Xiaomi sold over 30,000 cars in August, and demand exceeded supply
Xiaomi Electric Vehicle Co., the electric vehicle division of the Chinese tech giant, announced that its August deliveries once again surpassed the 30,000-unit mark. This is the second consecutive month the company has achieved this impressive figure, building on the impressive success of its first models on the market.
Although Xiaomi, as usual, did not announce its exact sales figures for August, it confirmed that they were still in line with July, a month in which it also surpassed 30,000 units. According to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), the specific figure for July reached 30,452 units, a 19.61% increase compared to 25,459 units in June.
This astonishing sales rate is largely due to the massive success of its latest launch, the Xiaomi YU7, the company's first electric SUV and a direct competitor to the Tesla Model Y. After its launch on June 26, the YU7 received 200,000 fixed orders in the first three minutes and surpassed 240,000 orders in the first 18 hours.
This massive influx of orders has led to what many consider a "blessed problem": its factories are unable to meet the increased demand. The situation has reached the point where customers reserving the YU7 today face waiting lists of up to 56 weeks, more than a year, according to information displayed on Xiaomi's electric vehicle app. Lei Jun, CEO and co-founder of Xiaomi, even went so far as to recommend the competing cars to anyone looking to buy a car but unable to wait that long to receive it.
In an effort to mitigate this situation, Xiaomi has already begun a large-scale hiring process for the second phase of its Beijing factory, aiming to ramp up mass production as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the company is still struggling to meet demand, which has far exceeded even the most optimistic expectations.