The Xiaomi SU7 is now official, and Chinese consumers who want to purchase this electric car have several rim and tire configurations to choose from. These show us to what extent these components influence the autonomy of the vehicle.
After strutting down the aisles of MWC 2024 in Barcelona, the Xiaomi SU7 is now a reality for Chinese consumers. Yesterday we discovered the price of Xiaomi’s electric car on this market, in a presentation broadcast online. The car has something to seduce, particularly in terms of autonomy.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun reportedly traveled 1,276 km in 15 hours aboard the Xiaomi SU7. Enough to give us an overview of all the vehicle’s capabilities in real conditions. But in detail, this new model shows us above all to what extent the autonomy of electric cars also depends on the wheels and their tires.
The autonomy of the Xiaomi SU7 depends on the rims and tires chosen
As reported in a Chinese media article IT Home spotted by our colleagues at Frandroid, the Xiaomi SU7 is offered in several wheel configurations. It will be necessary to keep in mind that their autonomy is announced in the CLTC cycle, much more generous than the WLTP cycle which we are used to in France. Four tire and rim configurations are available:
- 19 inch low wind resistance : tire pavement Michelin e-Primacy with low rolling resistance, this configuration increases the autonomy of the Xiaomi SU7 Max version to 810 kilometers in the CLTC cycle, at the cost of a maximum speed of “only” 240 km/h.
- 19 inch Sports : these rims come with tires customized for the SU7, the Bridgestone TURANZA 6. This configuration allows the maximum speed of the vehicle to be increased to 265 km/h, while maintaining the range at 800 kilometers.
- 20 inch “Plum Blossom” : these rims above all allow better road holding. These come equipped with Michelin Pilot Sport EV tires, incorporating pads capable of minimizing tire noise, for a quieter ride. However, the range takes a hit, dropping to 750 kilometers.
- 21 inch Sports : these high-grip tires provide an improved braking distance of 33.3 meters at 100 km/h. Equipped with customized Pierelli P ZERO tires, this configuration offers the best handling, at the cost of a significantly reduced autonomy to 725 kilometers. It is also the most expensive, at 10,000 yuan (1284 euros)
Read > Xiaomi SU7: the French will have to wait to obtain the new electric car
What conclusions can we draw from all these figures? First of all, the rims and tires do not influence the acceleration speed of the Xiaomi SU7, which remains stable at 2.78 seconds to reach 100 km/h. On the other hand, the tires have a clear influence on autonomy. Obviously, the more the combination of tires and rims offers better handling, the lower the range. This can be explained because these configurations are wider and taller, offering better stability at the cost of more friction on the road surface.
- Xiaomi’s electric car, the SU7, comes in four tire and rim configurations.
- This choice directly influences the advertised range of the vehicle as well as its handling.
- The more the tires offer better handling thanks to their size, the less the autonomy is good.