(Yicai) Jan. 8 -- Xiaomi Automobile is concentrating on the production and sales of its first vehicle, a mid-level five-seat sedan, and has no plans to release a cheaper version of the car for now, the electric vehicle unit of Chinese handset giant Xiaomi said today, without making any mention of the pricing.

Prices will be announced after the Xiaomi SU7 is released, which should be in the next few months, the Beijing-based company said in response to 100 questions from netizens posed after its first technical press was released on Dec. 28. The firm will not be releasing a cheaper version of the car, similar to its Redmi budget line for smartphones, any time soon, it added.

Xiaomi Auto’s ultimate goal is to let Xiaomi cars run on every street of the globe, it said, without going into further detail.

“Smartphones remain Xiaomi’s core business and they are the very foundation of Xiaomi’s ‘human-car-home smart ecosystem,’” Xiaomi Auto said.

Xiaomi founder and Chairman Lei Jun spends half of his time working on the automobile business, a quarter on developing smartphones, and the remainder managing Xiaomi Corp, it added.

Xiaomi Auto uses integrated hypercasting technology, developed by Xiaomi and Haitian Die Casting, to give a clamping force of 9,100-ton, higher than Tesla Model Y’s 6,000-ton to 9,000-ton force. The company has also developed its own patented Titan alloy suitable for hypercasting and it has made the ratio of the elements public.

Xiaomi Auto has co-developed the V6 super motor with United Automotive Electronic Systems, which can achieve 21,000 revolutions a minute and is not an old model by the latter, it said.

It has also co-developed another super motor, the V6s. with Shenzhen Inovance Technology which has a similar rotating speed. And it has developed on its own the motor V8s with 27,200 rpm that will be used on its vehicles next year.

Xiaomi Auto refuted a rumor that its Modena platform is based on a framework used by other automakers. The company operates according to the 100 “first”, “only” and “most” design goals set when the platform was first established, it added.

Editor: Kim Taylor