time in sports mode.

If you run out of range, charging can be extremely fast with the YU7. Xiaomi claims a 5.2C peak charging capacity, which on the highest capacity chargers will result in charging from 10 to 80% state-of-charge in 21 minutes for the variants with LFP cells (Standard and Pro) and only 12 minutes for the Max, which is powered by NMC cells.

As for the YU7’s power capacity, here are the different motor variants:

Again, I can only discuss the Max version, which was the one available to us during the press test drives ahead of the launch.

Here’s my video that goes into details about the Xiaomi YU7:

Xiaomi YU7 Driving Impression

A little further down, I’ll talk about all the technology, connectivity, and user interface in the YU7. As Xiaomi is known for its consumer electronics, I had high expectations in that regard, and I was confident that they would impress me.

The vehicle aspect is where I had more doubts, but I kept an open mind. After all, Xiaomi didn’t even have a vehicle division 5 years ago, and now they have the best-selling premium sedan in the world’s largest auto market.

As I write this, I haven’t had the chance to test the SU7, but I’m trying to get some time in the vehicle before leaving China. Talking to other journalists who have driven it, I’m told that it is a fun and impressive vehicle to drive, but that Xiaomi has also managed to make significant improvements and refinements with the YU7 in a short period of time.

The YU7 is heavy, but with the Max’s more than 500 kW powertrain, the weight disappears instantly when you need to go. The vehicle feels solid and planted to the road, thanks to its low center of gravity, especially at the lowest suspension setting.

Speaking of the suspension, it features a double wishbone in the front and a 5-link independent setup in the back, paired with standard air suspension, which adds 3 inches of adjustable height. For this price point, it’s hard to beat.

We mostly drove the car up and down mountain roads about 3 hours outside of Beijing. I couldn’t reach anywhere near the car’s 253 km/h (157 mph) top speed, but I was able to experience some cornering and handling, and the suspension’s active dampening was useful.

A documentary crew has been following me on my travels in China, and they attempted to film me in a Land Rover Evoque equipped with a crane camera. However, the SUV kept overheating before reaching the top of the 4-km hill climb, whereas the YU7 managed to complete the climb repeatedly all afternoon without issue.

The battery cooling system would be a bit loud, but you would only hear it from the outside, as the cabin isolation is incredible in this car. Xiaomi used double-paned glass everywhere, complemented by active noise canceling. It is exceptionally quiet, which is a big part of a luxury car experience in my book.

Another thing that I’ve found extremely impressive with the YU7 is the level of customization. Even something as simple as regenerative braking can be customized. You have a low, normal, and custom mode. In the custom mode, you can choose to have regen braking anywhere between 0 and 100%. At 100%, it is pretty much one pedal driving.

You can also customize your own driving mode with a ton of different options, including your power distribution from front to back, making the dual motor Max variant a RWD vehicle if you want:

I suggest watching my video about the YU7 for more details on customizing the driving modes.

The head-up display is also highly customizable. It’s not a typical HUD like augmented reality projecting onto the windshield – something the Xiaomi SU7 is equipped with.

The YU7 is instead equipped with a meter-long display that appears to be mounted deep into the dash. It’s an interesting feature that’s genuinely well-implemented. You can set it up to have your instrument cluster information on the driver side, and the position of the display, which almost appears to be floating between the dash and the windshield, is right at the bottom of your field of vision when driving.

The advantage is that everyone inside the car can actually see, unlike an augmented reality heads-up display. With the level customization, it can be useful to all passengers – although primarily the front passenger.

The high level of customization, both at the software level and at the accessory level, makes me feel like YU7 owners could really tune the vehicle to their liking over time, and your experience would get a lot better over the first few months as you learn more about the car.

At the accessory level, Xiaomi even offers a seamless add-on that snaps at the bottom of the main display to add analog buttons for climate control and a media volume dial.

The seats are perforated, ventilated, and extremely comfortable. Both front seats have massaging functions as standard, and they can lie back into zero-gravity position. Yes, even the driver’s seat.

The level of comfort is pretty impressive for a vehicle in that price range.

There’s also a lot of room in the back seats, which are also reclining, albeit not as much as the front seats, but they still go back to 135 degrees:

From the back seat, you can also access an optional mini fridge that fits under the center console. There are also optional mounting systems for tablets to fit behind each of the front seats.

Since Xiaomi has many smart home devices, YU7 owners can also purchase magnetic customizable buttons that can snap onto the center console or the B pillars and they can link into the Xiaomi app to initiate functions inside your car or your home if you have smart devices.

Honestly, there are too many tech and connectivity features in this car to list them out, but I do go through a lot of them in my video review.

The last piece of tech I’ll discuss is the ADAS system, which it is Xiaomi HAD. Xiaomi has packed the YU7 with an impressive ADAS hardware suite that includes one roof-mounted LiDAR with a 200-metre (660 ft) range, one 4D mmWave radar, 11 cameras, and 12 ultrasonic sensors, and uses an Nvidia DRIVE AGX Thor-U chip capable of 700 TOPS.

Xiaomi is not talking about achieving unsupervised self-driving capabilities with this yet, but it is future-proofing with the extensive hardware suite and this is currently only sold in China, which currently doesn’t allow level 3 and up automated systems in consumer vehicles.

We were able to test the current level 2 capacity, which includes automated lane changes on the highway, traffic-aware cruise control, and lane keeping, to a level similar to what I’ve experienced with Tesla Autopilot.

They even have a feature in beta that lets you see what the lidar sensor sees around the road in real-time.

The ADAS system also provides all the active safety features that you expect from a modern vehicle.

While it’s too early for the YU7 to have a safety rating, the SU7 had the highest overall score for any vehicle tested with the 2024 standards in the C-NCAP safety testing results.

For the YU7, Xiaomi developed its own ultra-strong steel alloy to reinforce several parts of the vehicle:

We won’t know until there’s indepent crash testing, but Xiaomi appears to be confident that the YU7 will perform well in those.

Xiaomi YU7 Pricing and availability

I drove the YU7 almost a week ago now, but we had an embargo until the launch event today, and Xiaomi didn’t want to elaborate on the price until CEO Lei Jun took the stage.

However, we had a fairly good idea based on the SU7 pricing and Xiaomi’s apparent attempt to target Tesla’s Model Y in the Chinese market.

Here’s the Xiaomi YU7 pricing per variant:

• YU7 Standard: 253,500 RMB (equivalent to $35,300 USD)
• YU7 Pro: 279,900 RMB (equivalent to $39,000 USD)
• YU7 Max: 329,900 RMB (equivalent to $46,000 USD)

As for availability, deliveries are starting now. I visited the factory yesterday and I saw hundreds of them coming out of it.

For now, the vehicle is only available in China, but Xiaomi is aiming to expand globally starting in 2027.

Electrek’s Take

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, this was a frustrating test drive because I came out so impressed with this vehicle that I was frustrated knowing there’s no chance I or my friends in Canada and the US could buy it anytime soon due to ridiculous protectionist measures.

Honestly, I would trade my Model 3 performance in a heartbeat for a YU7, but that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. I’m so impressed, I’m looking into ways to import it in Canada myself.

The form factor is incredible and works beautifully with the design. It packs 100 kWh of energy capacity, which is unprecedented for a vehicle in that price range.

Then, you have an incredibly fast-charging capability, and the vehicle is loaded with tech and connectivity features, all backed by an exceptionally smooth user interface. It’s a hard deal to pass on.

Finally, you add that it is packaged in a fit and finish that is on par, if not better than, what we have come to expect from premium automakers from the West.

Considering how quickly Xiaomi was able to ramp up production of the SU7 to over 30,000 units per month, and despite this, it still has a wait time of over 30 weeks for delivery, even though it is only sold in China, I wouldn’t be surprised if the YU7 becomes as popular, if not more so.

I think it will put a lot of pressure on other premium midsize SUVs in China, especially the Tesla Model Y.

The Xiaomi YU7 embodies why Western automakers are so concerned about Chinese EVs and have lobbied for tariffs on them. They can’t compete with this. At least, not now.