(Yicai) March 14 -- Reservations at Xiaomi stores in China surged by more than 100,000 in a single day after the Chinese tech giant’s electric vehicle unit said it will launch its first model on March 28, founder Lei Jun said.

Lei is busy with the opening of Xiaomi Automobile's delivery centers, stores, and service outlets in the first group of 29 Chinese cities, while also choosing the locations of the second group, he said on Weibo yesterday.

Lei is also working to ensure higher capacity at Xiaomi's auto plant to make sure that its vehicles are delivered as soon as possible and after hitting the market. He is also preparing the SU7 launch event.

Competition in the auto industry is fierce and Xiaomi Auto is ready to capture market share, Lei said on March 12. The transition of Xiaomi Auto from 0 to 1 and user expectations are very different from those Xiaomi faced 14 years ago, he said, adding that the carmaker needs to do something different, the most important of which is smart technology.

The motoring public is paying close attention to the as-yet-unannounced pricing of Xiaomi’s SU7, a C-class mid-level five-seater sedan.

The car is expected to be priced above CNY200,000 (USD28,000), as too low a price would hurt the tech company's value, according to Zhang Xiang, a visiting professor at Huanghe Science and Technology University.

The SU7 will have many rivals around the CNY250,000 mark, including Tesla, Geely Auto, Changan Automobile, Huawei Technology's Wenjie, Nio, Li Auto, and Xpeng Motors, Zhang told Yicai.

A BYD Han, BYD's equivalent to Xiaomi’s SU7, costs CNY169,800; Geely’s Galaxy E8 is at least CNY175,800; Zeekr’s 007 starts at CNY209,900; Nio’s ET7 costs at least CNY428,000; while the ninth-generation Camry by GAC Toyota Motor goes for a minimum of CNY171,800.

Editor: Martin Kadiev