Not just phones, Xiaomi also launches an SUV

Not just smartphones for Xiaomi. The Chinese company makes a splash with its electric SUV YU7, the crossover strongly inspired by the Ferrari Purosangue, and relaunches its challenge to Elon Musk's Tesla and its compatriot Byd. In the first 18 hours since pre-orders opened, the Beijing group collected 240,000, according to what was reported on one of its social accounts Sina Weibo.

On Thursday evening, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun announced on his personal account on the same platform that 289,000 initial orders for the YU7 were received in the first hour of sales. With a strong start, exceeding the market’s most optimistic expectations of around 100,000 units, Tesla may have to reduce prices to respond to the blow. And so could BYD, already in the crosshairs of national authorities for the price war.

The announcement of the car in its final form and ready for deliveries from the end of June came together with the launch of new devices, foldable smartphones and new smartwatches, to favor that integration that had also been hypothesized by Apple with the development of the iCar, then shelved. It is not clear when, but the electric crossover branded Xiaomi will probably also be available in Europe.