Long wait times and accusations of not honouring refund guarantees has also been dogging this new Xiaomi EV.
While the launch of a Chinese EV is currently so commonplace these days that it barely is noteworthy anymore, the debut of Xiaomi’s SU7 however was most certainly anything but.
Such was the hype after all from Xiaomi’s first-ever model touting tech and performance that matches the best of Tesla and Porsche, but at a fraction of the price, that prospective buyers were snapping up SU7s like it was toilet paper before the pandemic. And this booking frenzy resulted in the company receiving 50,000 orders within 27 minutes of its launch, with eventually nearly 90,000 orders placed after a day from its initial debut.
Though apt is the saying that too much of a good thing might not be all that good, as the days following this frenzied launch of its premiere has certainly not been all that smooth sailing for this smartphone giant, with extended wait times for deliveries, accusations of failing to honour a money-back guarantee, as well as numerous reports of crashes having tarnished the otherwise popular debut of this SU7.
Starting with perhaps the most headline-grabbing stain on this SU7’s launch first, there have been numerous videos and photos surfacing online showing for drivers having lost control and crashed dozens of demonstrator examples of this EV. These oopsies have since lead to the speculation among some for this Xiaomi’s safety tech to possibly not be as intelligent as was once touted, especially when it comes to handling the 663 horsepower in the flagship Max variants.
And while Xiaomi may eventually get round to providing some software fixes to better tame its beast, the more pressing problem for the company is currently facing involves just trying to get its EVs to customers in the first place. That is because due to these overwhelming order numbers, wait times for SU7 wait times have stretched to over half a year.
Reuters has reported for who ordered an mid-spec SU7 Pro are currently in line for around have to wait 18 to 21 weeks (around four to five months) to get their vehicles. As for those who desire the top-tier Max trim meanwhile, the wait apparently stretches as long as 30 weeks (seven and a half months) from booking to delivery.
The final headache too that Xiaomi is facing after its honeymoon launch day is problems with buyers who were turned off by the wait times, with a Singtao report highlighting that consumers who want to cancel their order are complaining that they are unable to get their deposits back.
Prior to its launch, Xiaomi initially promised that its customers’ 5,000 yuan (RM 3,300) booking deposit could be refunded within seven days of a customer placing their order. The Singtao story however reported that some of the 469 customers who requested a refund stated that the policy is not being honoured, with the company seeming to be suggesting that this could be down to user error.
In response to this story breaking, Xiaomi clarified that customers could lock their orders in before the seven days had elapsed, which makes the order non-refundable. The company has since now also made it more difficult to lock in an order on its website, in an attempt to make it harder to do it accidentally.
Now given that this is a brand new automaker launching its debut model, it would probably been surprising if it managed to pull its launch off without a hitch. In fact, there are still some established EV manufacturers that are still struggling pull off a flawless debut into the market.
Seeing too that most of these problems are partly due to the immense popularity of the SU7, these current stains that have smeared its launch will likely be washed off in time. Though it will likely do Xiaomi some good in potentially proactively look into how it can better stop its EVs from being wrecked so much, at the risk of it turning into the next Mustang leaving car show stereotype.
