Chinese smartphone company says it wants to build a Porsche challenger

Enlarge / I know it looks like someone grafted the nose from a McLaren onto a Porsche Taycan, but it's actually a Xiaomi SU7. (credit: Xiaomi)

Xiaomi, a Chinese maker of consumer electronics perhaps best known for taking plenty of inspiration from Apple, is getting into the automotive industry. Earlier today in Beijing, Xaiomi CEO Lei Jun debuted the Speed Ultra 7, a luxury electric vehicle that's squarely aimed at the spot in the market currently served by the Porsche Taycan and Tesla Model S sedans.

Xiaomi wanted to branch out from smartphones and tablets to EVs—that wasn't exactly news, as the company announced its plans about three years ago. Lei has big ambitions though; he wants Xiaomi to be a top-five automaker within the next two decades.

Making a car isn't that hard, Lei told the audience. "If you want to build a car, 300 or 400 people and a bit over a billion, and you find a benchmark car and you just need do reverse-engineering and you can do it," Lei said, then acknowledged that "to build a good car it is still very very difficult."