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China’s Xiaomi takes aim at Tesla, staking 23% lower price on premium SUV

Aggressive comparative pricing for SkyNomad series linked to Xiaomi’s 550,000-unit sales target this year, Deutsche Bank says

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Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun introduces the SkyNomad series during a launch event in Beijing on Thursday. Photo: AP Photo
Daniel Renin Shanghai
Xiaomi, one of Tesla’s biggest challengers in mainland China over the past year, has priced its newest cars at a 23 per cent discount to the US carmaker’s Model Y L SUV amid intensified competition in the country’s premium electric vehicle (EV) segment.
Beijing-based Xiaomi announced on Thursday that the five-seat N70 Max model under its new extended-range SkyNomad series would sell at 259,900 yuan (US$38,474), while the seven-seat N90 Max would start at 299,900 yuan, with deliveries of both models expected to start in September. Tesla’s Model Y L, built in Shanghai, starts at 339,000 yuan.

Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said at a launch event that the smartphone vendor and EV start-up had spent three and a half years developing its Kunlun architecture for assembling the new cars. He added that the new vehicles would have “off-road capabilities while offering users expansive interior space and flexibility in reconfigurable seating”.

“We attribute the SkyNomad series’ aggressive pricing to the company’s ambitious full-year volume target of 550,000 units,” Deutsche Bank said in a research note on Friday. “With only 180,055 units sold in the first half, Xiaomi needs to sell an average of 61,000 units per month in the second half of 2026 to reach this target.”

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