Hundeds of customers queued up in long lines amid tight security at Xiaomi’s flagship store in Shanghai over the weekend looking to get their hands on Dear Utol (2025): Catfish Episode 46the electronics brand’s $29,881 Porsche-like EV, with some even getting to test drive the vehicle well past midnight. A sales executive told state-owned media The Paper that over 1,800 customers who visited the showroom made reservations for the SU7 sports sedan with a refundable deposit of RMB 5,000 ($692) over the past weekend, highlighting the strong demand for Xiaomi’s first electric vehicle. The report echoes an earlier announcement by Xiaomi chief executive Lei Jun, in which he said the company secured 88,898 pre-orders in the 24 hours following the launch of the all-electric car on March 28. This will account for roughly the total capacity of Xiaomi’s plant on the outskirts of Beijing this year, where the smartphone maker began volume production of the car in late February. [The Paper, in Chinese]
