This Tesla-Crushing EV Was The Best Car I Drove In 2025. Here's Why

This Ferrari-looking crossover is beating the Tesla Model Y in China for a reason. Not many cars can compare.

Xiaomi YU7

Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs

Kevin Williams

By: Kevin Williams

Dec 31, 2025 at 1:07pm ET

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The Xiaomi YU7 is a mid-sized EV crossover made by the Chinese tech company, Xiaomi.
It directly rivals the Tesla Model Y in China. The YU7 starts at about $35,000 for a base model single motor RWD YU7.
Xiaomi received more than 200,000 orders within the first hour of the YU7 going on sale.

Perhaps it’s a case of the winter blues. Or maybe it’s just realizing what the state of the world has been for the past year. But I’ve had a terrible attitude toward the state of the automobile, and I’m not just talking about the mostly mediocre crop of electric cars Americans have to choose from.

Whether they're gas-powered, hybrid or electric, everything is often too expensive, not often compelling to look at, and seemingly made with a little bit of contempt by brands that don’t seem like they want to make cars of any type, but especially not electric ones.

(Full disclosure: Xiaomi flew me to China and provided lodging for the launch of the YU7 earlier this year. The company provided me with a test car for this review.)

We’ve driven plenty of cars at this site from brands that instruct their PR reps to talk a big game, while their bigwig executives go out of their way to undermine their electrification efforts behind closed doors. Even now, it feels like many car brands want to go back to gas as soon as possible.

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So, this year, when I was one of a handful of westerners to get behind the wheel of the Xiaomi YU7, it felt like a breath of fresh air. Here I was, experiencing a product made by a company that clearly has something to prove not only to its home market of China, but to the whole world, and it showed.

I can say with confidence that it is probably the best electric car I’ve driven in 2025. Perhaps the best electric car I’ve driven, ever.

The YU7’s status as a new benchmark goes way beyond just the impeccable fit and finish, or attention to detail. It’s also more than its nearly unflappable driving dynamics and foolproof and clever software suite—we all kind of knew that from Xiaomi’s existing representation as a tech powerhouse, even if Xiaomi’s tech products aren’t really sold in the United States.

It’s that the YU7 feels like it’s made by people who are excited to make an EV.

The brand’s full purpose from its outset was to figure out a way to capture what people wanted to drive; it distilled the best parts driving, plus tech features that people like, into a product and form factor that is approachable. And it figured out how to do so in a profitable way, by scaling quickly and not really reinventing the wheel.

Xiaomi YU7

Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs

I’ve said this before in podcasts and my initial read of the Xiaomi YU7’s first drive event: the YU7 itself isn’t all that groundbreaking, technically. The battery tech, cell-to-body design and self-developed motors are technically impressive, and the sub-3 second 0-60 time from 680 horsepower for a car that costs less than $50,000 in China is great.

But those specs are garden-variety when it comes to the segment’s best. The YU7 can’t battery-swap, and its charging speeds aren’t the top-tier nearly megawatt level speeds we’ve seen from brands like BYD and Zeekr. I mean, calling it a knock-off Ferrari Purosangue isn’t a stretch. The car clearly is very much inspired by that car in the same way its sister sedan, the SU7, apes the Porsche Taycan.

Xiaomi YU7

Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs

But you know what? I don’t care. The YU7 wins on execution, in every possible way.

Like most people, I’ll never be able to afford a Taycan or a Purosangue in my lifetime. And despite taking inspiration from both of those cars, the Xiaomi EVs feel fresh and exciting, a growing hallmark of China’s auto industry. The YU7 feels expensive and lush in ways that most non-Chinese EV makers can only dream of. I mean, compare the YU7 to its direct competitor, the Tesla Model Y.

Whereas the Model Y’s interior and form factor are about the same as they ever been (despite its recent update), it’s hard, and the spartan interior and stiff ride feel like at least a full generation behind what the YU7 is offering. There’s a reason why the YU7 is essentially sold out for a full year.

After the YU7 debut event this past June, I haven’t really been able to shake the car from my mind. I had driven plenty of Chinese EVs in 2025; most of them were very impressive from stem to stern, but the YU7 felt the most complete of them all. Maybe I’d be more willing to buy a smaller and cheaper EV like the Firefly or BYD Seagull, but there are almost no direct competitors to those cars for sale in the U.S. There are, however, plenty of compact to midsized crossovers, electric and not. But I haven’t driven anything at home that can match the YU7, or nearly any other Chinese EV I’ve had experience with.

Brands and political pundits have made beating China a goal for themselves, but I’m not convinced that they understand why Xiaomi (or any other Chinese EV) has the appeal it does. The YU7 is desirable and it’s likable. Western EV companies may eventually figure out how to make their EV models profitable to make, but are they truly desirable? That’s what they need to work on. Some of them seem to get it. Others never will.

Xiaomi YU7

Photo by: Kevin Williams/InsideEVs

The fact that Xiaomi has profitably delivered such an impressive set of products just two years into making cars, all while selling out their waitlists, should put the entire industry on notice in a way we haven’t seen since Tesla first arrived. It could redefine what is possible and acceptable for automobiles.

In the meantime, I just want to get behind the wheel again.

What do you think?

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(Update 7/16/2026: This story has been updated to meet InsideEVs' travel disclosure policy.)

Contact the author: kevin.williams@insideevs.com

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