Xiaomi YU7 shipments reached 6,042 units in the first month

Xiaomi has faced a problem that most carmakers can only dream of: its new YU7 electric crossover is in such high demand that now the main task is not to find customers, but to assemble and deliver the cars as quickly as possible.

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Xiaomi YU7 was unveiled on 26 June, and already in the first 72 hours, the company received, according to various reports, from 280,800 to 315,900 confirmed orders. But the July delivery statistics were much more modest: only 6,042 copies of the YU7 were handed over to customers, making it clear that most people will have to wait for a long time.

The main bottleneck is production. The first plant Xiaomi Auto is designed to produce 150 thousand cars per year. The second one, with the same planned capacity, was completed only in the middle of June and it has not started working yet. Even with full utilisation of both plants, the capacity will be just enough to fulfil the starting volume of YU7 orders.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the YU7 shares the assembly line with another popular model, the SU7 sedan, which is also in high demand. In July, 24,410 units of the SU7 were handed over to customers, and a total of 30,452 electric cars were delivered during the month. According to Chinese media, only about 10 per cent of Xiaomi customers changed their initial SU7 order to the new crossover, so instead of unloading one production bottleneck, Xiaomi got two at once.

For buyers, this means a wait of more than 10 months. During that time, newer, more technologically advanced models may come on the market, and incentives or tax conditions may change, and a car ordered today may seem outdated by the time you receive it.

Xiaomi has reportedly started asking some customers to pay the full price of the car upfront to weed out the least determined buyers and better manage the order list. The company's plan for 2025 is 350,000 cars delivered. It has already handed over 150,000 in the first half of the year, which means it needs to build and ship another 200,000 by the end of the year - an average of more than 33,000 per month. July was close to this target, but now all attention is focused on the new plant, which should reach its design capacity as soon as possible.

Source: Carnewschina