Smartphone Maker Xiaomi to Start BEV Sales This Month

While Apple backs away from plans to enter the automotive market, Chinese smartphone and technology giant Xiaomi says it will begin deliveries of its first car this month.

Its much-trumpeted Speed Ultra 7 (SU7) battery-electric vehicle will be available in 59 stores in 29 cities around the country. Prices have yet to be announced amid an intensifying BEV price war in China between the largest players, BYD and Tesla.

BBC News reports the company says it will invest $10 billion into the automotive business over the next decade.

Xiaomi is hoping the car's shared operating system with its phones and other devices will attract existing brand customers. The SU7 will be made by a unit of state-owned automaker BAIC Group at a plant in Beijing that can produce as many as 200,000 vehicles a year.

Xiaomi's chief executive Lei Jun says the company aims to become one of the top five automakers in the world with the SU7 aiming to outperform Tesla and Porsche BEV products.