Tesla’s new competition in China, a cell phone company

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alarmguy

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Apple couldn’t do it but Xiaomi which is the massively popular Apple type phone company of China has done it.
First 36 hours of the SU7 car has 120,000 firm orders and production is now sold out for the year per Fortune Magazine. Car is only available in China right now.
I could be wrong, but I think they did this in three years.
I think entry point to build an electric vehicle will/is low versus one with the ICE

finance.yahoo.com

Smartphone maker Xiaomi switches from Apple to Tesla challenger as its first EV racks up 120,000 orders in 36 hours

"Many people ask me who the Xiaomi SU7 is built for. My answer is, isn't it time for Tesla Model 3 users to upgrade?"
finance.yahoo.com finance.yahoo.com

insideevs.com

Xiaomi SU7, China's Apple Car, Beats Tesla Specs At Chevy Bolt Prices

Xiaomi got 50,000 firm orders for the SU7 within the first 27 minutes of its reservation books opening.
insideevs.com insideevs.com
 
Body style looks pretty nice IMO. I see it's very aerodynamic to with a Cd of only 0.195 (at 39:35 in the video).
 
So this begs the question of why couldn’t Apple do it, but you claim this other company can?

Subsidies?
Tech theft?
Lack of concern for safety?
Lack of adherence to regulations?

Or is it just speculation that pre-orders of a vehicle indicate reality?
 
JHZR2 said:
So this begs the question of why couldn’t Apple do it, but you claim this other company can?

Subsidies?
Tech theft?
Lack of concern for safety?
Lack of adherence to regulations?

Or is it just speculation that pre-orders of a vehicle indicate reality?
Click to expand...
I'm sure the Chinese market is very different from ours when launching a car. Just a guess.

I do understand what you're asking here, just an observation. I still think Apple had no intention of releasing a car and it was all just publicity.
 
Torrid said:
I'm sure the Chinese market is very different from ours when launching a car. Just a guess.

I do understand what you're asking here, just an observation. I still think Apple had no intention of releasing a car and it was all just publicity.
Click to expand...
Maybe. Seems to make very little sense for a company that doesn’t have automotive as their core competency to do much with it… other than maybe some native integration like CarPlay.

But I don’t know that any other tech company has business pushing into this space either.
 
JHZR2 said:
So this begs the question of why couldn’t Apple do it, but you claim this other company can?

Subsidies?
Tech theft?
Lack of concern for safety?
Lack of adherence to regulations?

Or is it just speculation that pre-orders of a vehicle indicate reality?
Click to expand...
Maybe Xiaomi mission for building an EV was different from Apple. What was Apples mission for building an EV? What is Xiaomi's mission? We know Xiaomi has a massive cell phone infrastructure network.... hmmmmm..

We don't clearly know what TSLA's mission is. Is it to build EVs? Or are EVs simply a tool for TSLA to reaching critical mass in data collection of peoples movements? Is TSLAs mission to provide movement to people by a means that does not involve a human? Some have stated that the data TSLA collects on the movements of its vehicles is worth considerably more than the profit it makes from selling an EV.
 
JHZR2 said:
So this begs the question of why couldn’t Apple do it, but you claim this other company can?

Subsidies?
Tech theft?
Lack of concern for safety?
Lack of adherence to regulations?

Or is it just speculation that pre-orders of a vehicle indicate reality?
Click to expand...

Pretty sure there is some stolen secrets. Betting both Tesla and Ford….
 
GON said:
Some have stated that the data TSLA collects on the movements of its vehicles is worth considerably more than the profit it makes from selling an EV.
Click to expand...
Apple has 136 million iPhone users in the USA already. They can collect way more data than Tesla can and do not need cars to do so.
 
JHZR2 said:
Maybe. Seems to make very little sense for a company that doesn’t have automotive as their core competency to do much with it… other than maybe some native integration like CarPlay.

But I don’t know that any other tech company has business pushing into this space either.
Click to expand...

Sony is also giving it a try, but they were smart to hook up with an existing OEM, Honda.

Apple's car project was rudderless, and never had the leadership needed to define what its goals were in terms of producing an end product, and taking the necessary steps to reach it. In short, it didn't have a clearly defined mission. Company leadership didn't help by allowing it to flounder and not killing it earlier, despite the repated stops/starts and lack of progress.

But it could afford to write off the billions spent, and still recoup some of it by applying whatever it did learn on other products.
 
JHZR2 said:
So this begs the question of why couldn’t Apple do it, but you claim this other company can?

Subsidies?
Tech theft?
Lack of concern for safety?
Lack of adherence to regulations?

Or is it just speculation that pre-orders of a vehicle indicate reality?
Click to expand...
Yeah “ Apple couldn’t do it” is a strong statement we do not know the reason since they did not give one or even acknowledge the car.
Being they both worked on a car and both are a major player of cell phones in their respective countries I think a fair comparison. It is acknowledged and factual that Apple spent billions of shareholder money on EV technology most likely to produce or have Apple branded technology in a car and shut it down.

My feeling is the only valid question is subsidies which the USA offers massive subsidies. It shouldn’t be hard to find out if China did or does.
The other three are subjective to an individual and what is important to that individual.
Those three other questions can apply to any country and almost an empty accusation because it’s China?
 
Last edited:
alarmguy said:
Apple couldn’t do it but Xiaomi which is the massively popular Apple type phone company of China has done it.
First 36 hours of the SU7 car has 120,000 firm orders and production is now sold out for the year per Fortune Magazine. Car is only available in China right now.
I could be wrong, but I think they did this in three years.
I think entry point to build an electric vehicle will/is low versus one with the ICE

finance.yahoo.com

Smartphone maker Xiaomi switches from Apple to Tesla challenger as its first EV racks up 120,000 orders in 36 hours

"Many people ask me who the Xiaomi SU7 is built for. My answer is, isn't it time for Tesla Model 3 users to upgrade?"
finance.yahoo.com finance.yahoo.com

insideevs.com

Xiaomi SU7, China's Apple Car, Beats Tesla Specs At Chevy Bolt Prices

Xiaomi got 50,000 firm orders for the SU7 within the first 27 minutes of its reservation books opening.
insideevs.com insideevs.com
Click to expand...
Tesla is already cutting production output and plant shifts in China. Tesla has also released output info and according to them they are going to fall short on sales this quarter, and most likely this year even though other manufacturers are seeing increased sales. They are only sitting at 104,000 sales but last year sold 115-118k vehicles in the first quarter.
 
From what I know about the Apple project, it was more focused on software and autonomous driving than the actual car.

It is enormous risk to develop and sell and car, so I can see why Apple didn't want to do it.

Xiami said it cost 1.4 billion USD to develop the car. Thats the cost of developing and building in China. Doesnt seem cheap to me.

Chinese consumers also see cars more as tech products, rather than purely transportation/automotive. So it makes sense for Xiami to develop and sell a car.
 
alarmguy said:
Apple couldn’t do it but Xiaomi which is the massively popular Apple type phone company of China has done it.
First 36 hours of the SU7 car has 120,000 firm orders and production is now sold out for the year per Fortune Magazine. Car is only available in China right now.
I could be wrong, but I think they did this in three years.
I think entry point to build an electric vehicle will/is low versus one with the ICE

finance.yahoo.com

Smartphone maker Xiaomi switches from Apple to Tesla challenger as its first EV racks up 120,000 orders in 36 hours

"Many people ask me who the Xiaomi SU7 is built for. My answer is, isn't it time for Tesla Model 3 users to upgrade?"
finance.yahoo.com finance.yahoo.com

insideevs.com

Xiaomi SU7, China's Apple Car, Beats Tesla Specs At Chevy Bolt Prices

Xiaomi got 50,000 firm orders for the SU7 within the first 27 minutes of its reservation books opening.
insideevs.com insideevs.com
Click to expand...
Apple couldn't do it or didn't want to do it? There is a difference. I doubt the project would have met their rate of return targets. They tend to make a fairly high margin on the tech they manufacture and sell.

And I am no Apple fanboy, I don't personally own any of their devices, and have nothing invested in whether they did or didn't do a car. But I think it's false to say they could not do it. They could, but chose not to.
 
Apple hasn't done it, so far anyways. My guess is it was far harder than they figured on. Will they revisit the project? Probably not, but maybe. Your guess is as good as mine.

Regarding BYD, if Tesla needs to be worried, so does every other car company.
 
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