By Che Pan and Brenda Goh
BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s Xiaomi reported a 47.4% annual jump in first-quarter revenue on Tuesday as the company doubled down on making electric vehicles.
Revenue for the quarter ended March 31 was 111.3 billion yuan ($15.48 billion), beating the 107.6 billion yuan average of 17 analyst estimates compiled by LSEG.
Adjusted net profit jumped 64.5% year-on-year to 10.7 billion yuan, ahead of the average estimate of 8.96 billion yuan, according to LSEG data.
The world’s third-largest smartphone maker, whose product lines extend to home appliances and cars, announced its latest electric SUV, the YU7, last week, which Xiaomi will start selling in July. Xiaomi did not disclose the price of the YU7 but suggested its better configurations should make the car 60,000-70,000 yuan more expensive than Tesla’s best-selling Model Y, which is expected to be its strongest competitor and is priced from 263,500 yuan ($36,574). Xiaomi entered the auto sector last year with its sporty EV SU7, which drew styling cues from Porsche and was priced below Tesla’s Model 3. Since December, the SU7 has outsold Tesla’s Model 3 in China on a monthly basis. Xiaomi’s SU7 deliveries have exceeded 258,000 units since its launch, company founder Lei Jun said last week. Xiaomi’s EV business generated 18.1 billion yuan in revenue during the first quarter, delivering 75,869 SU7 sedans. The adjusted net loss related to its EV and other new initiatives reached 0.5 billion yuan. The company’s new EV orders have fallen following a fatal highway crash at the end of March involving an SU7 in driving-assistance mode，analysts have said. Its problems have been compounded by customer complaints of false advertising. Xiaomi apologised earlier this month for “not clear enough” marketing. Still, Xiaomi’s shares have rebounded since April, giving it a market value of about $170 billion, higher than the roughly $161 billion commanded by BYD, China’s biggest EV maker, LSEG data show.
($1 = 7.1920 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Che Pan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
