Xiaomi’s Electric Dream Hits High Gear, but the Share Price Refuses to Follow

Xiaomi's EV deliveries hit a monthly record of 36,702 vehicles, yet stock falls 23.88% YTD. The company targets 550k units in 2026, hires Tesla veterans, and faces capacity and demand challenges.

The numbers coming out of Xiaomi’s auto division are nothing short of spectacular. In April, the company set a monthly delivery record of 36,702 electric vehicles, with the SU7 sedan accounting for 26,826 of those units. The year-to-date tally stands at 117,558 vehicles, a 12.5% improvement over the same period in 2025. Yet for all the operational momentum, the stock has fallen out of favor. At Tuesday’s close of €3.42, the shares are down 23.88% since the start of the year and trade well below both the 50-day moving average of €3.54 and the 200-day average of €4.54.

The disconnect between factory floor progress and market sentiment points to a deeper anxiety: can Xiaomi’s production machine keep pace with demand that shows no sign of easing? The company is targeting 550,000 deliveries for the full year 2026, a steep climb from the 411,000 units it moved in 2025. To hit that mark, monthly output needs to average roughly 52,000 vehicles — a 42% increase from April’s record. The capacity puzzle is gradually being solved: the Beijing plant can produce 450,000 units annually, and a new facility in Wuhan is set to start operations in May 2026, adding another 150,000 slots. But until that second line comes online, every month is a stress test.

Xiaomi is scrambling to remove bottlenecks on the human side as well. The company has brought in two Tesla veterans to sharpen its operations. Kong Yanshuang, formerly Tesla’s general manager for China, now leads sales at Xiaomi. Song Gang, who ran the Tesla factory in Shanghai, has been put in charge of production and manufacturing. Meanwhile, vice president Yu Liguo has been handed the newly created Overseas Business Preparation Group, signaling a rapid international push. The plan is to launch in Germany in the second half of 2027, followed by the UK, Japan, Australia and India in 2028. A research and development center in Munich already employs around 50 engineers, many of them poached from BMW, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. The first model co-developed with European engineers, the YU7 GT, is scheduled for a Chinese unveiling later this month.

The YU7 nameplate itself has generated staggering demand. Reservations for the SUV, which starts at 253,500 RMB, reached 240,000 lock-in orders within 18 hours of opening, representing over 60 billion RMB in committed value. But the order book is a double-edged sword: wait times for the standard model already stretch to 53-56 weeks. Xiaomi is also facing a public technical dispute after a senior Audi manager questioned whether the company uses consumer-grade chips instead of automotive-grade semiconductors. Founder Lei Jun responded that the chips have passed the AEC-Q104 qualification tests — a standard that, while not the strictest in the industry, is a common benchmark for automotive reliability.

On the cost side, Xiaomi is moving to reduce its exposure to dominant battery suppliers. A new subsidiary, Beijing Xiaomi Jingxu Technology, is building a factory with an annual capacity of 15 gigawatt-hours. The logic is clear: traction batteries account for 35% to 45% of the cost of an electric vehicle. In the first quarter of 2026, CATL alone controlled 40.7% of the global segment, and together with BYD’s FinDreams Battery the pair held 54.4%. That level of dependency is not sustainable for a company aiming to scale quickly.

The stock has been under persistent pressure despite the company spending roughly 4.7 billion Hong Kong dollars on share buybacks since the start of the year. The technical picture remains bearish, with the price languishing below every key moving average. Investors appear to be waiting for hard evidence that the ramp-up is translating into margins rather than just volume. The next major test comes on May 26, when Xiaomi reports first-quarter earnings. That report will show exactly how much the EV push is costing — and whether the market’s patience is about to be rewarded.