There's a moment, somewhere between the third and fourth corner on a private test track, when 1,526 horsepower stops feeling threatening and starts feeling manageable. That moment, according to InsideEVs' first test drive of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, comes surprisingly quickly — and that might be the most revealing thing about this car.
The SU7 Ultra is Xiaomi's flagship performance saloon, and on paper it reads like a spec sheet designed to end arguments. Three permanent-magnet motors — two high-revving V8s on the rear axle, one V6 at the front — produce a combined 1,526 hp and 1,305 lb-ft (1,769 Nm) of torque. It covers the 0–62 mph sprint in 1.98 seconds and reaches a claimed top speed of 217 mph (350 km/h). A 93.7 kWh CATL battery pack provides a CLTC-rated range of 391 miles (630 km) — though real-world range under hard track use will be substantially lower.
The car that sorts itself out
What surprised the reviewer most was not the raw acceleration — it was the car's composure during dynamic driving. "This car is fantastically easy to drive," the tester concluded. "It could be the easiest car to drive hard that I've ever experienced." Throw the SU7 Ultra into a corner with too much speed or too much throttle, and the car — in the reviewer's words — "kind of sorts itself out." The traction control and adaptive suspension work in tight coordination to keep the car stable without killing the driver's confidence or the entertainment.
That accessibility is a deliberate engineering choice. Xiaomi's chassis team optimised the SU7 Ultra specifically for the Nurburgring Nordschleife, where it set a production EV lap record of 6 minutes 46.874 seconds in 2024. Track-tuned aero — including functional brake cooling ducts — and carbon ceramic brakes rated to 2,300°F (1,260°C) are part of the track package that brings the as-tested price to around $88,000 (approximately €80,000 at current exchange rates). The base SU7 Ultra starts at roughly $75,000 — about €68,000.
The price context matters enormously
To understand what Xiaomi has achieved, compare those numbers with the European market. A Porsche Taycan Turbo, which is slower off the line and has less than half the peak power, costs over €180,000 in most European markets. A BMW i4 M60 — genuinely quick, with 536 hp — costs around €75,000 in Europe, offers one-third the peak power, and is approximately two seconds slower to 62 mph. The SU7 Ultra is not just fast for the money. At its price point, it is in a class of its own.
The battery discharge rate alone tells a story: the 93.7 kWh pack is capable of a peak 1,330 kW discharge — more than 14 times the pack's energy capacity in one second. That is an engineering feat that, until recently, only dedicated motorsport programs could claim.
What it means for European drivers — and for the industry
The SU7 Ultra is not currently sold in Europe. Xiaomi's automotive division is still building its presence in China and has not announced a European launch date. But that may only be a matter of time. The company sold over 200,000 SU7 units in its first year on sale, moving faster than any other new EV brand has managed at scale.
European performance car buyers are watching China more carefully than ever. The SU7 Ultra is a direct demonstration that Chinese manufacturers can now engineer vehicles that are not just technically impressive but genuinely engaging — cars that reward drivers rather than simply overwhelming them. The steering was noted as the one area that could use more feedback, but that is a refinement issue, not a fundamental flaw.
For the established European performance brands — Porsche, BMW M, Audi Sport — the SU7 Ultra represents something new: not a threat from below, eating into volume sales with budget EVs, but a challenger from above, questioning whether their pricing still reflects their engineering advantage. The honest answer, based on this test, is that the gap is narrowing faster than anyone predicted.
Regenerative braking as a performance tool
One underreported aspect of the SU7 Ultra is its regenerative braking system, which is capable of up to 400 kW of energy recovery. That figure is not just about efficiency — at those levels, regen becomes a genuine braking force that track drivers can exploit as a performance tool. Combined with the carbon ceramic discs, the car's braking system is built for repeated high-speed stops without fade, something that rules out many performance EVs from serious track use.
Xiaomi's approach with the SU7 Ultra — building a performance car around a fundamentally accessible driving character, rather than maximising headline numbers — is a philosophy that European brands have long claimed to follow. The difference is that Xiaomi has managed it at a price point that makes the competition look overpriced.
Is the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra available in Europe?
No. As of mid-2026, the SU7 Ultra is sold only in China, where it is priced from approximately $75,000. Xiaomi has not announced a European launch date, though the brand's expansion plans are widely expected to include Europe in the coming years.
How does the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra compare to the Porsche Taycan Turbo S?
The SU7 Ultra is faster — 1.98 seconds to 62 mph versus around 2.4 seconds for the Taycan Turbo S — and costs roughly a third of the price in China. The Taycan still leads on brand prestige, dealer network coverage in Europe, and arguably steering feel. But on pure performance per euro, the SU7 Ultra has no current peer.
What is the real-world range of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra?
The official CLTC figure is 391 miles (630 km), but CLTC testing is generally more optimistic than European WLTP cycles. Under mixed real-world conditions, a range of 280–330 miles (450–530 km) is a more realistic expectation. Under track use, range will fall significantly faster.
Source: https://insideevs.com/reviews/798799/xiaom-su7-ultra-test-drive/