BEIJING — Shares of China’s Xiaomi surged as much as 16% on Tuesday as the electronics maker’s sporty electric vehicle launched last week drew strong interest, though a brokerage forecast the firm would lose nearly $10,000 per car this year.

The stock touched its highest since January 2022 on the first day of trading since the Thursday launch of Xiaomi’s debut car, which draws styling cues from Porsche. It later pared gains to close 9% higher, adding $4 billion to its market value.

At the day’s highest, the Chinese company had a valuation of $55 billion at a share price of HK$17.34 — higher than that of traditional U.S. automakers General Motors and Ford, at $52 billion and $53 billion, respectively.

Xiaomi’s SU7 — short for Speed Ultra 7 — enters a crowded China EV market with an attention-grabbing price tag — under $30,000 for the base model, cheaper than Tesla’s Model 3 in China.

While the world’s largest auto market is challenging for newcomers due to a cut-throat EV price war and slowing demand, analysts have said Xiaomi has deeper pockets than most EV startups and its smartphone expertise gives it an edge in smart dashboards — a feature prized by Chinese consumers.

Xiaomi has advised potential buyers of its sedan that they could face wait times of four to seven months, a sign of robust demand. On Friday, the company said it had received 88,898 pre-orders for the car in the first 24 hours of sales.

The company, which earns the majority of its $37.5 billion revenue from selling smartphones, has already produced 5,000 SU7 vehicles it dubbed the “Founder’s Edition” that it says come with additional accessories for early buyers.

On Tuesday, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said on his social media account that deliveries from that first batch would start across 28 Chinese cities on Wednesday, marked by a ceremony at its Beijing factory.

The SU7 launch fulfills the ambition of Lei, who announced the company’s foray into EVs in 2021, pledging to invest $10 billion in the auto business as “the last major entrepreneurship project” of his life.

Xiaomi has said it expects to lose money on the SU7, and some analysts predict the loss would be substantial.

“We maintain our cautious view that ultimately everyone could be a loser” within the 200,000 to 300,000 yuan ($27,649.90 to $41,474.85) segment, Citi Research analysts said in a note on Tuesday.

Based on a projected volume of 60,000 units this year, Citi estimates the SU7 could generate a net loss of 4.1 billion yuan ($566.82 million) — on average, 68,000 yuan ($9,400.96) per car.

Following the SU7 launch, other Chinese EV brands with comparable models announced price cuts and subsidies. In 2024, the 200,000 to 300,000 yuan segment will see around 240 EV models vying for sales, up by almost a fifth versus the previous year, Citi analysts said.

Due to surging demand, Xiaomi has asked suppliers to raise the SU7’s monthly production capacity to 10,000 units, up from 3,000 in March and 6,000 in May, Chinese financial news outlet Yicai reported, citing sources.

Xiaomi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Half a decade ago, Ford gave us our first concrete proof that a new Bronco was in the works. At the time, we had no clue what would transpire when the revived 4×4 came to market, and now, nearly four years after is tumultuous launch, production has more or less stabilized, setting the stage for a showdown decades in the making. Sure, we can compare the 2024 Ford Bronco and 2024 Jeep Wrangler all day long, but the proof is in the pudding: Which one do Americans want to buy? 

2024 Q1 sales:

1. Jeep Wrangler – 38,308 (+ 1.0%)
2. Ford Bronco –  24,066 (– 25.9%)

U.S. shoppers were kind to the Jeep Wrangler in Q1 — surprising, considering it’s a convertible. Not only did Jeep outsell Ford in this niche, but Jeep even managed to outsell itself, beating last year’s Q1 total by just a few hundred units. It was one of several big wins for Stellantis, which is rapidly losing volume from the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Challenger and Charger, all of which have been discontinued but still remain in dealership inventories. 

2023 Q1 sales:

1. Jeep Wrangler – 37,971
2. Ford Bronco – 32,430

In 2023, Q1 belonged to Jeep. That trend continued throughout the year; by the end of December, Wrangler ended up outselling the Bronco by nearly 50%. And even with 105,665 units sold, Ford’s midsize off-roader underperformed the previous year by nearly 10%. As we noted in our 2023 sales trends recap, using data from the Covid era to gauge real-world popularity is fraught, but sometimes it’s all we’ve got. In the case of the Bronco, we can’t refer to 2019 sales data. Ford was still working through the aftershocks of the Bronco’s launch and a portfolio-wide initial quality crisis that would have slowed it down in 2023, not to mention the late-summer strike, however both the Bronco and Wrangler were targeted early on by the UAW. 

Meanwhile, Jeep managed to sell 156,581 Wranglers in the same period. That was also down from 2022 — by nearly 20%, in fact — and way down from 2019, when Jeep moved 228,032 of its soft-top four-wheelers. In the years leading up to 2020, the Wrangler was in danger of outselling the Toyota Camry. Today, the sedan enjoys a comfortable margin of more than 100,000 units. What happened? In a word, Bronco.  

Why they matter:

The beauty of this rivalry is that we, the enthusiast buyers, always win. Competition betters the breed, as it’s said, and we’ve seen clear evidence of that even in the course of a single generation of the Wrangler. The mere threat of Bronco on the horizon nudged Jeep’s engineers to develop the JL Wrangler as we know it today. Its predecessor had just one engine (the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6); the current truck has now been offered with five, including a 375-horsepower plug-in hybrid, a 470-horsepower V8 and a since-discontinued six-cylinder diesel. Since its launch, Ford has been hard at work keeping one step ahead of Jeep, with a Raptor model that nips at the Wrangler Rubicon 392’s heels in a straight line but can run circles around it on soft surfaces. 

Think about it this way: Jeep’s engineers could have made the 5.7-liter Hemi fit in the JK Wrangler, but they didn’t. Why? Because the Wrangler sold well just the way it was. Compounding that, it owned a segment consisting only of itself. With no pressure to be better, it simply carried on, and that’s an approach Jeep can no longer afford to take. The result is more cool Jeeps. What a world!

What to look for in 2024:

In a word, even footing. Ford is no longer as mired as it was when the Bronco launched, and with supply chain issues largely easing, things should only go smoother in 2024. Another item of note is a pesky little vehicle called the Toyota Land Cruiser. This time around, Toyota is aiming for the mainstream, meaning the Land Cruiser might be affordable enough to be considered alongside the Wrangler and Bronco. And since it shares its underpinnings with the new Tacoma, there’s even the potential for more enthusiast-friendly options. Even if it doesn’t end up competing directly, it could siphon off buyers who want a more premium experience without shelling out for a luxury badge. 

 

Took a little longer than planned, but Ford says its new EU-market Explorer EV is better for the delay. Ford of Europe borrowed Volkswagen’s MEB platform to create a battery-electric SUV by Europeans, for Europeans. Planned to hit the market there in later 2023, the holdup was either caused by changes to the U.N.’s battery certification regulations, as stated by Ford of Europe at the time, or “insufficient countermeasures around fire,” in the words of Ford CEO Jim Farley. Either way, engineers reworked the chassis to fit a different nickel-manganese-cobalt pack. A regional automaker exec said the Explorer EV that just launched “is a better vehicle now than we would have launched half a year ago.”

In launch spec, buyers get the option of two trims. A single-motor rear-driver called the Extended Range makes 282 horsepower and 402 pound-feet of torque, juiced by a 77-kWh battery we know from the Volkswagen ID.4, able to get an estimated 374 miles on the WLTP cycle. This one gets to 62 miles per hour in 6.4 seconds and can recharge at a peak rate of 135 kW.

Before the battery swap, Ford had predicted a maximum 311-mile range for the entire Explorer EV lineup. The longer legs help add substance to the “Adventurous Spirit” marketing tagline in Europe, a step above the “Urban Escape” tagline applied to the Puma compact four-door hatchback. 

A dual-motor, Extended Range, AWD version comes in one trim with the 77-kWh pack and another trim that upgrades the pack to the 79-kWh unit from VW’s hotter ID. GTX trims. Motor output with the bigger battery climbs to 335 hp and 402 lb-ft. The dash to 62 mph falls to 5.3 seconds, range falls to 329 miles, the recharge rate climbs to 185 kW, and this one can tow 1,200 kilograms (2,600 pounds). Ford says that in ideal conditions, the battery can get from 10% to 80% in 26 minutes.

These single-motor variant comes in Select or Premium trim. The AWD variant is called Premium no matter the battery size.

To keep costs down and ease customer choice, the Explorer EV configurator presents only a few substantial options. The Select can be had with a Driver Assistance Pack that bundles a head-up display, 360-degree camera, lane-change assist, and hands-free tailgate, as well as a heat pump. The Premium trim adds the option of a panoramic roof in some markets, and 21-inch wheels. And white is the only free color.

This Explorer EV isn’t coming here. If it did, we’d find it very close to the Volkswagen ID.4’s footprint, not that of our Explorer. At 175.9 inches long, 73.7 inches wide, and 64.2 inches high, the Explorer EV is 4.6 inches shorter than the ID.4, nearly an inch wider, its roof nearly half an inch lower. And both vehicles ride on the same 108.9-inch wheelbase.

In early summer, a third, entry-level version begins shipping to dealers. That will be a Standard Range setup with a 52-kWh battery juicing a 168-hp motor on the rear axle and limited to 125-kW charging. Built in Cologne, the 2024 Ford Explorer EV starts at 48,510 euros ($52,381 U.S.) in Germany including VAT.

 

 

 

 

You can add a Ranger Raptor Assault School to the list of Ford Performance driver training programs held around the country. Ford created a course for the F-150 Raptor at the Ford Performance Racing School in Utah’s Tooele Valley, and now the newest pickup of prey gets in on the off-road action. The one-day event has professional instructors take new owners on a tour of the 400-horsepower Ranger Raptor’s capabilities in a 45-minute classroom and for about seven hours on an outdoor course. The real-world curriculum covers the various terrains the truck was designed for, from rock-crawling to side hilling, climbing and descending, and high-speed Baja runs, with time spent on crucial technique issues like maneuvering and braking. There’s also a component covering the ‘leave the landscape as you found it’ principles of Tread Lightly, and a run of hot laps by instructors so students can see how much they still have to learn.

All an owner has to do is sign up, then show up on the appointed day for the welcome reception the evening before the driving portion. Transportation to the school isn’t included, nor is lodging, but meals are provided. With the keys to a Ranger Raptor, though, the best way to get to the school would be to drive there, then, after graduation, explore one’s new knowledge and the truck at off-roading spots not too far away like The Snakes, Little Moab, and American Fork Canyon not far away from the school.  

Owners of the 2024 or 2025 Raptor have one calendar year from the date of delivery of their trucks to attend for no cost. They can also substitute an immediate family member who’s at least 16 years old in their place at no cost, all the way out to grandchildren, in-laws, and step-children for a special treat. Owners who rather go and take company can buy a $1,495 slot for a driving guest or $50 slot for a non-driving guest. Registration is open now, courses begin in June.