The smartphone giant turned electric vehicle maker announced last Thursday that it had received a stunning 240,000 orders for the YU7 within just 18 hours of opening sales. But despite the headline-grabbing demand, only a limited number of vehicles were immediately available for delivery, leaving most customers with an unexpectedly long wait.
By early this week, Xiaomi’s own app was showing estimated delivery times of between 38 and 60 weeks, according to Reuters checks—a delay of roughly 9 to 14 months.
Frustration has spilled onto China’s popular consumer complaint platform, Sina’s Black Cat, where over 400 buyers have filed grievances. Many say they were not clearly warned about the lengthy wait before placing a 5,000-yuan (about $698) non-refundable deposit. Several customers also expressed worry that delays could force them to pay more if China’s current EV tax exemptions expire at the end of this year.
Critics have accused Xiaomi of not disclosing the estimated delivery timeline clearly enough in its marketing. According to multiple complaints, the app only revealed the waiting period after buyers had confirmed their order and paid the deposit.
Xiaomi has so far not publicly responded to requests for comment on the wave of complaints. However, CEO Lei Jun, who has more than 26 million followers on China’s Weibo platform, announced he would address questions about the YU7 launch in a livestream event on Wednesday.
The controversy is a fresh challenge for Xiaomi as it aggressively expands into China’s competitive EV market. The YU7 is the company’s second electric vehicle after the SU7 sedan, which launched with major fanfare in March last year. Although early SU7 buyers also faced waits of up to seven months, the sedan has gone on to outsell Tesla’s Model 3 in China on a monthly basis since December.
Xiaomi has also had to navigate other reputational bumps, including consumer concerns about feature confusion and delivery timelines, and a fatal crash involving an SU7 in March.
Priced from 253,500 yuan (about $35,360), the new YU7 is nearly 4% cheaper than Tesla’s Model Y—the current best-selling SUV in China. Xiaomi’s leadership has been vocal about their ambition to challenge Tesla for dominance in the domestic EV market.
To meet surging demand, Xiaomi has been scaling up production at its Beijing factory. Monthly output rose to 28,000 units in May from just 4,000 units last March, and the company is investing in new production facilities on nearby plots to further expand capacity.
While Xiaomi’s rapid EV push has grabbed headlines and market share, the outcry over YU7 delivery timelines suggests it will also need to manage customer expectations more carefully as it seeks to establish itself as a serious competitor in the world’s largest electric vehicle market.