In less than nine months since its launch, the Xiaomi car has managed to carve out a niche for itself in the competitive automobile sector. The bet of Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, and his investment of several million dollars in the development of a vehicle from scratch has paid off and is already scaring established brands like Tesla or Porsche.
It sounds incredible, but it’s only the beginning of Xiaomi’s journey in the sector; We say this because it seems like the company has been producing vehicles for years, but only until this week did it achieve a significant feat: exceeded the figure of 100,000 cars produceda record achieved in just 230 days since the Beijing plant was commissioned.
Instead of resting on his laurels, Lei Jun slept in the factory waiting for this feat; and as he was there, he took the opportunity to present the future of the brand. During an event broadcast only on Chinese social networks, Lei Jun showed for the first time the new intelligent chassis that the next Xiaomi cars will use.
In fact, instead of reusing the Xiaomi SU7 chassis in different models, as the rest of the manufacturers usually do, Xiaomi believes it needs a new chassis to catch up and surpass its rivals. Calls it “intelligent chassis”and brings a host of improvements focused on four key components of the car.
To begin with, Xiaomi focused on improve the handling of the electric carwith a new active suspension system and advanced control algorithms with the use of the new DP + ET10 system developed by Bosch.
Each wheel has a 4.6 kW system that allows you to make real-time adjustments to the suspension, which Xiaomi demonstrated with a video showing a Xiaomi SU7 with the new chassis doing perfect “donuts”, with the wheels on one side turning in one direction, while those on the other side turned in the opposite direction.
Lei Jun also showed how the car can “dance”by modifying the suspension on each wheel; But it’s not just for fun, it will also allow us to make tighter and more precise turns, which will be appreciated when driving around town. The active suspension has a force of 44,400 N, the equivalent of lifting two Xiaomi SU7 Max.
To improve control, a new 48V active steering system has been installed. replaces hydraulic systems traditional by commands activated by “software”; This allows for greater steering precision and adaptability, for example by varying the movement of the front wheels as you turn the steering wheel. A 48V braking system is also included which allows the braking behavior to be changed depending on the situation.
The final piece of the puzzle of this intelligent new chassis is found in the engines. The two new V8S, one on the front axle and one on the rear axle, are capable of reaching a maximum power of 2,054 horsepowera brutality that makes the 1,548 horsepower of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra sports car seem few.
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that all cars equipped with this chassis have this enormous power; although for the moment, Xiaomi has not wanted to talk about it. The chassis demonstration was carried out with a modified Xiaomi SU7, so it is possible that the chassis will debut in a new version of this car; or with one of the future models that the company is already preparing.