Tesla now sells just under two million new cars worldwide each year. Even if the 2024 vintage was slightly less good than that of 2023 and it will now be necessary to find new levers to continue its growth phase, the progress of this young automobile manufacturer created in 2003 commands respect since it now finds itself at the level of German premium brands in terms of sales volumes.
The real life of Tesla having only begun with the arrival of the Model S in 2012, its first “general public” vehicle after the very exclusive Roadster based on a Lotus Elise chassis, we can say that the American manufacturer has took seven years before exceeding 300,000 cars sold worldwide annually (83,922 vehicles sold in 2016, 101,027 in 2017, 254 530 in 2018 and 365,194 in 2019). So many years when Tesla flirted with bankruptcy, before finally making a profit. Exactly the kind of changeover that all young global electric car start-ups dream of, from VinFast to Nio, including many other Chinese brands or the Americans Lucid and Rivian, for whom the success of Tesla represents the absolute model.
Xiaomi wants to break everything
This is why the calendar maintained by Xiaomi currently commands respect. In 2024, only three and a half years after launching the development of its first electric car, the Chinese brand that we previously knew for its household appliance products has sold no less than 135,000 copies of its SU7 sedan. Impressive, knowing that it was initially targeting “only” 100,000 units.
And that’s not all: Xiaomi hopes to accelerate the pace in 2025. This year, the new Chinese car manufacturer aims the 300,000 units sold in total…just with the SU7 sedan! And from next summer, this sedan will be joined by the YU7 SUV, whose sales potential seems even better.
At this rate, Xiaomi could soon become a true giant in global electric automobiles. On the condition, of course, that its customers do not tire of its vehicles in a context of much fiercer competition than at the time when Tesla was beginning to break through. The brand currently only sells its cars in China, the world’s largest market for this type of car, where local electric vehicles are sold at extremely low prices thanks to huge public subsidies.
The Xiaomi SU7, which we have not yet been able to try, does not present any particular innovation on paper and is inspired by market references with careful technology and above all, industrialization already perfectly mastered in view of the claimed production figures (a point which had given Tesla a cold sweat during the previous decade). Xiaomi is logically working on the sale of its electric cars outside China but for the moment, we do not know when the brand will manage to organize their marketing in Europe and other main markets on the planet.
Will Xiaomi’s progress in the automotive industry be as rapid and spectacular as in telephony? We’re on track for that, but in only one market in the world for the moment.
