Xiaomi’s YU7 Gets 289,000 Orders in First Hour, Challenges Tesla

Xiaomi has done it again. Just three months after its Porsche-esque SU7 sedan shocked China’s EV charts, the Beijing electronics giant opened reservations for its second act—the YU7 electric SUV—and moved a jaw-dropping 289,000 units in the first hour of pre-sales. The stampede, confirmed by Bloomberg, rocketed Xiaomi’s Hong Kong–listed shares 8 percent to an all-time high and sent tremors through an already cut-throat Chinese EV market where Tesla’s share has slipped to roughly 6–7 percent this spring. 

Priced from ¥253,500 (about US $35,300 / £27,800 / €32,600 / ₦54 million at today’s rates), the YU7 undercuts the refreshed Tesla Model Y by ¥10,000 while boasting headline specs that read like a flex: up to 835 km (519 mi) CLTC range, a dual-motor 681-hp performance trim, and Xiaomi’s HyperOS cockpit that pairs instantly with the company’s 600-million-strong smartphone ecosystem. Reuters notes the SUV chalked up 200,000 paid deposits within the first three minutes—a tempo no legacy automaker has matched in China.

For shoppers in the United States and United Kingdom, the YU7 isn’t shipping any time soon—Washington’s 27.5 percent tariff and London’s right-hand-drive hurdles see to that—but the shockwave still matters. Tesla’s global growth narrative leans heavily on China for margins, and every home-market bruise forces Elon Musk either to cut prices worldwide or sweeten Full-Self-Driving subscriptions that already sell at a loss. German analysts fretted on Handelsblatt that Berlin’s Gigafactory output could face “second-order spill-downs” if Shanghai discounts continue to echo into Europe, while Norwegian EV blogs—always early adopters—are already debating whether Xiaomi’s promised Euro-spec export in 2026 could become the next Oslo taxi darling.

Nigeria’s young EV scene is watching for different reasons: at a landed cost south of ₦70 million, a crossover with 500-plus-kilometre range and fast-charge capability could finally tempt ride-hail fleets and corporate buyers away from grey-market Teslas that lack local service centres. Xiaomi has yet to formalise African distribution, but its Redmi phone dominance gives it an instant retail footprint from Lagos to Kano if it chooses to leapfrog to CKD assembly.

The investment community is equally dazzled. YU7 deposits translate to an order book of roughly US $10 billion—and that’s before Xiaomi reveals the rumoured single-motor budget trim slated for early 2026. Analysts at CITIC say annual YU7 deliveries could crest 360,000 units, enough to shave another full percentage point off Tesla’s China share unless the Model Y sees a fresh price cut or a long-awaited FSD rollout. For context, Tesla’s wholesale deliveries in China fell 15 percent year-on-year in May, and retail share dipped to 6.36 percent, its lowest since 2020.

Xiaomi founder Lei Jun framed the YU7 as the “people’s smart SUV,” echoing the company’s smartphone mantra of premium spec at honest pricing. Production will scale at Xiaomi’s Beijing plant—already capable of 350,000 cars a year—and a newly purchased adjacent plot suggests expansion is baked in. Supply-chain partnerships with BYD for blade batteries and CATL for 5C fast-charge cells mean volume ramp-up should dodge the bottlenecks that plagued Western EV launches.

Meanwhile, Tesla faces its toughest strategic squeeze since the Model 3 tariff war. China accounts for roughly a quarter of Tesla’s global revenue and remains its only export surplus factory. If the YU7 siphons away even a sliver of that demand—while BYD, NIO and Zeekr pile on their own “Model Y killers”—Tesla could be forced into another global round of defensive price cuts that Wall Street will hate or accelerated Autopilot feature unlocks that regulators might stall.

Not every preorder converts to a driveway delivery, of course. Chinese buyers are notorious for placing refundable deposits on multiple hot models before choosing. Yet Xiaomi’s deposit this time is non-refundable after 72 hours, and the firm says tens of thousands of “quasi-ready” units are already rolling off lines. That signals confidence—and capital—that few newcomers possess.

For now, one thing is clear: the smartphone maker’s freshman EV wasn’t a one-hit wonder. With the YU7, Xiaomi has weaponised price, range and brand cachet in a package broad enough to woo families, tech bros and taxi fleets alike. If Tesla doesn’t respond quickly, the “Model Y of China” title may belong to Xiaomi before Western consumers even get a chance to pronounce YU7.