Xiaomi SU7 Ultra: We Drove The 1,550 HP Road Legal Terror

What happens when you combine the intelligence of a Tesla, the performance of a Porsche, and the luxury of a Mercedes-Benz? If you ask Chinese tech company and automaker Xiaomi, the answer is this. The Xiaomi SU7 Ultra. Welcome to Wheels Boy, where we cover the newest, coolest, and wildest vehicles from the Chinese car market. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell. It's one thing to hear me talk about cool Chinese EVs here on the channel, but now we're giving you the opportunity to try them out for yourself with the Wheels Boy EV Tour. We're going to have three events this year, and our first one at April's Shanghai Auto Show is almost full. So if you want to join me for a guided tour of the auto show, followed by a three-day driving tour in cool Chinese EVs with you behind the wheel, reach out now to tour at wheelsboy.cn to learn more. The standard Xiaomi SU7 electric sedan was one of the most talked-about cars of 2024, with Ford's CEO admitting in an interview that he'd been using one to commute to work in Detroit and loving it. The SU7 Ultra is the performance version of an already wickedly fast vehicle, and it takes things to a whole new level. When Xiaomi announced this car last year, the pre-sale price was set at $112,000 US dollars, which also happens to be the exact same price as a Tesla Model S Plaid here in the Chinese car market. Interesting, isn't it? But when it officially went on sale recently, they announced that it was going to start at $73,000 US dollars. Now, this is not the first time a Chinese company has played this particular game, undercutting their pre-sale price, but nobody's ever undercut their price by $39,000. There will still be a $112,000 USD version of the SU7 sold, but it will be much closer to the stripped-out, roll-cage-equipped version that set a new Nürburgring lap record for a four-door car. The SU7 received 6,900 orders within the first 10 minutes it was on sale, and 10,000 orders, aka the annual production for the vehicle, within the first two hours. Keep in mind, these weren't just $100 deposits. You had to put down a $2,700 deposit, which you could refund within one week, but would lock in after that week. If you really couldn't wait to get your hands on a SU7, you could put down a $5,500 USD deposit, non-refundable, mind you, to get your hands on the first batch of cars that had already been produced and were basically ready for immediate delivery, as was the case with this car that we've rented. So what do you get for your money? How about performance on par with the quickest vehicles on earth? That's thanks to three electric motors, one in the front, two in the rear. They make a combined 1,138 kilowatts and 1,770 newton meters of torque. That's about 1,500 plus horsepower and 1,300 pound feet. One of those rear motors makes 425 kilowatts, or about 570 horsepower. That means that it makes 80 more horsepower than a Corvette C8's 6.2 liter V8 from one of its rear motors. We're talking about a zero to 100 kilometer per hour time of two seconds and a top speed of 350 kilometers per hour, or 217 miles per hour. It used to be you could only get power and performance figures like that from cars that cost over a million dollars, or at least cars that were modified to within an inch of their life. Now you can get it in a car that costs less than $75,000. You can definitely tell that this is a performance version of the SU7 from the outside, but it would be at least relatively subtle if it weren't for the fact that this thing's painted in this boy racer yellow color with the optional, and thank God they are optional, racing stripes and side graphics. But do not be fooled, this is not some auto zone special. All these exterior bits and bobs are very much functional. That includes the front arrow, that gorgeous fixed carbon fiber rear wing, and the active rear diffuser. Those last two, they combine to make 285 kg of downforce. There's also an optional carbon fiber roof, which this car does not have, which saves 11 kg. There's then these optional carbon fiber rearview mirrors, which probably don't save a lot of weight, but they sure look nifty. I'll give Xiaomi credit for one thing, they know how to learn a lesson. After all the negative publicity they garnered last year for on-track brake failures of their SU7 Max, they decided not to repeat that mistake and went all out on the brakes of the Ultra. Behind these 21-inch forged wheels wrapped in Pirelli PZero tires is a 430 mm carbon ceramic rotor with six-piston Akibono calipers. In the back, it's Akibono four-piston calipers with a 410 mm rotor. These are standard on the SU7 Ultra. Keep in mind that Tesla charges about $15,000 for the carbon ceramic brake package on a Model S Plaid. Pretty much all the carbon fiber bits on the outside of this car are optional, except this carbon fiber and 24-karat gold badge, which is standard. Perhaps it's an indicator of just how old I'm getting, but I think it's kind of awesome that it has a real gold badge. Don't get any ideas, by the way, about stealing these and selling them. It's gold-plated. It probably costs like five bucks to make. The interior of the SU7 Ultra is largely the same as that of the regular SU7, just with way more optional carbon fiber bits slathered all over the interior. This, by the way, is not the standard color for this interior when it comes matched with the exterior yellow paint. This costs an extra $400, and it's a more subtle black with yellow accents. The standard one is an absolutely pimp-my-ride-level, over-the-top yellow interior with yellow dashboard and yellow seats that honestly is a little bit much even for me, and I really like colorful interiors. It does feel kind of backwards that they make you pay extra money for the more subtle interior. Apart from carbon fiber, the other thing in abundance is microsuede, which is on the doors, the dashboard, and the entirety of the seats. You don't really give up much in terms of luxury features here on the SU7 Ultra compared to the regular SU7. You get the same 16.1-inch center screen with CarPlay, which can connect, by the way, to a variety of Xiaomi tech products. That's something we went over in detail in our first review of the SU7, and I really recommend you check it out because it's very, very interesting. You also get an augmented reality heads-up display, dual 50-watt wireless charging pads, a 25-speaker sound system, including speakers mounted in the driver's headrest here, and dual-pane glass on both front and rear windows. That dual-pane glass is one very subtle way to tell a true Ultra from a fake one, of which there are going to be many, many, many on the roads of China very, very soon. Another even more subtle way? Only the SU7 Ultra has an electrically opening frunk. Within that center screen is a special mode, but it's not the master mode that we saw on the SU7 Max, but rather a track master mode. This contains maps of pretty much every single racetrack you can find here in China, which means you can keep a record of your fastest laps there if you would like. It's also got functions, for example, like pre-cooling the battery in preparation for getting on the track. You've also got the ability to monitor vital statistics or vital data, like the temperature of your three electric motors and the temperature of your battery. Finally, these two buttons here on the center console, which on the SU7 Max were used to adjust the height of the air suspension and open and close your rear wing, now are customizable. For example, this bottom one is allowing me to open and close that active rear diffuser, which would normally open and close based on speed. Rear seat passengers also get to enjoy that carbon fiber lifestyle, because it's on the door panel, the rear of the center console, and most obviously, the seat backs, where it has a absolutely massive piece of real carbon fiber that is very, very cool. Also optional back here, this, the refrigerator. Yes, just like the regular SU7, this thing has an optional refrigerator. I think that makes this the fastest car on earth with a refrigerator. I also would love to know what would happen to your average beverage if it was confronted with the kind of acceleration that this car is capable of. Would milk just like turn to cottage cheese or something? The Ultra uses CATL's Qilin 2.0 NMC battery pack, measuring 93.7 kilowatt hours, which is actually smaller than the 101 kilowatt hour pack in the SU7 Max. As a result of that smaller capacity, not to mention the extra power from the motors, the increased drag from this go-fast body kit, and the stickier performance tires, the CLTC ranges down to 620 kilometers from 800 kilometers, but it charges faster, going from 10 to 80 percent in just 11 minutes. Driving this car around China at the moment is kind of like driving around in Tom Cruise. I know that's a weird image to put in your head, but let me explain. This car is a celebrity in and of itself. Everybody and their mother wants to get pictures and video of this car, and not just because it's a bright yellow sedan with a big wing and racing stripes. They know what it is. They know it's the SU7 Ultra. That's why they're interested in it. This doesn't happen very often when it comes to our press cars. Usually it's only the small circle of automotive enthusiasts that will recognize a new car and want to talk to me about it, but this one is clearly broken out into the larger culture of the country. The last time this happened to me was last year. Can you guess what I was driving? Yep, it was the first Xiaomi SU7. This brand is one of the hottest things on the car market right now, and in fact, as an overall part of the culture, it's having an impact that almost no other brand is having except for maybe BYD. It's time to delve into what this car is actually like to drive. The acceleration of which this car is capable, well, it makes you uncomfortable in two different ways. First, physically uncomfortable because your body is just not prepared for the level of forces that it's going to undergo, especially if you're a passenger who does not know what is coming. It's a little bit like riding a roller coaster, okay, because it's exciting, but at the same time there is a chance of an upset stomach. The second way which makes you uncomfortable is the fact that your brain cannot keep up with the pace of acceleration. You've heard all the platitudes about fast cars being like teleporting and time travel. All of that applies to this car, and then some. Objects that first appear to be hundreds of meters away, all of a sudden they're very close and approaching very, very quickly if you are not careful with how you use that accelerator. Your brain, your brain just cannot keep up. This car actually changes the way that you drive and think about driving. Gaps that you previously thought were impossible to make suddenly feel altogether feasible. You're sitting there thinking to yourself, sure, this lane ends in 25 meters, but I can definitely get in front of that car in this space. And you could, but you shouldn't because it's dangerous to drive that way. Put simply, having this much power at the tip of your fingers makes the temptation to drive like a jerk really strong. Oh my god, and that acceleration is not without drama. Remember, this car's most of its power, more than two-thirds of it is on the rear wheels. That's a thousand horsepower back there. And so when you go deep into the accelerator pedal, not just from a standstill, even at higher speeds, the rear wheels can break traction and the rear end will slide around sometimes. I mean, it's genuinely possible to lose control of this car. And this isn't coming from somebody who's never driven fast cars before. I've driven fast gas cars and EVs. In fact, most of the EVs we review on this channel are the top spec dual motor models. They hit 100 kilometers per hour in three to four seconds. That's very fast. We've even driven some that were sub three seconds, but this feels like a completely different planet. And this is a planet that is both thrilling and terrifying. As I said earlier in the video, it used to be that you had to spend a million dollars or more to get performance at this level. I'm not saying that people with irresponsible levels of wealth are somehow better drivers than your average middle-income person. I really don't think that's true. But the fact that those cars were so expensive meant one, there were fewer of them on the road and two, the people driving them maybe took it slightly more easy. Meanwhile, this car costs $73,000 and they're going to make 10,000 of them a year. And they already sold out annual production in two hours. So they probably will try to make more because there's demand. This kind of feels like, I don't know, the automotive equivalent of nuclear proliferation. Listen, the more of these things that are on the road, the higher chance that one of them is going to get into the hands of a mad person who is either ill-equipped to handle this kind of power or irresponsible enough to overuse it. And for the record, there've already been people who have posted videos of themselves doing 300 plus kilometers per hour on public roads in this car. But while I'm torn about having this level of power in a family sedan, I have no qualms about its ride and handling. Forget the Tesla Model S Plagg, this double wishbone front suspension and five-link rear provide an experience that reminds me of a very different brand. I haven't put it on a racetrack, but out here on a public road, it feels very Porsche-like. The dual-chamber air suspension is firm, but very comfortable, and I would have no problem driving this thing every single day of my life. But when you want to push it, oh, it's an absolute blast. The steering is quick and precise, the body control is great, and the grip is absolutely unbelievable. That shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, considering the fact that a version of this car set the Nürburgring lap record for a sedan. In an ideal world, there would be a version of this car that slotted between the max dual motor and this tri-motor ultra. Let's call it the super. This car, it would have a single version of this rear motor, making 425 kilowatts and 570 horsepower, but no front motor and all the upgrades of this ultra. Basically, what I'm asking them to make is kind of like a 911 Carrera T, so it doesn't have to have insane power, but it still has the handling upgrades that you want. They're never going to make this car, just so we're clear. I know they won't, because there's like a few perverts like me that would buy it, but man, I think that would be amazing. By the way, this thing does have an advanced driver assistance system. That's a LiDAR unit up there on the top of the windshield, so once you've completely depleted your adrenal gland by driving so fast that your eyeballs hit the back of your skull, you can then let the car, quote, drive itself for a little bit. I didn't use the system very much for reasons that should be obvious. When somebody hands you the keys to a car that's 1,500 horsepower and handles this well, you want to drive it yourself, but there were a couple times where I was commuting on the highway where I threw it on, and I found the system to be perfectly competent. Not class-leading, but usable. In my initial review of the Su-7, I told you that, like it or not, this was the new standard for an electric sedan on the global market. The same applies to the Su-7 Ultra, only it's for performance electric sedans, but as much as I'm a fan of this thing, I've also got serious reservations about it, because this is a genuinely intimidating vehicle to drive. With 1,500 plus horsepower on tap, it's very, very easy to speed, and it's very easy to lose control of, and I do not think that your average driver is even close to equipped to handle a car with this much power. It's also just going to further stimulate the ongoing horsepower wars between Chinese car makers. When is it going to stop? Are we going to have 1,500, 2,000 horsepower electric SUVs and sedans available for, what, $50,000, $60,000? Is that what we want? Is that what we really need? I love to see the democratization of power, making it so your average person can afford a genuinely fast and fun-to-drive car, not just someone who can spend a million dollars on a Bugatti. But, I don't know, I've got my reservations about the direction that things are going. What do you think? Do you think that they should step in and maybe make some policies to limit the power levels on these cars? Or do you think they should be allowed to run free and wild? Let me know what you think in the comments section below. Thank you again for watching today's review. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell, and check us out on social media. See you next time.