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Mobile phone and electronics maker, Xiaomi (小米), launched its first electric vehicle last week.
At an event held in its Beijing factory on March 28, guests including founders of EV brands NIO (蔚来) and X-Peng (小鹏汽车), gathered as Xiaomi founder Léi Jūn 雷军 revealed the sporty four-door sedan SU7 ("SU" stands for "speed ultra").
The price of the car was decided only hours before the launch.
The base model of the 5,000 “Founder’s Edition” cars (创始版) is 215,900 yuan (around $33,000 USD). That's intentionally 30,000 yuan ($4,000 USD) cheaper than the price of a Tesla Model 3 in China, in a bid to demonstrate "sincerity" to customers, as Lei Jun explains:
Tesla is the pioneer and the global benchmark, so I've decided to drop the price by 30,000 to pay our respect. The decision made sense to many people, so that's how we arrived at this price.
特斯拉是前辈、全球标杆，我们先降3万为敬。这个定完价，大家觉得我讲的有道理，就这么干了。 [2]
And that’s despite Lei Jun’s claims that the SU7 is higher spec than its international competitor.
Xiaomi is well placed to enter a competitive market:
From day one, Xiaomi Auto has more than demonstrated its strengths in car design and manufacturing, smart technology, as well as its ecosystem. Amidst the brutal price war in the EV sector, veteran Lei Jun remained clear-eyed and set a price that hit the mark.
从整车、到智能，再到生态，小米汽车一问世就展现了长板够长、不留短板的强悍姿态。而在行业价格战踩踏之下，老将雷军保持了清醒，给出了一击命中的定价。 [2]
Xiaomi also made effective use of its tried-and-tested formula of creating and launching a brand:
"Traffic + design + quality control" (流量+设计+品控).
The SU7 is a culmination of three years of hard work. Lei Jun announced his plans in 2021:
On March 30, 2021, Xiaomi announced its plan to build cars. Lei Jun said, "I'll bet my entire reputation and achievements on car manufacturing." Three years later, it's clear he has meticulously implemented that plan.
2021年3月30日，小米宣布造车，雷军放话，将为造车业务赌上“所有声誉和战绩”，三年来，他进行了周密的操盘。 [2]
Xiaomi Auto is Lei Jun's last entrepreneurial endeavour.
He set aside $10 billion US dollars as cash reserves for the project.
And his launch of the SU7 certainly delivered.
Before the event had even finished, Xiaomi’s die-hard fans, known as "rice noodles" (米粉) in Chinese, a combination of "mi" (米) of Xiaomi, and "fans" (粉), were already buying.
Within 4 minutes, pre-orders of SU7 surpassed ten thousand units. 27 minutes later, the pre-orders surpassed fifty thousand. The industry marvelled at how "Xiaomi booked a factory's annual production capacity within half an hour". For other new-comers in the industry, this usually takes half a year or even longer.
小米首款车SU7上市仅4分钟，大定订单就破万；27分钟后，大定订单突破5万个。行业惊叹，“几乎半小时卖出了工厂一年的产能”，这对于其他新造车公司，通常需要半年乃至更久。[2]
A deposit of 20,000 yuan was required to pre-order the first 5,000 units, the Xiaomi SU7 Founder's Edition. A deposit of 5,000 yuan was needed to preorder other models. So Xiaomi cars generated over 300 million yuan ($47 million USD) in revenue in just under half an hour.
The launch of the SU7 was big news in China's business world, seeing Xiaomi achieve something that Apple, the company Lei Jun seeks to emulate, tried but failed to do.
The American firm scrapped it plans to build EVs this year.
Lei Jun bluntly stated that he would never make that decision. "I think this is a strategy that we should absolutely not let go of." [2]
雷军直言，他绝对不会做这个决策，“我觉得这是个完全不能放弃的战略。” [2]
But, there is still a long way to go for Lei Jun and Xiaomi. As one media commentator points out:
However, compared to Lei Jun's planned investment of 10 billion US dollars in car manufacturing, this amount [made on preorders] is merely a drop in the ocean.
但这与雷军准备的100亿美元对造车的投入相比，实属九牛一毛。
So, that’s what we are exploring this week!
Favourite Five
1. 米粉 mǐ fěn
Xiaomi fans
现在也是如出一辙，小米挟米粉之势从智能手机市场进入新能源的地盘 - Now it's the same story. Xiaomi, with the support of its fans, crosses over from the smartphone market to the EV sector. [1]
Related:
铁粉 tiě fěn - die-hard fan
2. 卷王 juǎn wáng
involution king, the most competitive one
汽车价格战还有比手机更卷吗，我们从小卷到大，我们才是卷王 - The EV price war is not going to be more brutal than that in the smartphone industry. We're used to competition and we're the king of it. [2]
Related:
内卷 nèi juǎn - involution
3. 九牛一毛 jiǔ niú yì máo
nine cows and one strand of cow hair; a drop in the ocean
这与雷军准备的100亿美元对造车的投入相比，实属九牛一毛 - Compared to the $10 billion investment Lei Jun has planned for car manufacturing, it's really just a drop in the ocean. [3]
4. 遥遥领先 yáo yáo lǐng xiān
far ahead, leading by a wide margin
在昨晚的小米汽车上市发布会上，他甚至激动地喊出了“遥遥领先” - At Xiaomi car launch event last night, he even excitedly shouted "way ahead". [3]
Note: This is one of our top phrases of 2023 made famous by Huawei. It's become an ironic phrase implying the opposite. Here it's used humorously.
5. 置之死地而后生 zhì zhī sǐ dì ér hòu shēng
to be driven to desperation and then make a comeback
最后只有5~8家能活得下去，我们第一天就已经是置之死地而后生了 - In the end, only 5 to 8 companies can survive, so we were already driven to desperation on the first day, but then we made a comeback. [3]
Note: Originally from Sun Tzu's Art of War (孙子兵法).
Consuming the Conversations
Useful words
6. 泥潭 ní tán
quagmire
实际上却还是在价格战的泥潭里混战 - In reality, Chinese car-makers are still trapped in the quagmire of price war. [1]
7. 碾压 niǎn yā
to crush, to overwhelm
小米造车就是借助流量对一向沉默的传统制造业实现碾压的一个写照 - The success of Xiaomi Auto tells the story of how it uses online traffic to crush the traditional car makers, which have remained silent. [1]
8. 必胜 bì shèng
assured success
确保雷军“必胜”的核心，依然是产品力、智能科技和米家生态 - Lei Jun’s confidence that Xiaomi Auto is going to make it still comes from its product strength, smart technology, and the Xiaomi ecosystem. [2]
9. 撞脸 zhuàng liǎn
to resemble, to look alike
外观上，小米SU7已经凭借“撞脸保时捷”率先出圈 - The uncanny resemblance of Xiaomi SU7 to a Porsche in design has attracted a lot of attention. [2]
Note: often used humorously or sarcastically.
10. 比肩 bǐ jiān
to be on par with, to rival
几乎以性能车定位，比肩比亚迪的小型车海鸥 - Xiaomi SU7 positions itself almost as a performance car, which rivals BYD's compact car, the Seagull. [2]
Related:
较量 jiào liàng - competition, contest
11. 跨界 kuà jiè
to cross boundaries, to enter a different field or industry
在汽车智能方面凸显出这家消费电子巨头跨界进入造车行业的技术优势 - The technological advantage of this consumer electronics giant crossing over to the automotive industry is shown in smart car technologies.[2]
12. 砸钱 zá qián
invest or spend heavily
配置高不是我比Elon Musk（特斯拉CEO）有能力，是我砸钱砸的 - It's not that I'm more capable than Elon Musk to provide better configurations; it's that I've spent a lot of money. [2]
Three-character phrases
13. 掀桌子 xiān zhuō zi
to flip the table
