Customers ordering the Xiaomi SU7 will now have to wait about 3-7 months, with deliveries of the SU7 Max extended to mid-October.

(Screenshots from the Xiaomi EV App on March 31, 2024.)

Xiaomi (HKG: 1810, OTCMKTS: XIACY) has seen huge customer acceptance for its first electric vehicle (EV) model, the SU7, though capacity is becoming a bottleneck.

Since its launch on March 28, delivery wait times for the Xiaomi SU7 have continued to lengthen, with customers ordering the model now having to wait up to nearly seven months as the number of orders continues to grow.

The Xiaomi SU7 is available in standard, Pro, and Max versions, and as of this writing, they show wait times of 13-16 weeks, 16-19 weeks, and 25-28 weeks respectively on the mobile app of Xiaomi's EV arm, Xiaomi EV, the latest check by CnEVPost shows.

This means that customers ordering the Xiaomi SU7 now will have to wait about 3-7 months, with deliveries of the SU7 Max extended to mid-October.

In China's highly competitive EV market, too long a wait could lead potential customers to switch to other brands. Boosting production capacity is a big challenge that Xiaomi EV is currently facing.

Xiaomi officially launched the SU7 at an event on the evening of March 28 and started accepting customer orders at 10 pm on the same day.

The starting prices for the three versions of the SU7 are RMB 215,900 ($29,900), RMB 245,900, and RMB 299,900 respectively.

First deliveries of Xiaomi's SU7 customized vehicles will start at the end of April for the standard and Max versions, and at the end of May for the Pro version, the company said at the model's launch event.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi is offering a Founders Edition for the SU7, limited to 5,000 units at the same prices as the standard and Max editions. These vehicles have already been produced and customers will not be able to adjust the configuration, with deliveries set to begin on April 3.

Shortly after the SU7 began accepting orders, Xiaomi said the model received more than 10,000 firm orders in four minutes, 20,000 in seven minutes, and 50,000 firm orders in 27 minutes.

On March 29, Xiaomi said the SU7 received 88,898 firm orders in the initial 24 hours.

It's worth noting that Xiaomi counts orders with refundable deposits as firm orders as well, unlike other EV makers whose firm orders only include non-refundable deposits.

Over the weekend, Xiaomi EV's dozens of current sales stores were packed with visitors. Xiaomi shared several images on Weibo yesterday showing the dense traffic at the stores.

Xiaomi EV currently has 59 sales stores in 29 Chinese cities, with the goal of expanding to 211 sales stores by the end of the year, covering 39 cities, Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, said at the March 28 launch.

Xiaomi EV's factory is located in Yizhuang, Beijing, with an annual capacity of 300,000 units. The plant will be built in two phases, with annual production capacity of 150,000 units in Phase I and Phase II respectively, according to a previous announcement.

Xiaomi's EV plant currently has workshops including die-casting, stamping, bodywork, painting, general assembly and batteries, with a total capacity of 150,000 units, according to a report in the Securities Times today.

The plant can produce 40 Xiaomi SU7s per hour after completing its capacity climb, and can see a new car roll off the line every 76 seconds, according to the report.

Xiaomi EV plans to complete capacity creep by mid-2024, with production reaching more than 10,000 units in July, according to a report by another local media outlet, 36kr, on January 31.

Xiaomi may release SUV model by year-end, report says

(Image credit: Xiaomi)

($1 = RMB 7.2213)