In conversations with the Wall Street Journal, Ford (F) CEO Jim Farley called the rise of Chinese automakers like BYD (BYDDY) an “existential threat,” even recalling an experience with Ford CFO John Lawler that shocked the two on a trip to the People’s Republic.
However, during an October 21 appearance on The Fully Charged Podcast, Farley admitted a secret that seemed antithetical to his position as the leader of one of Detroit’s Big Three.
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In a conversation about its Chinese competitors with the podcast’s host Robert Llewellyn, he admitted he has been driving a prime specimen from one of Ford’s Chinese competitors: an EV by consumer electronics giant Xiaomi called the SU7.
Describing Xiaomi as “an industry juggernaut,” he noted that it is able to sell tens of thousands of SU7s per month, even accumulating a six-month waiting list. However, one of these ‘satisfied customers’ is Mr. Jim Farley himself.
“I don’t like talking about the competition so much, but I drive the Xiaomi,” Farley confessed. “We flew one from Shanghai to Chicago, and I’ve been driving it for six months now, and I don’t want to give it up.”
Xiaomi
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Though many patriotic critics lambasted the Ford CEO for his admission, Farley wrote in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) shortly after the episode was released, that driving the competition — no matter who — is part of the job.
“I try to drive everything we compete against. Have done it my whole career,” Farley wrote. “Specs can tell part of a story, but you’ve got to get behind the wheel to truly understand and beat the competition.”
Although Farley may be satisfied with his six-month ownership experience with the SU7, Xiaomi has come out with a new, faster model that might trigger him to trade it in.
Dubbed the SU7 Ultra, Xiaomi’s newest iteration of its flagship EV is a fast car with performance credentials to not only beat ultra-fast EVs like the Tesla Model S Plaid, the Lucid Air Sapphire, or the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, but also Fords like its ultra-limited, $325,000 Mustang GTD.
While the barely street-legal Mustang GTD has an 815 horsepower supercharged V8 under its hood, the Xiaomi’s trio of electric motors produces 1,526 horsepower in total. Xiaomi claims that the SU7 Ultra can go from 0-60 in just 1.98 seconds and a top speed of 217 miles per hour.
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While the SU7 itself boasts a range of up to 516 miles, the SU7 Ultra’s extreme performance characteristics only hamper it a bit, as its CATL battery allows it to go 391 miles in between charges.
Visually, the outside features an upgraded body kit to reflect the vastly upgraded performance of the car, featuring a prominent rear wing, a functional front splitter and enlarged air intakes for the car’s upgraded cooling package.
Additionally, the car boasts some of the largest brakes fitted to a production sedan. Its 16.9 inch front discs are part of a carbon ceramic brake system that allows it to stop from from 62 mph in just 101 feet.
Inside, the SU7 Ultra includes subtle, but significant changes from the standard SU7, including a new carbon-fiber steering wheel, Alcantara interior trimmings, as well as custom software to reflect its track-focused capabilities.
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The SU7 beat a record once held by Porsche and Tesla
The biggest draw to the car overall is Xiaomi’s dethroning of an important record once held by both Porsche and Tesla.
On October 29, Xiaomi released a video confirming its CEO Lei Jun’s announcement that a prototype version of the SU7 Ultra beat the lap record of the 14-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife in 6:46.874 — about 20 seconds quicker than the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT.
In a lap piloted by 2023 24 Hours of Nurburgring winner David Pittard, the non-production SU7 Ultra prototype beat even the fastest production EV to lap the Ring: the multi-million dollar Rimac Nevera hypercar, which managed a lap time of 7:05.20.
To make matters scarier, the lap could have been quicker. At approximately 4 minutes and 15 seconds in the video, the Xiaomi appears to experience a glitch that causes it to lose power for a few seconds, much to Pittard’s delight.
Xiaomi plans to deliver the first SU7 Ultras to its customers in China by March 2025. Each has a base price of $114,000, but for Jim Farley, it might be $114,000 well spent on “market research.”
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