Source: Xiaomi
We often refer to the term “China speed” when it comes to peak speed of execution. Xiaomi took that mantra to a new level, ramping up production to achieve 10,000 monthly deliveries in 3 months and 20,000 in 7 months.
In the automotive industry, this has never been done, even amongst the emerging brands like Li Auto, NIO, or Huawei’s HIMA.
Through the four months to September, Xiaomi had delivered between 13,000 to 14,000 SU7, which may suggest that the company has significantly expanded their production capacity to over 20,000 units and/or benefited from larger retail footprint.
Xiaomi also opened 11 new stores in the Month of October, reaching a total of 139 stores across 38 cities in China.
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The phonemaker plans to open 11 more in November, to reach a total of 150 stores.
The pace of this retail expansion is nothing short of “China speed” as Xiaomi only operated 90 stores in 30 cities at the end of Q2 2024.
In comparison, Tesla operated 407 retail stores in 97 cities across China at the end of Q2.
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Despite Xiaomi’s smaller footprint, it achieved over 20,000 vehicle deliveries not only through their current retail network, but also leveraged the more than 12,000 mobile phone stores, where some have their vehicles displayed.
Though they are not qualified to sell vehicles, those retail locations are strategic touchpoints to showcase the car and cover lower tier cities like fourth and fifth tier cities.
Since launch, the Xiaomi SU7 has been often compared with the Tesla Model 3 given that both are pure electric sedan within the same price segment.
Though Xiaomi has been selling extremely well, considering its first take at the automotive industry, the Model 3 leaped ahead in sales during September, delivering 23,998 Model 3 compared to 13,559 SU7.
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Xiaomi started delivering vehicles in April 2024 and has nearly sold nearly 70,000 cars YTD as of September. That figure should be north of 90,000 as of October.
Tesla Model 3 widened the sales gap in September from approximately 10,000 to 20,000 in September.
However, Xiaomi’s official announcement of having exceeded 20,000 deliveries in October lends to believe that this race is tightening.
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While October figures have yet been released, Deutsche Bank estimates that Tesla China has delivered over 34,000 vehicles in China through the first four weeks of the month (does not includes Oct 29-31).
However, Model Y will likely account for more than 50% of those sales.