Xiaomi’s entrance into the EV market has been one of the stories of the year. The #2 smartphone seller in the world decided it can make electric cars as well — and as well as anyone — and it seems it was right. The Chinese EV marker stormed onto the market and the latest news is that it has indeed reached its 2024 target — 130,000 EV sales — in just 9 months (the first Xiaomi EVs were delivered at the end of March).

Xiaomi SU7 and Xiaomi YU7.

These are all its first model, of course, the SU7, which starts at RMB 215,900 ($29,600) despite looking like a $100,000+ car. The model was actually unveiled on this day one year ago, December 28. Who thought at the time that it would shoot out of the blocks like a rocket and achieve 130,000 sales by today? Frankly, we didn’t even cover the unveiling. So many new EVs and new EV companies have had announcements in recent years. We don’t cover or even catch them all. However, it’s evident now we should have put a spotlight on this one.

Xiaomi SU7.

Xiaomi is already making big money on its EV, and it looks like this is one company that isn’t going to struggle too hard to make its EV division a profitable business. Xiaomi founder, chairman, and CEO Lei Jun said at the SU7 unveiling that he wanted Xiaomi to be one of the world’s top 5 auto manufacturers. A year ago, I might have thought that’s ridiculous. Today, well, I can definitely imagine it happening.

Initially, Xiaomi planned to sell 100,000 cars this year. Given how far the company has blown that target out of the water, I think we should take any Xiaomi plans or forecasts quite seriously. Is there another automaker on the planet more primed for growth than Xiaomi?

Xiaomi is now working to bring an SUV to market, the Xiaomi YU7. Given how popular SUVs are in today’s market, I expect it to sell extremely well. Could Xiaomi reach a quarter of a million sales in 2025? That would be a ridiculous first full year of sales, but it seems do-able.

While all of the company’s success has been in China to start, the global smartphone maker is already working on expansion plans into Europe, if not elsewhere. China accounts for about half of the world’s electric car sales, but Europe is the second largest EV market by far. Of course, Europe is dozens of companies, not just one, complicating things. However, overall, if Xiaomi can get a foothold in Europe and gain brand appreciation, that would provide a big boost to the company’s huge aim to become a top 5 automaker globally. We’ll be tracking the company closely, in China as well as Europe, and anywhere else it starts to sell its electric cars.