Xiaomi delivered 31,267 EVs in July, yearly target looks tricky

13 August 2026

Xiaomi's latest accounting problem feels like the company is trying to sprint up the escalator that is going down - let me explain. After storming out of the gate with the SU7 and YU7, the Chinese electronics titan now finds itself staring at a scorecard that does not look good. Delivering 31,267 vehicles in July sounds impressive, but that's only until you realize that we are 7 months into this year, and Xiaomi delivered only 216,322 so far.

Why "only"? That's because the company set itself a mighty goal of 550,000 deliveries before the year's end, and until the end of July, Xiaomi managed to achieve 39% of that target. This leaves them with 5 months to deliver the outstanding 61% - or 333,678 vehicles. That means Xiaomi has to deliver 2,195 cars every day from now on, well over twice as many as it managed in July. Can you see the problem yet?

Looking closer at the sales numbers reveals a worrying scenario playing out in Xiaomi's showrooms. The SU7 sedan found 21,044 new owners - a modest 3.1% gain over June. Unfortunately, the YU7 crossover seems to have lost traction altogether, with deliveries falling 28.6% month-on-month, down to 10,223 vehicles. If anything, it shows how hyper-competitive the Chinese EV market really is, with EV buyers trading in electric cars casually as if they were upgrading mobile phones.

It looks like Xiaomi's reliance on two EV models was never going to deliver the numbers. The math is painfully honest, and Xiaomi knew it was never going to get there with only two EV models. Which brings us to the latest, and most daring pivot yet in the company's short history - throwing the doors open to EREVs.

The new Sky Nomad series is Xiaomi's admission that pure battery electric power isn't the only key to dominating China's vast geography. The fresh EV line is built on the company's brand-new Kunlun architecture, moving away from the pure EV orthodoxy. Rather than leave drivers sweating over charging station queues on cross-country road trips, these new SUVs pair electric motors with a 1.5L turbocharged petrol engine acting as an onboard generator. This savvy shift away from battery purism toward what family buyers actually want might help Xiaomi get closer to its yearly target.

The flagship Sky Nomad N90 Max is a 7-seater monster measuring 208.1 inches in length, 78.7 inches in width, and 71.9 inches in height. Its 121.3 inches wheelbase dwarfs the Tesla's long-wheelbase Model Y, although the Li Auto L9 and Huawei's Aito are quite similar. The interior is where Xiaomi hopes to win new customers - flat floor across all three rows of seats, and a class-leading 76.3 inches rail system that lets two front rows slide around like living room armchairs are definitely standout features.

But the real jab at the competition is in the pricing structure. The flagship N90 Max starts at RMB 299,900 (£32,200), and the smaller N70 Pro drops the price to RMB 259,900. Put those prices against the likes of Tesla Model Y L, which starts at RMB 339,000, or the smaller Li Auto L6 at RMB 249,900, and you can see Xiaomi's game plan clearly - to undercut the established luxury offerings by a mile. Brutal, uncompromising, and let's hope effective.

As expected, picking up the bare-knuckle fight with the biggest players rattled the stock market. Investors are worried (and rightly so) that this is a much bigger task than Xiaomi can handle, and the shares tumbled 11% on the day of the Sky Nomad debut. Industry analysts worry about eroding profit margins, but observers at Deutsche Bank noted that Xiaomi had no choice - squeezing volume out of a Chinese market needs an aggressive pricing strategy.

Investors were selling Xiaomi, but EV buyers were buying into the new Sky Nomad narrative - according to many reports, Xiaomi already has over 100,000 orders for the SUV. On paper, it looks great, but again - it makes the target 550,000 deliveries even more difficult. The Sky Nomad deliveries are planned to kick off in September, leaving the company with only 4 months to make good on its promises.

Even if the production scales up without any hiccups, even if Xiaomi doubles its shifts, the workers will have to manufacture close to 75,000 vehicles every month from September. That's 2,500 EVs every day, seven days a week, 105 cars per hour or nearly two cars every minute. How tough is it? Tesla manages one car every 40 seconds at its Texas factory, GAC Motor does it in 46 seconds, and Toyota can make one car every minute. But the question isn't if it can be done - the question is: can Xiaomi do it in 4 months?

Via