Xiaomi EV's retail will include a directly-managed system and leverage external forces in pursuit of ultimate business efficiency and user experience, an executive said.

(Xiaomi Group signed letters of intent with the first 14 sales and service partners on December 29 at its headquarters in Beijing. Image from Lu Weibing's Weibo)

Lu didn't elaborate, but the remarks imply that Xiaomi EV will build its own directly-managed sales stores and will also bring in dealers.

Most of China's new car makers have followed Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) lead in their sales model, adopting a direct sales model to sell their cars and aiming to provide a better customer experience.

However, that model is seen as requiring heavy investment and not agile enough as sales increase and competition intensifies.

Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) adopted a direct sales model at its inception with its first 20 stores.

In April 2019, a month after the company's first production vehicle, the G3, was delivered, it announced at the Shanghai auto show that it was opening up to dealerships and service providers. After that, Xpeng's sales system consisted of both directly managed and dealer stores.

In September 2023, local media reported that Xpeng it launched the Jupiter Project to recruit dealers. In October, Xpeng confirmed the program and said it had received more than 1,200 applications to join its sales system.

On September 14, LatePost reported that Nio approached a leading local dealer group in the first half of 2023 to do some trials for introducing a dealer model for its sub-brand codenamed Alps.

Back to Xiaomi EV, it officially unveiled the Xiaomi SU7 on December 28, where the SU stands for Speed Ultra.

The SU7 is a mid-to-large-sized sedan, measuring 4,997 mm in length, 1,963 mm in width and 1,440/1,455 mm in height, with a wheelbase of 3,000 mm. The size is larger than Nio's (NYSE: NIO) ET5 and Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model 3.

Xiaomi hopes to become one of the world's top five car makers in 15-20 years and aims to be one of the top-tier players in the smart driving space in 2024, founder, chairman, and CEO Lei Jun said at the launch of the model.

Xiaomi unveils its 1st EV model SU7, aims to be among top 5 automakers globally in 20 years