If you’ve been wondering how Xiaomi’s SU7 EV, specifically the Ultra variant, performs, but aren’t keen on waiting for the new Chinese EV to land in South Africa, you’re in luck. Provided you have a PlayStation 5 and a copy of Gran Turismo 7, anyway.
Xiaomi has succeeded in adding its 1,500-horsepower electric vehicle to Sony’s driving simulator, where it’ll give you a taste of how the vehicle handles the road. It’s not quite the same as actually driving one, but it might come close. Sony even made a movie about the game’s accuracy (which heavily involved Nissans).
SU7, meet GT7
There’s some back-room deal-making going on with Xiaomi’s appearance, though. As with all cars in Gran Turismo 7, players have to pay for one with in-game currency earned through races. Unlike the other in-game cars that approach hypercar status, Xiaomi’s SU7 Ultra won’t cost a colossal amount. Buying one in Sony’s game will set you back around $73,000 — or R1.2 million.
For comparison, buying an actual SU7 Ultra will cost you a little over R2 million. That’s before you bring it over here, pay taxes on it, and then figure out where to charge one. Still, PlayStation gamers now have a shot at driving the first Chinese-made car to appear in Gran Turismo.
It may not be the last one to appear, either. There’s talk of BYD’s YangWang U9 Extreme also making it onto the roster of Sony’s popular driving simulator. Given that those have an estimated price in South Africa of R4,5 million (again, before shipping and taxes), perhaps it’ll have some more realistic in-game pricing to go with that realistic in-game performance.
