Driving Xiaomi’s Electric Car: Are we Cooked?

Summary

MKBHD reviews the Xiaomi SU7 Max, a $42,000 electric car from the Chinese tech company best known for smartphones and consumer electronics. After driving it for two weeks, he finds it delivers premium features typically found in $75,000+ cars, including a 101 kWh battery, 673 horsepower, 320 miles of range, exceptional software, modular interior accessories, and impressive build quality. While the car isn’t available in the US due to tariffs, MKBHD argues its existence raises the bar for the entire EV industry and demonstrates what’s possible when a tech company enters the automotive space without legacy constraints.

Highlights

”A $42,000 car that feels like a $75,000 car”

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“This is a $42,000 car that feels like a $75,000 car if it were made here in the US.” — Marques Brownlee, 13:55

”Navigation voice only in the driver’s headrest”

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“That never happens in this car because it separates out the navigation audio and puts it just in that speaker behind me while all of the rest of the music and the sound in the car continues uninterrupted. So as a driver I hear the voice saying turn left, turn right, but everything else, including the music for all the passengers stays sick. That is my favorite software feature I’ve seen in a car in a while.” — Marques Brownlee, 6:05

”One notch below Porsche”

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“This is not Porsche but it’s like one notch below that, which is still really good.” — Marques Brownlee, 10:03

”Normal car parts, but the integration is impressive”

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“It’s not that there’s any sort of crazy bleeding edge tech in this car that’s impossible to replicate… This is a car made of normal car parts, but it’s the putting them all together in one car that’s so impressive.” — Marques Brownlee, 14:17

”If this car was sold here, it would crush”

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“There’s basically no question in my mind that if a car like this was sold in the US that it would crush, of course.” — Marques Brownlee, 14:55

Key Points

The Xiaomi SU7 Max Specifications

• 00:34 - Introduction to the Xiaomi SU7 Max, which retails for approximately $42,000 (converted from Chinese Yuan)
• 01:18 - Base specs: 101 kWh battery, dual motor all-wheel drive, 673 horsepower, 320 miles of range
• 01:30 - Comparable to Tesla Model 3 Performance specs, which costs $55,000

Exterior Design

• 01:43 - Xiaomi isn’t a traditional car company, giving them freedom to take inspiration from various premium brands
• 02:08 - Headlights inspired by other designs, Lotus-style elements
• 02:16 - Rear styling resembles Porsche, thin bezels like Polestar
• 02:30 - Full rear end resembles Mercedes-AMG GT

Interior Features

• 02:51 - Interior is genuinely nice, not just “nice for a $45,000 car”
• 03:13 - Comfortable, heated, and ventilated leather seats
• 03:18 - Heated steering wheel resembles Porsche design
• 03:28 - Big bright HUD, small display behind steering wheel, 16-inch primary display
• 03:49 - Tasteful amount of real physical buttons for power, temperature, fan speed
• 04:02 - Air-cooled 50 watt wireless chargers (matching Xiaomi phone capabilities)
• 04:12 - Huge tinted glass panoramic sunroof
• 04:17 - Alcantara headliner throughout
• 04:20 - 25-speaker sound system with ambient lighting that syncs to music

Software Excellence

• 04:57 - Software described as “so good” - feels like what Apple might have done with a car
• 05:17 - Deep integration with Xiaomi ecosystem: wireless charger, screen mirroring, security cameras
• 05:37 - Also supports wireless CarPlay, described as the biggest, nicest CarPlay window seen
• 05:49 - Standout feature: Navigation voice isolated to driver’s headrest speaker while music continues uninterrupted for passengers

Modular Interior System

• 06:34 - Hidden mounting points throughout the car for modular accessories
• 06:48 - Mounting points in corners and center console extending to back seats
• 07:00 - Accessories include extra speedometer, magnetic car mount, USB hub for backseat passengers
• 07:14 - High-quality microphones for karaoke, long-range walkie-talkies for communicating with camera cars
• 07:27 - Unprecedented ability to customize interior hardware layout

Driving Experience - Comfort Mode

• 08:14 - Standard four-door electric car with dual personalities
• 08:25 - Default comfort mode rides super soft with excellent air suspension
• 08:46 - Smooth accelerator pedal response in comfort mode
• 09:00 - Highly customizable regenerative braking from full one-pedal driving to fully off

Driving Experience - Sport Mode

• 09:28 - One notch right on drive mode: everything turns red, displays power usage
• 09:43 - Sport plus mode: more responsive, heavier steering
• 10:03 - Handling described as “one notch below Porsche” - still really good
• 10:10 - Zero to 60 in under three seconds, launch control
• 10:27 - Handles on same level as Model 3 Performance or BMW i4
• 10:37 - “Wolf in sheep’s clothing” - has Porsche 911 Turbo level power without looking like it
• 10:57 - Active seat bolsters that hug during turns

Build Quality

• 11:15 - Build quality far exceeds $42,000 price expectations
• 11:20 - Exceptional sound isolation: no motor noise, road noise, or outside car sounds

Full Self-Driving

• 12:04 - Xiaomi’s full self-driving system (doesn’t work outside China)
• 12:09 - In China, works on almost all roads similar to Tesla FSD
• 12:20 - Handles obstacles well even on roads it’s not designed for

The Verdict: “Are We Cooked?”

• 13:44 - “Are we cooked? Not yet, clearly” - car not available in US
• 13:53 - $42,000 car that feels like a $75,000 car
• 14:15 - No bleeding edge proprietary tech, just excellent integration of normal car parts
• 14:42 - Rare combination: great features, build quality, versatility, range, and driving experience at this price
• 15:07 - Tariffs prevent US availability; Europe expected in 2027
• 15:18 - Competition from cars like this raises the ceiling for all EVs globally

Mentions

Companies

Products

People

Surprising Quotes

“This is a $42,000 car that feels like a $75,000 car if it were made here in the US.” — 13:55

“The navigation voice comes… That never happens in this car because it separates out the [navigation] and puts it just in that speaker behind me while all of the rest of the music and the sound in the car [continues]. So as a driver I hear the voice saying turn left, turn right, but everything else, including the music for all the passengers stays sick. That is my favorite software feature I’ve seen in a car in a while.” — 06:05

“This is not Porsche but it’s like one notch below that, which is still really good.” — 10:03

“It’s not that there’s any sort of crazy bleeding edge tech in this car that’s impossible to replicate… This is a car made of normal car parts, but it’s the putting them all together in one car that’s so impressive.” — 14:17

“There’s basically no question in my mind that if a car like this was [sold in the US] that it would crush, of course.” — 14:55

Chapters

Transcript

00:00 All right, so there are a lot of hot takes in the tech world and I see a lot of them and in articles all the time. And one of the most common ones is, you know, have you seen [Chinese EVs]? If they ever came to the US, they would cook everything. They are too good, they have too much tech and they are too cheap to compete with. And so I figured, I’d go find one and actually figure out if that’s true. And yeah, you could say there’s some bias here.

00:37 There are so many crazy things I’ve learned about this car but let’s just start with the basics. This car here I’ve been driving for the last two weeks is a Xiaomi. Yeah, that Xiaomi. So the Xiaomi that makes tablets, headphones, robot vacuums, printers, appliances, and smartphones. And they even have several variants referred to as the SU7, SU7 Pro, SU7 max, and SU7 ultra. So this here is the SU7 Max and this retails for about 299,900 Yuan which actually converts to about $42,000 which is gonna be a lot more impressive in about five minutes.

01:18 So base specs, this is a fully electric car with a 101 kilowatt hour battery, dual motor all-wheel drive, 673 horsepower, and 320 miles a range. Already those are specs of like a Tesla Model 3 performance, which today costs like $55,000.

01:37 Now looking around on the outside, it looks like a pretty reasonable car. I think a lot of people would agree. But that’s the thing, this is Xiaomi making this car and they’re not a car company, which means they don’t have any legacy design language that they have to pay homage to or any traditional lines and shapes that they have to keep around, which means a little less heritage, but also a little bit more freedom because I see them taking inspiration from the rest of the car industry in this car.

02:08 Like these headlights, for example, that is very much a modern sports car look and they have Lotus-like elements. And then as you get back, even more inspiration. Kinda looks like a Porsche if I’m not crazy. It has these thin bezels like the Polestar and then a thicker rear section which kinda looks maybe like a Taycan. And then there’s a fully lit rear end that kinda looks like a Mercedes-AMG GT. All of these are more expensive cars for more premium brands and so they kinda meld them together with this kinda unique purple color that honestly I think looks pretty good and we’re not even on the inside yet.

02:51 So the inside here is where they really start to impress. This is a nice car, not just in like a nice with qualifiers. Like oh this is nice for a $45,000 car. Or oh this is nice for a Chinese car. No this, this is a nice car.

03:07 It’s got this pretty clean interior layout again, bringing in inspiration from a bunch of different places. Like these are comfortable, heated, and ventilated leather seats. This heated steering wheel looks and feels a lot like a Porsche steering wheel to me with the shape and the simplicity and just a few buttons on it.

03:25 There’s a big bright HUD in front of me right in front and that’s right above a small display behind the steering wheel and then a 16-inch primary touchscreen. And then there’s storage everywhere. There’s here in the middle where they’ve also cleverly built in a mini fridge powered by the car’s battery. And believe it or not, a tasteful amount of real physical buttons.

03:49 There’s a power on off button right here. There’s temperature controls up and down, fan speed up and down at my fingertips. You can also put the wing up and there’s a lift height control because there is, of course, adjustable air suspension.

04:02 Up at the top there’s a pair of air-cooled 50 watt wireless chargers because you know if you got a Xiaomi car you might as well have a Xiaomi phone with 50 watt wireless charging to match. So those go up there. There’s also a huge tinted glass panoramic sunroof over my head. Very nice feature. The headliner is all Alcantara everywhere and there are 25 speakers in this car that sounds really good and ambient lighting that pulses to the bass of your music in the colors of the album art ‘cause it’s connected to the car and it just knows that type of thing.

04:36 And that’s not even mentioning the backseat experience of this car, which is also really nice. There are screens for the rear passengers ‘cause of course they are. I haven’t even driven it yet and it’s already feeling impressive.

04:49 But there are not one but two awesome things I’ve never seen in any other car. So, number one is the software. The software is so good. This feels like a preview kind of of like what Apple might’ve done if they made a car. I say that because it’s super polished and intuitive but also it’s a car made by a tech company.

05:17 And so, the car plugs right into the Xiaomi ecosystem in so many ways. There’s the wireless charger but also wireless screen mirroring. It connects to various other Xiaomi smart home devices like security cameras. You can sign into them with your Xiaomi account. So, everything from text messages to map directions are all integrated seamlessly.

05:37 And hey, if all else fails, this car also happens to have wireless CarPlay and it’s nice. I think it is the biggest, nicest window of wireless CarPlay I’ve ever seen.

05:49 I think probably my favorite software feature being incredible in this car is you see the speaker behind my head and when I’m driving and my phone is paired to the speakers in this car, you know that part where you’re listening to music and the music’s getting pretty good and right as the bass is about to drop, the navigation voice comes in and interrupts everything?

06:08 That never happens in this car because it separates out the navigation audio and puts it just in that speaker behind me while all of the rest of the music and the sound in the car continues uninterrupted. So as a driver I hear the voice saying turn left, turn right, but everything else, including the music for all the passengers stays sick. That is my favorite software feature I’ve seen in a car in a while.

06:34 So the software being excellent is one thing, but the second awesome feature is this: Because this is a modular interior because hidden around this car are a bunch of various mounting points for modular accessories. There’s one over here in the corner and another over here in the center all the way around the back seats.

06:55 And so, on these mounting points you can attach various accessories that Xiaomi makes like this extra speedometer or this magnetic car mount or this super useful USB hub that draws power from the car and can pass it along through a cable to passengers in the backseat.

07:14 There’s also high quality microphones for a karaoke experience, or even long range walkie-talkies if you need to maybe coordinate filming and communicate with the camera car. What other car does this? I’ve never seen the ability to customize exactly how much hardware or accessories you have in the interior layout like Xiaomi does.

07:35 I mean they’re not a car company clearly, but they’ve come up with creative ways to make the car uniquely your own. You can make it maximalist, you can do as much or as little as you want and that’ll of course add to the price but hey, that’s up to you. I think that’s pretty sick.

07:52 All of that is without even mentioning like the active noise cancellation, the quality of the speakers, all the other things that the software does really, really well and I haven’t even driven it yet.

08:14 So, this is obviously a standard issue, four-door electric car, right? But the superpower of electric cars is that they can have split personalities. That’s what makes these interesting.

08:25 So, in its default mode, it’s pretty nice actually. It rides super soft, it’s chill. The air suspension is fantastic. I feel like this is on the same level of absorbing all these bumps and the things on the road as like premium luxury sedans. Like this is really quite good and it never gets too unsettled.

08:46 The accelerator pedal, it’s not like super aggressive. It’s obviously the comfort mode so, you feel like you have plenty of power but it rolls it on nicely and eases off when you remove your foot.

09:00 And what a lot of other EVs don’t have is this really high level of control over exactly how that feels. Like there is a full on regenerative braking slider. You can move it to be a fully one-pedal driving experience all the way to a fully coasting experience. And then the lift off regen is smooth and assuring. This is a… You’d never have to take your foot off the accelerator if you never wanted to. This is a very reasonable thing to expect from a four-door electric car.

09:28 But there’s also a drive mode selector. If I just turn it one notch to the right, everything turns red, the display changes. I get my estimated range and my speed and how much power I’m using.

09:43 And then I rotate it again and it’s sport plus mode and all the settings max out and now all of a sudden the throttle response is way more responsive and the car feels more planted and the steering is definitely heavier.

09:55 So this feels much more like a sports car and it’s not quite on the maxed out level. Like I know people wanna compare it to Porsche. This is not Porsche but it’s like one notch below that, which is still really good.

10:10 It’s got all the EV party tricks, zero to 60 in under three seconds, launch control, and even a track mode where if you press the drive mode button, you get this crazy graphic on the screen and then that’s all of the car’s capabilities unlocked.

10:27 So obviously it does accelerate impressively with 600 plus horsepower, but it kinda handles on the same level of Model 3 performance or BMW i4. This is a really capable car. It’s kinda like a wolf in sheep’s clothing where you see it on the road and it doesn’t necessarily scream that has Porsche 911 Turbo level power.

10:49 And so yeah, it kinda, it has that confidence of being able to place the car exactly where you want and that is the superpower of electric cars.

10:57 Plus it’s got these active bolsters, the seats are hugging me in sport mode. So when I turn right, the left bolster like catches me a little bit. This is something those very high end sports cars have had and popularized for a while now. It’s a little weird, not gonna lie, but it just makes you feel more connected to the car.

11:15 It’s also become much more apparent how well built it really is. It does not feel anything like the $42,000 price tag might suggest. Like obviously the materials are one thing and you’ve got these leathers and these different contrasted materials, but also just in general, the cabin is remarkably quiet. I don’t hear motor noise, I don’t hear wind noise, I don’t hear other cars or road noise. Like I can verify that there are, there are noises out there but they don’t come in. It’s sick.

11:51 And then there’s the double pane glass on top of that. So, it just feels like a much more expensive vehicle just because it’s so well-built.

12:04 And you might have also noticed the LIDAR sensor right above me on the top of this car here because the other button is Xiaomi’s full self-driving, which doesn’t work on US roads but in China you have full access to it and those will take care of driving for you on almost all of the roads the same way something like a Tesla Model S with FSD would.

12:20 So I’ve turned it on on this road, this is a smaller single lane road and there’s all sorts of obstacles that it has to avoid and it handles that. It’s never really done anything dangerous or seem kinda weird and it’s not even designed for roads outside China. So, I imagine in China it would be even more impressive.

12:38 I’m honestly trying to find the downsides. Now that I’ve been living with this car and I’ve been driving it for weeks, I’ve driven and reviewed a lot of Chinese EVs the past couple years and usually the downsides are so obvious, like, oh, the tech is usually pretty bad, like the software is bad. But while this is Xiaomi, they make all this tech so everything is polished. The self-driving works, the displays are great, the integration is seamless.

13:03 And then all the EV fundamentals are there. It has the 300 plus miles of range, it has the quick charging and it has the split personalities. It has the super chill, calm cruiser mode and the 600 horsepower brutal zero to 60 in 2 1/2 seconds sporty mode.

13:21 And then on top of all of that it has luxury car qualities. Like it has all the sound isolation and all of the hardware quality and physical buttons and all of the premium materials. And it’s like this feels like a complete package which I guess conveniently brings me back to the title of this video.

13:44 So are we cooked? Not yet, clearly. This car is not available here in the US but you can see how we could be soon. I genuinely, I’m not exaggerating, this is a $42,000 car that feels like a $75,000 car if it were made here in the US and that’s the thing about the Xiaomi SU7, and that’s just this one model.

14:09 So really now that I’ve had a chance to import and drive this here in the US among all the other cars on the road, I’ve learned something. It’s not that there’s any sort of crazy bleeding edge tech in this car that’s impossible to replicate. Obviously the software is excellent and some of the features are kinda sick and we haven’t seen them before.

14:27 But like if you took this car apart, you wouldn’t find anything inside any like bleeding edge battery tech or anything that’s proprietary or secret. This is a car made of normal car parts, but it’s the putting them all together in one car that’s so impressive.

14:42 It’s not often you see a car with great features, great build quality, great versatility, great range, and a great drive all at this price point. Like, that’s pretty elite.

14:55 There’s basically no question in my mind that if a car like this was sold here at this price that it would crush, of course. The fact that it isn’t is because of tariffs and trade restrictions and there’s all the tariffs that’s super variable and we may never get a car like this in the US for $42,000, but Europe will allegedly get it in 2027.

15:18 And I would say that the silver lining is at least in a little bit of good news. The idea that the competition exists and that cars like this actually exists some other places in the world pushes everyone and heightens the ceiling for all EVs. It raises the ceiling up and makes everyone work harder to be more impressive and more competitive.

15:39 So lesson learned, it’s worth it to keep an eye on this space. If you want a more raw like daily living with this vehicle type of video, check out the Autofocus Channel where I shot a video on the SU7. Thanks for watching.

15:53 So hey, it is of course the holiday season and in case you missed out on any of those Black Friday deals, channel partner Ridge is still running some of their biggest sales of the year. So in case you missed out on some of that stuff from other brands who have shut down those sales now, we’re just still going. And you know, finding good gifts is hard. You wanna get something that people will actually use and not just like throw away.

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17:05 So if you’re still shopping for gifts or even yourself, head to ridge.com/mkbhd and continue to get up to 47% off. Thanks for watching. Catch you guys in the next video. Peace.