Xiaomi's EREV gamble pays off with 100,000 N70 and N90 reservations

It has only been five years since Xiaomi decided to go into the auto business, and when a smartphone titan said it wanted to build cars, legacy carmakers offered a patronizing smile. But when Xiaomi rolled out the SU7 sedan and followed it up with the YU7 crossover, those smiles faded fast. Now, the tech giant is pulling off its most intriguing shift yet: stepping into the EREV arena with the brand-new Skynomad series. And if the frantic traffic clogging up showrooms from Beijing to Shanghai is any indicator, the luxury SUV establishment is about to get a serious migraine.

I've covered enough vehicle launches to spot genuine customer frenzy versus clever marketing illusion - and this is not smoke and mirrors. Reports from Xiaomi's 499 direct-sales stores across China reveal a proper pre-order stampede. Sales staff in Beijing got a single-day peak of 4,800 deposits on August 2 alone, pushing the regional Beijing-Tianjin tally past 30,000 pre-orders. Nationwide estimates suggest Xiaomi has already bagged well over 100,000 deposits since opening the order books last week.

Sitting atop the brand's fresh "Kunlun" architecture is the Skynomad N90, a massive seven-seat family cruiser carrying a pre-sale sticker of RMB 299,900 (around $44,100). It is 208.1 inches long, 78.7 inches wide, and 71.9 inches tall, with a 121.3 inches wheelbase. Inside, Xiaomi engineered a completely flat floor structure that provides oodles of legroom in the second row - enough for passengers to stretch out completely.

Throw in four available zero-gravity massage seats and a motorized center console with a 0.32 ft³ compressor fridge, and you have a cabin that feels more like an executive lounge than a standard SUV - all for a price tag that barely buys a stripped-out European compact elsewhere. If you want to know more about the N90, here's our closer look at it.

To grasp where the N90 fits in the broader SUV landscape, you have to park it next to its main targets. The reigning king of Chinese family EREVs, the Li Auto L9, is 205.4 inches long - making Xiaomi's N90 a whole 2.64 inches longer while offering a wider, flatter cabin floor than both the L9 and the Aito M9. The smaller five-seat Skynomad N70 enters the ring priced at RMB 259,900 (roughly $38,200). Measuring 195.3 inches in length with a 116.1 inches wheelbase, the N70 wants to square up against Li Auto L7, which stretches 198.8 inches long. The L7 holds a slight edge in total bumper-to-bumper length, but Xiaomi's clever packaging gives rear passengers cavernous legroom without needing a bus driver's license to park.

The new Kunlun platform pairs electric drive motors with a turbocharged 1.5-litre petrol engine that acts strictly as an onboard power generator. Buyers can choose battery packs ranging from 52 kWh to 76 kWh, joined by a 2.12 ft³ fuel tank. You get all the instant torque, slick acceleration, and quiet refinement of an electric car - with 415 horsepower going wild when you plant your right foot - without the lingering anxiety of hunting down a working fast-charger on a holiday road trip.

Taking 100,000 deposits is a huge win, but turning them into deliveries without burning down the factory is a different sport entirely. Xiaomi learned a painful lesson with the YU7 - long waiting lists pushed customer goodwill to the limit (in many cases, way past it).

This time around, the company isn't taking any chances - production of the Skynomad series is already ramping up at Xiaomi's expanded second-phase manufacturing base in Beijing well ahead of the official September launch. Store representatives are telling early buyers that their keys will be handed over before the end of the year - an important promise if Xiaomi wants to keep buyer enthusiasm from cooling off.

The pressure on this launch comes from basic math. Xiaomi locked in an aggressive annual delivery target of 550,000 vehicles for the year. Between January and July, the brand delivered approximately 220,000 units of the SU7 sedan and YU7 crossover, averaging roughly 30,000 monthly deliveries. To hit that half-a-million-plus milestone by December, Xiaomi must up its monthly output to around 45,000 for every one of the remaining months. The Skynomad series will have to do the heavy lifting to pull the entire company across its lofty finish line.

Whether you are a traditional car nut skeptical of tech giants making cars or an EV enthusiast watching the market evolve, Xiaomi's rapid rise is fascinating to watch. They are moving at software-update speed in an industry defined by glacial five-year product cycles. If legacy automakers weren't taking smartphone brands seriously before, 100,000 pre-orders in seven days should shake them wide awake.

Via