Ford CEO Jim Farley’s Favorite Chinese EV Company Europe Bound

Last October, Ford CEO Jim Farley revealed that he “didn’t want to give up” his Xiaomi SU7 – a Chinese EV – after spending a number of months tooling around in it. He isn’t alone in that regard, as the SU7 was selling like hotcakes in China as soon as it launched, and just this past March, Xiaomi announced that it planned to begin selling its vehicles in other markets at some point in the near future. Now, that company has officially tabbed Europe as its first foray outside of China.

According to Bloomberg, Xiaomi has announced that it will sell its first vehicle in Europe in 2027, news that came from President Lu Weibing himself. The company saw its revenue climb to 116 billion yuan ($16.2 billion) in the most recent quarter, a 31 percent increase, on the back of strong sales for what currently only consists of two models – the aforementioned SU7, as well as the YU7 SUV, which just launched this past June.

Somewhat amazingly, Xiaomi previously only sold smartphones, but has quickly gained traction in the car market, too. It has invested $10 billion in that effort, but due to issues scaling production to meet demand, consumers are facing long wait times of more than a year for the YU7. Regardless, it still managed to deliver 81,302 vehicles in the last quarter, taking the total to more than 157,000 units in the first half.

Farley has spent quite a bit of time not only behind the wheel of the SU7, but also, a number of other Chinese EVs that the executive has tested out and walked away impressed with. The Ford CEO later admitted that the experience was “humbling,” given the fact that those models are apparently light years ahead of the competition. In fact, Farley even went so far as to say that The Blue Oval “doesn’t have a future” if it can’t build EVs capable of competing with China’s best.