The Xiaomi SU7 electric sedan is on display at Xiaomi’s regional headquarters in Nanjing in eastern China’s Jiangsu province.
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BEIJING – Shares of a Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi rose 16% on Tuesday, the first trading day since the company launched its SU7 electric car ahead of the Easter holidays.
Xiaomi’s Hong Kong-listed shares hit HK$17.34 on the day, its highest level since January 2022.
In a sign of how competitive the Chinese electric vehicle market is, Xiaomi announced late Thursday that the SU7 will cost about $4,000 less than Tesla‘s Model 3, and claimed that the new car would have a longer range.
As of Tuesday morning, the Xiaomi online store showed a waiting time for the basic version of SU7 of at least 5 months. The company said it received orders for more than 50,000 vehicles within 27 minutes of sales going live on Thursday at 10 pm Beijing time.
Chinese electric vehicle startups Shpeng And Nio announced on Monday vehicle purchase subsidies of 20,000 yuan ($2,800) and 10,000 yuan, respectively. Nio said the advertising deal follows the Chinese government’s policy efforts to boost consumption through trade-in.
The price cuts come amid signs of slowing growth in the number of new energy vehicles in the world’s largest auto market. According to the China Passenger Car Association, the penetration of battery-powered and hybrid passenger cars has exceeded more than a third of new cars sold in China.
Lee Auto, most of whose vehicles are equipped with a fuel tank to improve range, said on Monday it delivered 28,984 vehicles in March. Although this figure is higher than in February, it is lower than Li Auto’s recent streak of deliveries. At the end of March, the company cut its first-quarter delivery forecast by more than 20,000 vehicles.
Around the same time, Nio cut its first-quarter guidance by several thousand vehicles. The company said Monday it delivered 11,866 vehicles in March.
Last month, Xpeng delivered even fewer vehicles, 9,026 vehicles.
In contrast, Huawei’s new energy vehicle brand Aito said it delivered 31,727 vehicles in March.
BID remained an industry giant, with 139,902 battery-powered passenger cars sold in March and 161,729 hybrid vehicles sold during that time. BYD’s total passenger vehicle sales last month rose nearly 14% from a year earlier.