Ford Motor (NYSE: F) CEO Jim Farley explained his intent behind driving the Xiaomi SU7 EV over the past six months in a post on social media on Wednesday.
Farley responds: "I try to drive everything we compete against," Farley said in a post on social media platform X. "Specs can tell part of a story, but you've got to get behind the wheel to truly understand and beat the competition."
I try to drive everything we compete against. Have done it my whole career. Specs can tell part of a story, but you've got to get behind the wheel to truly understand and beat the competition.
The CEO's comment comes on the heels of his expressing admiration for Xiaomi's SU7 in an appearance on "The Fully Charged Podcast" with Robert Llewellyn. Farley shared his reluctance to part with the car, which the company flew from Shanghai to Chicago, and praised its performance and market success.
"It's fantastic. They sell 10,000, 20,000 (SU7s) a month. They're sold out for six months. You know, that is an industry juggernaut and a consumer brand that is much stronger than car companies," Farley said about Xioami.
Tesla Responds: American EV giant Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) took to X on the heels of Farley's comment, requesting him to try the company's latest offering- the stainless steel Cybertruck.
"Ok. Try me," Tesla wrote from its official X account dedicated to Cybertruck and updates about the vehicle.
"So can we put you down for a Cyberbeast or a Dual Motor?," Cybertruck lead engineer Wes Morrill also responded to Farley, urging the CEO to take delivery of one of the stainless steel trucks.
Xiaomi's SU7 EV: Xiaomi launched its first EV - the SU7 sedan - in late March and started delivering the vehicles in April, making Q2 its first quarter as an EV seller. Total SU7 deliveries totaled 27,307 units in the quarter, only marginally lower than Chinese EV startup XPeng which delivered 30,207 EVs in the period.
The company raked in revenue of 6.2 billion yuan ($0.87 billion) from the EV business in the quarter, with an average selling price of 228,644 yuan ($32,058) per EV.
The gross profit margin of the company's EV business, coupled with a few other new initiatives, touched 15.4%. Gross profit, meanwhile, touched 979.8 million yuan ($137.38 million).
The company expects to achieve its goal of delivering 100,000 units of the vehicle by November. For the whole year, the company is aiming to touch a delivery target of 120,000 vehicles, it said in August.