Customers who currently order the Xiaomi SU7 will have to wait for about 8 months for delivery.

(Image credit: Xiaomi EV)

The overwhelming waiting time may deter potential customers of Xiaomi's first electric vehicle (EV) model SU7, and the smartphone maker's CEO gave his recommendation for other models if they can't wait.

"If you are really in a hurry to buy a car, domestic new energy vehicles (NEVs) are good, for example, Luxeed S7, Nio ET5, Xpeng P7 series, you can also consider to buy," Lei Jun, Xiaomi's founder, chairman, and CEO, wrote on Weibo today.

Currently the capacity and delivery speed of Xiaomi SU7 is rapidly increasing, and the delivery of the standard and Max trims has already started early, he said.

Many order-holders have noticed in the Xiaomi EV app that the expected delivery schedule has been moved up, Lei said, adding that Xiaomi will detail its capacity and delivery plans at the Beijing auto show, which starts later this week.

The 2024 Beijing auto show will be held from April 25-May 4, with media days from April 25-26 and public days from April 27-May 4.

Xiaomi's booth is located at W203 in Hall W2 of the China International Exhibition Center (Shunyi), and this will be the company's first time at the auto show.

Xiaomi's media briefing at that auto show will begin at 9:20 pm local time on April 25, and the company will be responding to questions including how many vehicles it plans to deliver this year, when the City NOA driver assistance feature will be available, and when the first phase of its OTA program will be launched, Xiaomi EV said on Weibo earlier today.

Xiaomi officially launched the SU7 on March 28, offering three trims -- standard, Pro, and Max -- with starting prices of RMB 215,900 ($29,800), RMB 245,900, and RMB 299,900, respectively.

Deliveries of the standard and Max variants of customized cars will start at the end of April, and the Pro version at the end of May, the company said at the model's launch event.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi was offering a Founders Edition for the SU7, limited to 5,000 units, with deliveries starting on April 3, when Lei said the SU7 received more than 100,000 firm orders and more than 40,000 locked-in orders.

On April 18, Lei said in a video live streaming on short-form video platform Douyin that deliveries of customized vehicles of the SU7's standard and Max variants had begun in Beijing and Shenzhen.

That's 12 days ahead of Xiaomi's original plan to start deliveries at the end of April, with deliveries of the SU7 Pro still set to begin at the end of May, he said at the time.

The Xiaomi SU7 has set a number of records for domestically produced cars, with orders three to five times higher than previously expected, and the company was in full production, Lei said.

Customers who currently order the Xiaomi SU7 will have to wait about eight months for delivery, a wait long enough for potential customers to abandon the model in favor of others.

The current wait time for the standard SU7 is 29-32 weeks, 28-31 weeks for the Pro and 32-35 weeks for the Max, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.

Earlier today, Chengdu Economic Daily said in a report that salespeople at some Huawei stores were offering customers with orders for the Xiaomi SU7 a RMB 5,000 subsidy to get them to ditch Xiaomi's model in favor of the Luxeed S7.

Luxeed is an EV brand jointly created by Huawei and Chery, and the Luxeed S 7 is its first model, which was initially launched on November 28, 2023, and relaunched on April 11.

Some potential Xiaomi SU7 customers are considering other brands due to the long waiting time, Chengdu Economic Daily quoted a Huawei store staffer as saying.

"Once a customer reveals this situation, we will take the initiative to introduce the offer," the staffer said.

Huawei later said it was currently unaware of this, according to the Chengdu Economic Daily.

Xiaomi starts deliveries of customized SU7 cars, CEO says sales 3-5 times higher than expected

($1 = RMB 7.2435)