If in recent days you have wandered through social networks (and something tells me that is very likely) perhaps you have seen a video in which a Xiaomi SU7 Ultra makes a fool of an entire Ferrari SF90 XX Stradale in an acceleration race.
“A Ferrari worth a million euros losing against a phone manufacturer” reads the tweet from accounts like that of @kinglinzhui who regularly posts information or videos proselytizing Chinese technology and culture. The tweet, in fact, has also been replicated by high-ranking figures in the State, as the Chinese ambassador to Colombia.
In the video you can actually see how The Chinese car passes over the Ferrari. He Xiaomi SU7 Ultra It is the most advanced electric car from the Chinese manufacturer. It has 1,548 HP of power available and is limited to 350 km/h. He Ferrari SF90 XX Stradale It is also the most radical version of one of the most advanced sports cars that Ferrari has launched in recent years. In this case it is a plug-in hybrid with 1,030 HP of power with a V8 engine that generates up to 797 HP of power and is supported by three other electric motors to give the best of itself.
Although there are some details to understand why the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra is faster, both Twitter accounts have focused on the inevitable: the most emblematic Western firm that puts a million-euro car on the market. (actually it is a limited edition of 790 units sold starting at 770,000 euros) is crushed by an electric supercar from a company that has just been born in the automobile market and that opened reserves for just over 100,000 euros at direct exchange.
The problem is that it doesn’t mean much.
Or, directly, it doesn’t mean anything.
Click on the image to go to the original tweet
The problem is the aura
How important is technique in the debate?
Everything and nothing really.
And the first thing to keep in mind is that the comparison does not hold up. An electric car with more than 1,500 HP of power will always be faster in a straight line race than a car with a combustion engine. All its difficulty (and it is not a little, mind you) lies in being able to lower the power to the ground in the most effective way and launch the car forward as quickly as possible.
In this case, it doesn’t matter if we are comparing a Ferrari with a Xiaomi or any other high-performance electric car. It is also not the first time we have seen comparisons of this type. And it is that carwow has already demonstrated the potential of the electric car facing a Kia EV6 GT against a Ferrari Purosangue. The power and sound of the naturally aspirated V12 against a general electric sports car. The result was the same again, with the Ferrari crushed.
In the case of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra and the Ferrari SF90 XX Stradale things change a little because those from Maranello have in this case an electrified car on their hands. All in all, although it certifies 0 to 100 km/h in just over two seconds, it is not enough to defeat the Chinese electric car.
The problem for Xiaomi is that it sweeps the purely technical section but there is something it cannot offer right now compared to one of Ferrari’s most advanced cars in recent years: aura.
When you spend more than 770,000 euros on a Ferrari (as if you were spending a million euros) it is not because you want to buy the fastest car. Or, at least, not only for that.
First, you have to understand that the Ferrari SF90 XX Stradale is a circuit car, designed to perform at its best when linking curves. Something in which, of course, Also the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra has proven to be among the best.
The case of this Ferrari is special because the “Program XX” It is designed to sell to a very specific group of customers a car that is not approved for the street, that can only be driven on a track. In fact, Ferrari takes the car wherever you want and maintains it when you have it stopped. It is a service typical of a pilot. However, this time, Ferrari has made the necessary adjustments to be able to drive it wherever the client wants.
That exclusivity, that treatment of the customer is what a Ferrari SF90 XX Stradale customer buys when they get one of these limited units. The customer of this type of car is not concerned that a Xiaomi SU7 Ultra is faster in a straight line. I would dare say that few even care that it is faster on a track.
Building a car brand from scratch has this problem. And it is even more complicated when it comes to an electric car. Chinese brands face a major obstacle. In many cases they are technically better than Westerners but they lack history. My colleague Javier Lacort explains it well in the podcast Infinite Loop. It is no coincidence that Xiaomi partners with Leica on its mobile phones. Nor that TCL has done the same with Sony for its televisions.
Building a brand from scratch and having specific recognition as a firm that makes premium products worldwide is very complicated. The Volkswagen Group needed shovelfuls of marketing money for more than two decades to ensure that Audi was perceived as a German premium at the level of Mercedes or BMW. And the higher you aim, the more difficult it is to achieve that recognition.
But Xiaomi also has another challenge: creating a story around its electric devices. When we tested the Porsche Macan We said that the car was great, a sporty electric SUV for traveling at extraordinary speed. And yet, it lacks soul. Because that same car previously had a V6 engine that generated sensations that were impossible to replicate by an electric car.
It is something similar to what happens with a digital camera. It is a better work tool than an analog one, it offers higher resolution, generates editable images, it is much more practical and, in the long run, economical… and yet There are specific jobs that continue to be done with reel. And not only that, film photography is experiencing a small boom. Because it is imperfect, with an unmatched look for a camera that, objectively and technically, uses better technology.
The case of an electric Xiaomi against a Ferrari with a combustion engine, or any other large luxury brand, is the same. The owner of a Bugatti doesn’t care that the SU7 Ultra accelerates much faster. Whoever pays more than a million euros for a car buys exclusivity but also the feeling that there is a handmade engine working for him, that the gear change shakes him every time there is a jump, that the sound of a good V8, V12 or W16 deafens his ears.
Is an electric car better than a combustion car? If it suits your needs, of course. Objectively it is more comfortable and it is faster.
But that, when we talk about enjoyment, doesn’t have to mean anything.
If not, ask us Why does a man continue to survive? miata.
Photo |
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings