Because a Chinese gadget manufacturer beat the apple on electric vehicles

Xiaomi produces all types of electronics, from robot vacuum cleaner to air conditioners, which are connected through its operating system and controlled in its app. The SU7 is, in a sense, only another gadget. It can use the data collected by other devices on the daily routine of a driver to determine the best time to load the car batteries.

“Xiaomi really started to infiltrate your home,” said Gary Ng, an economist with Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking. “Everything is connected together, and this is something that other companies could not do.”

While the SU7 gained Xiaomi only a small part of the sales of the best manufacturers of Chinese electric vehicles, puts Xiaomi among Chinese companies that are facing a hard blow to the long command of foreign car manufacturers on the Chinese market for Premium cars. In the year since the SU7 was put on sale, Porsche’s deliveries in China decreased by almost 30 %.

Thursday evening in Beijing, Xiaomi released a high -end version, the Upper Ultra, together with a premium version of its latest smartphone. The company organized a flashy teaser for the car running a prototype around the German Nürburgring track, where, said Xiaomi, set a record for “faster four -door sedan”.

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Xiaomi also plans to release a sports utility vehicle, the Yu7, this year, according to the regulatory documents in China.

Chinese electrical vehicles have benefited from billions of dollars in the support of the government, which helped them to obtain control of the supply chain up to minerals inside cars batteries. This first advantage has helped two Chinese companies, Byd and contemporary Amperex technology – known as Catl and added to the Pentagon of Chinese military companies in January – have become the major manufacturers of electric batteries in the world.

Xiaomi has used this supply chain to its advantage. His cars contain byd and catl batteries. He was able to quickly start production by taking control of a factory from the Beijing car group. Beijing construction workers are working all day in a second factory.

All this production capacity helps Chinese companies of electric vehicles to go from development to production in much less time than traditional car manufacturers in China, allowing them to quickly bring new models to the market and focus on the creation of software that can continuously update, said Stephen Dyer, head of Asia Automotive at Alixpartners, advice.

Intense competition at home has pushed many Chinese car manufacturers to flood the global automotive market with electric cars at affordable prices. Last year, Byd sold over 4 million new cars around the world.

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It is only a matter of time before the Xiaomi cars are on the road outside China, he said Dongshu, general secretary of the China Passenger Car Association.

Xiaomi’s popularity as a producer of all types of consumption electronics gave him a deep well of knowledge of the Chinese consumer preferences. The first day on which the Su7s were delivered, the buyers could go to the Xiaomi app store and obtain accessories to deceive cars, such as analog dashboard watches and a row of physical switches that stick to a touch-screen panel.

“The strength of the brand puts Xiaomi in front of many of their competitors,” said Le, CEO of consultancy until Auto Insights. “This is what you need to sell cars globally because it is not just a consumer product; it is an emotional product.”

Meaghan Tobin reported by Taipei, Taiwan; And Claire was from Seoul, South Korea.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.