Citi analysts in a research note earlier this month expected the SU7 to deliver around 55,000 to 70,000 units for the full year.

(Image credit: Xiaomi EV)

A Xiaomi (HKG: 1810, OTCMKTS: XIACY) executive is disputing a Wall Street research note that pegged Xiaomi EV's first model, the SU7, to deliver up to 70,000 units this year.

Citi Research analysts in a research note earlier this month expected the SU7 to deliver about 55,000 to 70,000 units for the full year.

Based on projected sales of 60,000 units this year, Citi expected SU7 could generate a net loss of RMB 4.1 billion yuan ($567 million), or an average loss of 68,000 yuan per vehicle.

Those predictions were picked up by multiple Chinese media outlets today and have sparked widespread discussion, despite the note's April 2 release date.

A Xiaomi executive disagrees with the forecasts, saying Citi was underestimating the potential for the Xiaomi EV to deliver this year.

The information in this report by Citi analysts may be quite a bit out of line, Xiaomi's special assistant to the chairman of the board of directors and deputy general manager of China's marketing department, Xu Jieyun, said in a Weibo post today.

The research note, from April 2, may have underestimated the hot sales of the company's SU7, Xu said.
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He added that orders for the Xiaomi SU7 have continued to increase over the past few weeks, and that Xiaomi EV is also working on boosting deliveries as much as possible.

Xiaomi officially launched the SU7 on March 28 and said the model received 88,898 firm orders in the first 24 hours.

The SU7 is offered in three variants -- Standard, Pro, and Max -- with starting prices of RMB 215,900, RMB 245,900, and RMB 299,900, respectively.

Deliveries of the SU7's limited Founders Edition began on April 3, with Xiaomi founder, chairman, and CEO Lei Jun saying at the time that the model had received more than 100,000 firm orders and more than 40,000 locked-in orders.

The limited 5,000-unit Founders Edition vehicles are already produced and customers cannot customize the configuration. Deliveries of customized vehicles would begin in late April for the standard and Max Editions and in late May for the Pro edition.

Due to the high volume of orders and limited factory capacity, customers currently ordering the SU7 standard and Pro versions will have to wait 26-29 weeks for delivery, while the Max version shows a wait of 28-31 weeks, according to information monitored by CnEVPost.

Xiaomi EV's factory, located in Yizhuang, Beijing, has a planned annual capacity of 300,000 units and will be built in two phases, according to a previous announcement.

The first phase of the plant was completed in June 2023 and will have an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles. The second phase is scheduled to start construction in 2024 and is expected to be completed in 2025.

Xiaomi EV has asked suppliers to increase production capacity to match the 10,000-unit monthly production, with higher priority given to higher-end trims, according to an April 2 story in local media outlet Yicai.

Under the original production plan, Xiaomi EV would produce more than 3,000 units per month by March, growing to 4,000 to 5,000 units by April, and thereafter stabilizing at 6,000 units by the end of the year, the report said.

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