Xiaomi YU7 SUV Racks Up 289,000 Orders in Hour, Delivery Waits Hit a Year

Xiaomi Corp. has introduced its second electric vehicle, the YU7 sport-utility vehicle, pricing the five-seat model from 253,500 yuan (about US$35,360) — roughly 4 % below Tesla’s Model Y. The battery-electric SUV offers up to 835 kilometres of range, accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.23 seconds and uses an 800-volt architecture for rapid charging. Driver-assistance functions are powered by Nvidia’s Thor chip, and the car supports Apple CarPlay alongside Xiaomi’s XiaoAI voice interface.

Demand surged after pre-sales opened on 26 June. Xiaomi logged 200,000 paid orders within the first three minutes and 289,000 within an hour, far outpacing internal forecasts. The buying frenzy sent Xiaomi’s Hong Kong-listed shares up as much as 8 % to a record high of about HK$59, heightening competitive pressure on Tesla and other makers in China’s intensifying electric-vehicle price war.

The company is now grappling with fulfilment. Purchasers who placed the required 5,000-yuan non-refundable deposit are being told to expect delivery waits of 38 to 60 weeks, according to a Reuters review of Xiaomi’s ordering app and consumer-rights complaints filed since 28 June. More than 400 customers have sought refunds or clarification on tax incentives that expire this year. Chief Executive Officer Lei Jun has pledged to address the concerns in a livestream while the firm ramps up production at its Beijing plant and readies two additional factories to meet a 2025 target of 350,000 YU7 deliveries.