China’s carmakers are identified for attracting expertise from across the globe, and smartphone producer turned carmaker Xiaomi has scored an enormous identify of its personal.
It has employed former BMW designer Chris Bangle as a design advisor, with Xiaomi releasing a video of the controversial designer giving his stamp of approval to the brand new SU7 sedan.
He additionally praised its balanced proportions, calling it a “actually wonderful design [that’s] not over-designed”.
The second echo of BMW in Xiaomi’s automotive design crew has simply been revealed.
Look who entered the stage: Mr. Chris Bangle! Though it was already clear that Mr. Sawyer Li, additionally ex-BMW, was heading up the EV design division at Xiaomi Know-how, we now have a second clear echo… pic.twitter.com/ubXLJuph8o
— Tom van Dillen (@vandillenpek) December 29, 2023
After testing the Xiaomi SU7 and driving it on a monitor, he concludes, “ that is the appropriate begin. Okay, what’s subsequent?”
It’s unclear if the American designer’s function with Xiaomi will proceed past this.
The SU7 was designed beneath Tianyuan (Sawyer) Li, additionally an ex-BMW designer.
He served on the Bavarian model after Mr Bangle left in 2009, first at Designworks from 2012 to 2016 after which as a senior exterior designer till 2018 after which as a senior designer at BMW i and BMW till 2021.
Xiaomi is certainly one of quite a lot of new, extra premium Chinese language automotive manufacturers that’s aiming to go toe-to-toe with established international manufacturers like BMW on the Chinese language market.
The smartphone producer first introduced its plans to take a position US$10 billion (A$14.88bn) in EV improvement in 2021, revealing its first mannequin, the SU7, late in 2023 and setting some formidable targets.
“By working exhausting over the subsequent 15 to twenty years, we’ll grow to be one of many world’s prime 5 automakers, striving to carry China’s general vehicle business,” mentioned Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun on the SU7’s unveiling.
He additionally introduced plans to construct “a dream automotive similar to Porsche and Tesla”.
Xiaomi autos will use a shared working system with the corporate’s telephones and different digital gadgets.
The SU7 is a “full-size high-performance eco-technology sedan”, developed by a crew of over 3400 engineers and over a thousand technical consultants.
It makes use of electrical motors developed and manufactured in-house, confusingly known as the HyperEngine V6/V6s and HyperEngine V8s. These function bi-directional oil cooling, and are mentioned to “rival the efficiency of conventional massive V8 and V6 powertrains from the period of inner combustion engines”.
The HyperEngine V6 has outputs of 220kW of energy and 400Nm, the V6s 275kW and 500Nm, and the V8s 425kW and 635Nm.
In SU7 Max guise, Xiaomi’s first automotive can do the 0-100km/h dash in simply 2.78 seconds. Adaptive dynamic chassis management is customary.
The SU7 options what the corporate calls CTB Built-in Battery Know-how, with a most battery capability of as much as 150kWh and theoretical vary exceeding 1200km on the CLTC take a look at cycle.
Battery know-how additionally features a administration system with three unbiased thermal runaway screens and alarms.
Within the SU7 Max, the suite of energetic security know-how is powered by one LiDAR unit, eleven high-definition cameras, three millimetre-wave radars, and twelve ultrasonic radars.
Inside, the SU7 has a 16.1-inch 3K central touchscreen, a 56-inch head-up show, and a 7.1-inch ‘rotating dashboard’.
After leaving BMW in 2009, the place he had served as head of design since 1992, Mr Bangle established his personal design consultancy agency, Chris Bangle Associates, at which he serves because the managing director.
Mr Bangle presided over the launch of a few of BMW’s most cleanly and conventionally styled autos, however he’s nonetheless greatest remembered for autos launched within the 2000s just like the E65 7 Sequence of 2001 and the E60 5 Sequence of 2003.
A lot of Mr Bangle’s designs within the 2000s featured new, controversial parts like ‘flame surfacing’ and weird boot lids that may be derisively often called the ‘Bangle butt’.
Chatting with Motor Development in 2006, Mr Bangle described the previous-generation 7 Sequence as an “elegant automotive, an evolution of the basic BMW look”, however mentioned it “simply didn’t have the presence to be seen”.
This meant in key development markets, equivalent to China and the remainder of Asia, “our rivals have been dominating”. He acknowledged the E65’s daring new look would lose it some followers, however mentioned “everytime you transfer forward, you permit some folks behind”.
MORE: Bangle-era BMW: A retrospective