{"id":606684,"date":"2025-08-14T09:59:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T07:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=606684"},"modified":"2025-08-14T10:00:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T08:00:16","slug":"truth-about-smartphone-giant-launching-electric-car-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/606684-truth-about-smartphone-giant-launching-electric-car-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Truth about smartphone giant launching electric car in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Chinese technology giant Xiaomi currently has no plans to launch its SU7 electric vehicles (EVs) in South Africa, although it may bring one model into the country as a marketing showpiece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, MyBroadband and several media outlets reported that the company would launch its high-performance SU7 Ultra in South Africa, following a statement from Xiaomi South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two parts of the statement strongly suggested that the SU7 would be available in South Africa in the future:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Xiaomi South Africa will deliver the kind of engineering excellence and adrenaline-pumping innovation that fans are craving, not on the track, but on the road.<\/em> Enter the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, a fully electric smart vehicle that has already begun turning heads globally.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
The SU7 Ultra isn’t just an EV, it’s a symbol of where technology and performance meet, right here on South African soil.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
TechCentral subsequently reported that a spokeswoman from Xiaomi confirmed that the vehicle will be “coming to South Africa”. The only outstanding issue was timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MyBroadband followed up with Xiaomi South Africa to confirm more details. Xiaomi South Africa marketing executive Nonto Zulu said that there were currently no plans to launch the car locally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This could lead to some public misunderstanding, and I’d like to avoid creating any false expectations,” Zulu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The statement implies the car will be present in South Africa in some capacity,\u00a0likely for promotional purposes, but it does\u00a0not\u00a0confirm that it will be available for sale locally.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zulu said that Xiaomi has not committed to sales, dealerships, or local market rollout of the SU7. “Plans for official sales or availability are still under consideration,” Zulu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is possible that the vehicle will be used as a showpiece at Xiaomi’s launch events for other products or for general marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa also has a high-speed test track in the Northern Cape, which has been used by several major international automakers for endurance testing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A huge success in its home market<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The Xiaomi SU7 is a four-door fastback that was launched in December 2023. It has been an enormous success, considering it is the brand’s first car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SU7 racked up over 75,000 “locked-in” orders within a month of its launch. Nine months after orders opened, the number had grown to 248,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While most of these orders are from its home country, the SU7 has also drawn interest from the US. Ford had one unit specially imported for testing by its CEO Jim Farley, who was very impressed with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The top-end SU7 Ultra variant recently also made the news after clocking the fastest lap of any production EV or four-door production car on the famed N\u00fcrburgring Nordschleife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SU7 Ultra boasts a triple motor powertrain with 1,139kW power output and 1,770Nm torque, enabling it to accelerate from standstill to 100km\/h in a staggering 1.98 seconds and reach a top speed of 350km\/h.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For those more concerned about practical usage, the SU7 Ultra has WLTP range of 540km. With a maximum 490kW DC charging speed, the battery can be filled from 10% to 80% in 11 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xiaomi also recently launched a crossover EV called the YU7, which amassed an astounding 200,000 sales in three minutes. That grew to 289,000 units in an hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Xiaomi has shown solid growth in the South African market in recent years, providing a compelling offering in the automotive sector would be a very different challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most affordable version of the SU7 is priced at 215,900 yuan (R528,749) in its home market. The top-end Ultra is priced at over R2 million at current exchange rates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After import taxes and shipping, the cars are likely to cost roughly the same as other electric models currently available locally with similar performance specifications and features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xiaomi’s appeal in South Africa relies heavily on offering good value for money, and cars priced well over half a million rand might not resonate with that image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Xiaomi South Africa marketing executive has clarified the company’s plans for the SU7 in South Africa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":606650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29366],"tags":[90420,50033,40550,100991,1361,21201,82031],"class_list":["post-606684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-chinese-cars","tag-chinese-smartphones","tag-electric-vehicles","tag-nonto-zulu","tag-smartphones-2","tag-xiaomi","tag-xiaomi-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606684"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":606706,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606684\/revisions\/606706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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