- The Xiaomi YU7 is the SUV sister to the SU7 sedan.
- It will be able to travel up to 518 miles (Standard RWD), or accelerate to 62 mph in 3.23 seconds. (Max AWD trim)
- The YU7 is expected to open for reservations in July.
If you’ve ever wanted a Ferrari Purosangue and just didn’t have a spare $430,000 lying around, and maybe want total integration with your favorite smartphone, well, you’re in luck. If you’re in China, anyway. Xiaomi’s YU7 crossover EV is here to fulfill your greatest faux-Ferrari dreams.
Once, the Xiaomi SU7—hailed as China's Apple Car for its deep unification with Xiaomi's expansive tech ecosystem—changed people's perceptions of software-defined vehicles. Now, it's growing into an even bigger buyer base with a crossover variant.
Of course, we've already seen the YU7 weeks ago. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun took to social media earlier this year to unveil exterior photos of the thing. As of today, though, the car was officially launched, and we have far more pictures and details about this sporty EV. I do admit that these latest photos and details don’t look quite as Ferrari-inspired as the first pictures of the YU7 a few weeks ago.
The YU7 isn’t a small car. At 196 inches long (4,999 mm), this SUV is about 10 inches longer than the Tesla Model Y. It’s longer than both the Chevrolet Equinox EV and Blazer EV, just about matching the Cadillac Lyriq dimensionally. The Lyriq has a longer wheelbase than the YU7, though, but it’s still sizably long at a full 118.1 inches (3000 mm). It rides on the same platform as the SU7 sedan, called Modena. Yet, unlike the SU7 sedan, the YU7 has an air suspension.
This vehicle will come in three trims: the base Standard RWD trim, the mid-tier Pro AWD, and the Max AWD rounding out the top of the lineup. All three trims use variants of Xiaomi’s electric motor, cheekily named V6s.
The Standard RWD trim has one motor at the rear of the car, rated for 315 horsepower, which Xiaomi says is good enough to catapult the YU7 to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 5.88 seconds. The Pro AWD adds a front motor boosting output to 489 horsepower and dropping the 0-62 mph time to 4.27 seconds. The topmost Max AWD raises the output to 681 horsepower, and lowers the dash to 62 mph to a super quick 3.22 seconds.
Since the YU7 is larger and heavier than the SU7 sedan, the battery options are upsized. The RWD and Pro AWD both use a 96.3 kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery, good for 518 miles and 478 miles of range, respectively.
The performance-oriented YU7 Max loses its LFP battery for a nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery with 101.7 kWh worth of energy. This variant can travel up to 472 miles on one charge. Keep in mind that these range figures are on China’s CLTC cycle, which is generally a lot easier than the WLTP or EPA cycles.
Of course, the YU7 has the same full suite of Xiaomi-developed driver assistance features, and no doubt it will be as compatible with the brand’s optional user addons already available for the SU7 sedan.
Now, this car is incredibly important, and I think not just for China.
Sure, it’s not entirely clear when or if Xiaomi will actually export the SU7 and YU7 to foreign markets, but that doesn’t matter quite yet. The brand has already proved itself to be a reckoning force in a hyper-crowded EV market. Despite Xiaomi’s recent black eye because of complaints from owners about quality issues and a high-profile fatal car accident, it hasn’t really stopped the brand’s sales.
The SU7 sedan is consistently in the top five of new car sales in China. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said the brand has delivered a whopping 258,000 cars since the car was introduced a little over a year ago. That’s no mean feat, especially in a world where buyers overwhelmingly prefer crossovers and not sedans. The YU7 is poised to put a hurt on the whole EV market.
Especially Tesla. The Model Y refresh isn’t resonating all that strongly across the globe. Elon Musk’s controversial statements and political actions, and the whole “sell your Tesla” movement, have done significant damage to that brand’s standing. But, it seems like Tesla could count on China to be a secure failsafe, since China has been somewhat insulated from Musk’s controversy.
Gallery: Xiaomi YU7
I’m not sure that’s really possible here anymore. The YU7 looks to take everything people like about the SU7 sedan, but ported into a form factor that has more appeal to the general public. If the YU7 sells as strongly as the SU7 sedan, and it likely will, then I won’t see exactly how Tesla will fight back against that. Tesla certainly won’t be able to do it with the low-effort facelifted Model 3 and Model Y.
Xiaomi hasn’t released pricing of the YU7 yet, but I expect it to be within a stone’s throw of the China-spec Tesla Model Y, which starts at around $36,500.
Contact the author: Kevin.Williams@InsideEVs.com
