On April 1st at noon, the Xiaomi SU7 Founder Edition reopened for sales, and two minutes later the booking page showed it was already sold out. Some netizens posted on social media stating they had managed to snatch one of the Founder Edition vehicles from this additional sale.
Xiaomi Auto stated that the Founder Edition is a limited edition of 5,000 vehicles launched in appreciation of the “Mi Fans”, offering seven exterior colors, and two options: standard and Max. What makes it unique is the metal label “Founders Edition” on the body, an exclusive number plate on the steering wheel, and a gift box.
The previous evening, Lei Jun, founder, chairman, and CEO of Xiaomi, posted a message stating, “In the ordering process of the Xiaomi SU7 Founder Edition, some abnormal orders and scalper orders were identified and intercepted, hence the surprise second round of additional sales.”
It’s understood that the deposit for the Founder Edition is 20,000 yuan (approx. $3,154), and it is non-refundable. One hour after the conclusion of the Xiaomi SU7 launch event, the Founder Edition vehicles were sold out, meaning Xiaomi Auto only received 100 million yuan (approx. $15.77 million) in deposits for the Founder Edition that evening.
Subsequently, it was revealed that Xiaomi internally distributed F-codes to employees who registered interest via text message. This code allowed them to prioritize ordering the SU7 Founder Edition regardless of whether it was sold out. That evening, several people were reselling the F-code on second-hand e-commerce platforms, with prices ranging from several thousand to ten thousand yuan.
The price range of Xiaomi SU7 is between 215,900 yuan and 299,900 yuan (approx. $34,076 and 47,315 respectively), and the standard version is over 30,000 yuan ($4726) cheaper than Tesla Model 3. The vehicle’s popularity continued from before the launch to after it, with orders exceeding 50,000 just 27 minutes after the launch. Within 24 hours, there were 88,900 orders, and there was a constant stream of people in offline stores.
On the launch night, scalpers had already put the new car transfer orders on the aforementioned second-hand e-commerce platform, with transfer prices varying from several tens to hundreds of yuan.
The production issues behind the hot order volume are also noteworthy. It is reported that the Xiaomi Car App shows delays for Xiaomi SU7 delivery times, some orders have been postponed to about half a year. Among them, the standard version is expected to be delivered in 13 to 16 weeks, while the longest wait is for the Max version, which requires 24 to 27 weeks.
Regarding production capacity, Xiaomi auto’s factory is built in two phases. The first phase, which has been completed and put into production, has an annual production plan of 150,000 vehicles. The second phase is still under construction and is expected to be completed next year.
