One to watch: Xiaomi SU7. China's EV giant is coming for your garage

You might know Xiaomi as the company that makes affordable smartphones. But if you haven't been paying attention to what's happening in the Chinese EV market, prepare to have your expectations recalibrated, because the Xiaomi SU7 is the kind of car that makes you stop and ask whether the established order is about to be shaken up. Again.

Electric cars have form for this. Tesla rewrote the rulebook a decade ago, convincing the world that an EV could be fast, desirable, and genuinely cool. Now autonomous taxis are edging onto our streets, software is eating the car industry, and disruptors are arriving from every direction. Just when you think you've got a handle on where things are heading, something comes along to move the goalposts. The Xiaomi SU7 is the latest something, and it is well worth paying attention to.

What is the Xiaomi SU7?

Launched in mainland China in 2024, the SU7 is a C-class luxury electric sedan, think sleek four-door grand tourer. Built around performance, technology, and an interior that punches well above its price point. It comes in three variants: the standard SU7, the SU7 Pro, and the range-topping SU7 Max, with a wild card at the very top of the range that we'll get to in a moment.

The design is genuinely striking. A drag coefficient of just 0.195 puts it among the most aerodynamically efficient road cars ever made, and the exterior carries clean, flowing lines with a compact ducktail spoiler and distinctive halo taillights at the rear.

The SU7 Ultra: 1,548hp for the price of a family hatchback

Here's where things get genuinely extraordinary. The SU7 Ultra (the top-tier variant) uses a tri-motor setup producing 1,548hp and 1,770Nm of torque. For context, that's around 500hp more than a Tesla Model S Plaid, widely considered the benchmark for hyper-fast electric saloons. Independent reviewers have described its road presence as "pretty striking" and noted the interior; with Alcantara on the steering wheel and roof, carbon fibre on the centre console, a rotating digital dial display and a huge heads-up display. It feels more high-class than a car that costs £55,000.

That price? Approximately £55,000 in the Chinese market. Even accounting for import costs and right-hand-drive conversion challenges, it raises an obvious question: could this become the best value-for-money performance car in the world?

The Porsche Taycan is the natural benchmark here. It's the car that proved you could have a genuinely driver-focused, luxury electric saloon, and it starts at around £83,000 in the UK, rising steeply for the Turbo and Turbo S variants.

The SU7 Max, meanwhile, offers 510km of range recovered in just 15 minutes of charging, figures that compare very favourably with Taycan's leading rapid-charging capability. The SU7 matches the Taycan's brief of a technology-forward luxury cabin with genuine performance credentials.

The tech story

Xiaomi's real differentiator might not be horsepower at all, it's the ecosystem play. The SU7 supports over 1,000 Xiaomi smart home devices, comes with a 16.1-inch 3K central screen, a 56-inch HUD, and an 11-camera advanced driver assistance suite built on the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin platform. Xiaomi tablets can be connected as expansion screens, creating what the company calls a five-screen linkage inside the cabin. For tech-forward buyers, this is genuinely compelling.

Should UK buyers be paying attention?

Right now, the SU7 is only available in mainland China, so if you're looking to lease today, the Taycan remains the performance EV saloon of choice in the UK. But the direction of travel is clear. Chinese manufacturers are producing cars of extraordinary specification at prices that European brands simply cannot match on a like-for-like basis, and the SU7 is among the most polished examples yet.

Watch this space. The SU7 is exactly the kind of car that could reshape the premium EV leasing market in the next two to three years. When it does arrive in Europe, it will be a very serious conversation starter.

Interested in leasing a performance EV today? Check out our latest Porsche Taycan lease deals for the best available rates.