Xiaomi just revealed one of the most interesting EVs of the year

Xiaomi, the Chinese technology company best known for making smartphones and wearables, has revealed a new car. Called the SU7 Ultra, it’s an electric family saloon with the power of a Bugatti Chiron for under £60,000.

As you might have guessed from the smartphone-style naming convention, the Ultra is the flagship of the SU7 family. It looks similar to the Porsche Taycan, and will likely attract the same buyers given it’s also a four-door, five-seater EV. But unlike the Taycan, which starts at £86,500 for the base model and runs all the way up to £186,300 for the top-spec Turbo GT, the SU7 Ultra is about £56,800.

It is currently only available in China, but if Xiaomi follows the path of fellow Chinese EV brands like BYD, Ora and Nio, it could well land in Europe and the UK in the not-so-distant future.

As well as undercutting the Porsche, Xiaomi’s new EV delivers a much bigger punch. The Ultra is described by its maker as the “world’s fastest mass-produced four-door sedan,” and Xiaomi claims it produces 1,517 horsepower from its triple-motor drivetrain. That’s 3.7 times more than the base Taycan, and well above even the Taycan Turbo GT’s 1,020hp output. We’re talking Bugatti Chiron levels of horsepower here, for a car that can carry the whole family and costs the same as an MG Cyberster.

Xiaomi says the SU7 Ultra can hit 62 mph in 1.98 seconds – and that’s without the one-foot ‘roll out’ Tesla uses to measure its acceleration times, where the timer doesn’t start until the car has already traveled 12 inches. It also accelerates to 124 mph (200 km/h) in 5.86 seconds, and the top speed of the Ultra is a claimed 155 mph, some way short of the 190mph Taycan Turbo GT.

Sticking with the performance theme, Xioami says the car can complete two full laps of the 12.90-mile Nurburgring Nordschleife race track without any overheating of the battery and electric system, thanks to what’s described as a “track-optimised cooling system”. On top of the base price, Xiaomi is offering packs of optional extras, including the Racing Package and the Nürburgring Nordschleife Limited Edition. It says these will be available after a production version of the car has set an official time at the German circuit.

Helping the Ultra stand out from the regular SU7 is a front splitter and air dam, air curtains, an active rear diffuser and a fixed rear wing made from carbon fibre; all of this helps generate up to 285 kg of downforce, although Xiaomi doesn’t say at what speed that occurs. There’s also a carbon roof which Xiaomi says reduces weight by 11kg, and in all the material is found in 21 locations in and out of the car – including the nose badge, which also features the brand logo in 24K gold.

Xiaomi says the car has a range of 391 miles using the Chinese CLTC test cycle; a WLTP is likely to be slightly lower, but still well over 300 miles. The battery can charge from 10 to 8- percent in 11 minutes, the company says.

Inside, the SU7 Ultra has a large central touchscreen display that runs the Xiaomi HyperOS Smart Cabin operating system on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 chip. AN app called Racetrack Master can be used to record lap times and vehicle status during track days, including G force, steering wheel angle and braking force.

This all sounds deeply impressive, especially considering how Xiaomi has only been making cars since 2024. We’ll be interested to see if the Ultra lives up to its performance claims, and if Xiaomi has plans to bring it to Europe and the UK.