Xiaomi a Chinese smartphone brand company enter into a EV Market and releases Xiaomi SU7, A Next Generation EV with an interesting tagline “People and cars become one, my heart is surging”. Xiaomi will sell its first car for far less than Tesla’s Model 3, as price wars heat up in China’s fiercely competitive electric car market.
Design of Xiaomi SU7
Regarding the design of Xiaomi SU7, Xiaomi officially invited Chris Bangle, a leader in the previous generation of car design and the creator of the most classic BMW design language (the representative work of the first-generation Z4), to participate in the review and give opinions.
Li Tianyuan, the chief designer of Xiaomi Motors, the former chief exterior designer of BMW iX, and an old friend, also said in the press conference video: “We want to make a design that can stand the test of time.”
How To “Stand The Test of Time”?
That requires finding timeless elements. Xiaomi’s design team found two keys: Law of Nature and Human Intuition. The car is mobile, whether it is fuel or pure electric, whether it is mechanical or intelligent. Therefore, the shape of the car must follow the natural laws of fluid mechanics (or aerodynamics). Why do many people say that the appearance of Xiaomi SU7 looks like both a Porsche and an Aston Martin? One reason is that any car that runs fast wants to have as low wind resistance as possible and have sufficient downforce at high speeds. According to the laws of nature, the shapes that meet such needs are convergent.
Let’s take a look at several distinctive features of Xiaomi SU7’s exterior design:
- The body’s curved surface is rounded.
- The front of the car leans heavily.
- Beautiful back curve.
- Little cocktail.
- Wide shoulders.
Although Xiaomi SU7 is a car, its appearance design optimization goal is obviously towards an extremely performance-oriented direction. The actual wind resistance of this car has indeed reached a Cd value of 0.195, which is currently the lowest wind resistance among mass-produced cars in the world.
That’s the scientific part. There is a saying that design is the intersection of science and humanities. Then the humanistic part is another key to Xiaomi’s automobile design language: human intuition (Intuition). People’s aesthetic standards are a very mysterious proposition. But there are rules to follow. For example, we often think of animals that are highly consistent with fluid mechanics in nature as beautiful, whether it is a falcon flying in the sky, a swordfish charging rapidly in the ocean, or a grassland. A cheetah running at full speed.
Price of Xiaomi SU7
Xiaomi Chief Lei Jun said the standard variant of the SU7 will sell for 215,900 yuan ($30,408) in the nation — a cost he recognized would mean the organization was getting rid of every vehicle at a bad time.
Tesla’s Model 3 beginnings at 245,900 yuan in China. Recently, the Xiaomi President said via online entertainment the SU7 would be the best sedan “under 500,000 yuan” ($69,328).
CTB Integrated Battery
The CTB integrated battery technology recently released by Xiaomi has attracted widespread attention in the field of electric vehicles. This technology is based on CATL’s Kirin battery solution and achieves excellent performance through innovative design and efficient integration.
Xiaomi SU7 is equipped with two battery solutions. The Ningde era ternary battery has an energy density of 101kWh, and the system energy density reaches 157Wh/kg; while the other version of the lithium iron phosphate battery has 73.6 kWh, 127Wh/kg, and has fast charging capabilities and still remain competitive. The press conference did not go into details. At Xiaomi’s press conference, it gave a detailed explanation of the battery and disclosed the details of the system design, involving CTP/CTB and Kirin solutions. The system energy displayed this time reached 132kWh. This mature system is the first to appear in the industry. In a high system integration solution similar to Kirin, the value of 77.8% is very high.
Xiaomi’s CTB battery stands out for its excellent integrated efficiency, reaching an astonishing 77.8%. Through innovative designs such as two-in-one floor cover, battery inversion, multi-functional elastic interlayer and minimalist wiring harness, the overall integration efficiency has been increased by 24.4%. Two-in-one floor cover:
The starting system voltage is 871V (Umax), 198 cells, and the voltage of a single cell is 4.4V, which is the highest value in mass production of high-voltage medium-nickel system cells. This provides a solid foundation for the high performance of the battery system. The fast charging capability of Xiaomi SU7 is also a highlight, especially in low temperature conditions. At 10 degrees Celsius, it only takes 38 minutes to charge from 10% to 80%, which is better than Tesla Model 3 Performance. Mr. Reske also introduced more specific fast charging data: 220km charging in 5 minutes, 390km charging in 10 minutes, 15 minutes Charging 510km.
Performance and Detailing
If you look at the front of the car, you will find that the classic front-rear-drive side proportions, the longer L113, the very low front cabin, and the radial-shaped wheels further highlight the effect of the large wheels and the thinness of the front cabin.
A car with a high wheel-to-height ratio will resemble a ferocious cat, which is in a latent state before preying on its prey and can explode with lightning speed
The thin thickness of the front cabin enhances this sense of sportiness, and also enhances the visual sense of large tires. It also hints at high-performance suspension, because the general double-wishbone suspension allows the top of the shock absorber tower to be lower to achieve a lighter and thinner appearance. of the front hatch. The air outlet design at the door is a necessary function for high-performance cars to guide the airflow in the wheel arches.
This design basically only exists on high-speed cars and models equipped with high-performance brakes, and the top speed of Xiaomi SU7 is 265km/h. , equipped with high-performance calipers. Another detail is that the front calipers of the SU7 are rear-mounted, while the front calipers of the Taycan are front-mounted. The most ideal engineering aspect is that the steering is front-mounted and the brakes are rear-mounted, and the brake calipers are best located at 3 o’clock.
Accessories
Xiaomi SU7 is highly intelligent, and even though the car also has the popular interactive carriers such as large screens and HUDs, the interior design of SU7 still almost “stubbornly” retains a few physical buttons, such as temperature adjustment and air volume.
Xiaomi Auto has chosen a more conventional and simple form: a single large central control screen. The single screen is relatively traditional and simple, which is a tribute to Porsche; at the same time, this screen layout is obviously a tribute to Tesla. Du Miaomiao has a single large central control screen, and the screen material is very high: 16.1-inch 3K resolution, ultra-narrow bezel 91.7% screen-to-body ratio, and 16:10 golden ratio.
By DNC