Xiaomi’s first electric car has been spotted on the streets in China. These are the very first images of the manufacturer’s electric car. As you can see, this is a fully camouflaged pre-series model.
As you may know, it’s been more than a year now since Xiaomi formalized the existence of its first electric car. For the moment, we know that it will be an electric sedan whose release is scheduled for 2024.
Thought as a direct competitor to Tesla and its Model 3, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun mentioned a selling price of less than $40,000. More precisely, the invoice will be contained between 12,000 and 38,000 euros excluding tax.
Regarding the technical characteristics of the car, we still know very little, apart from the fact that it should offer autonomous driving features. To do this, the Chinese firm intends to use the Xiaomi Pilot, a system designed by the firm and based on LiDAR. In addition, a report from the Chinese site 36kr claimed in August 2022 that the car will be able to reach 1000 km of autonomy on a single charge, via a new Qilin battery developed by CATL.
Xiaomi’s electric car spotted in China
However, at the time of writing, Xiaomi has still not presented its electric car with great fanfare. Nevertheless, a user on Weibo has shared some photos of what appears to be Xiaomi’s electric car, in a fully camouflaged pre-production version.
“It would be a fully camouflaged Xiaomi car, with a LiDAR on the roof, another LiDAR on the left rear side of the car, with yellow brake calipers and a line somewhat similar to that of the Xiaopeng P7″ , writes the author of the publication.
As a reminder, Xiaomi is not the only high-tech brand to want to enter the electric car market. On January 5, 2023, Sony presented Afeela, a brand new electric car designed in partnership with Honda. The Japanese firm lifted the veil on this ambitious project at CES 2023 in Las Vegas. For the moment, little information has leaked about it, except that it will be equipped with level 3 autonomous driving capabilities, while its launch is scheduled for 2026.