Xiaomi's first electric vehicle, the SU7, has begun road tests across China for final preparations before hitting the market, according to the founder of the Chinese handset giant.

Lei Jun, who is also Xiaomi's Chief Executive, said so on Weibo on Feb. 3 that he will put more focus on the auto business, while President Lu Weibing will step in as general manager of the Xiaomi brand, focusing on brand development and speaking at press conferences for new smartphone releases.

Headsets are Xiaomi's core business, and Lei will continue to dedicate enough time to it, he pointed out.

Xiaomi Automobile, the EV unit of Beijing-based Xiaomi, unveiled the SU7 during a launch event in Beijing on Dec. 28. The model has faster acceleration than Porsche's Taycan Turbo and Tesla's Model S, Lei said at the three-hour event, noting that the car is being produced in small batches and will come onto the market in a few months.

Xiaomi aims to make the world's top five vehicles within 15 to 20 years and build a phone space that is good-looking, easy to operate, comfortable, and safe, with experience exceeding expectations, Lei noted at the time.

After years of development, Xiaomi is no longer a low-quality, low-price brand, but it is not a luxury brand either, so its first vehicle will likely sell for more than CNY200,000 (USD27,800) because a too-low price will hurt its brand, Zhang Xiang, a guest professor at Huanghe S&T University, told Yicai. But pricing the SU7 around CNY250,000 will make it face fierce market competition, Zhang added.