Xiaomi's new SUV is an electric car, a long-distance cruiser and a camper all at once
The phone company keeps quietly out-thinking the car industry
Xiaomi is only a couple of years into building cars, and it keeps landing punches the established makers cannot. Its new SkyNomad N90 is a good example: on the surface it is just a big family SUV, but it is designed to erase the single biggest reason people still refuse to go electric. It drives as an EV around town, carries a petrol backup for the long haul, and can even turn into a camper. It is a very smart piece of thinking.
Electric first, petrol as insurance
The N90 is an extended-range EV, or EREV. It drives purely on its electric motors, fed by a 76 kWh battery good for more than 400 km of electric running, but it also carries a 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine whose only job is to act as a generator, topping up the battery on a long trip. It never drives the wheels directly. With a full tank and a full charge, Xiaomi quotes a combined range of around 1,700 km, and once the battery is depleted the car sips fuel at roughly 5.7 litres per 100 km. Those range figures are on China's generous CLTC cycle, so real-world numbers will be lower, but the principle is sound: drive electric daily, and never worry about a motorway marathon.
Big, powerful and flexible
This is a substantial car, nearly 5.3 metres long, offered with five or seven seats. In its most potent N90 Max form the twin-motor electric drive produces a hefty system output of around 421 hp, so despite its size and its road-trip focus it is far from slow. The interior is designed to be reconfigured, with rotating front seats and options that point clearly at the headline feature.
Yes, it becomes a camper
The name is a hint. Xiaomi will offer a dedicated N90 Camper version with an extended living module, adding a small table, a proper bed and other practical touches, with even a roof tent said to be possible. Combine that with an EV that can effectively refuel at any petrol station and travel 1,700 km between stops, and you have a genuine long-distance adventure vehicle that does not tie you to a charging network in the middle of nowhere. It is exactly the sort of use case pure EVs still struggle with.
AutoNext Take
This is the range-extender idea used exactly as it should be. Europe has spent years arguing about whether buyers are ready for pure EVs, while Chinese brands quietly built the obvious compromise: a car that is electric for the 95 percent of journeys that are short, with a petrol safety net for the rare long haul, and no range anxiety at all. Wrapping that in a spacious, camper-ready family SUV, and pricing it from around 35,000 euros, is the kind of clear-eyed product thinking that keeps catching the old guard flat-footed.
The catch, for now, is that the SkyNomad is a China-only car, and Xiaomi has not confirmed if or when it will reach Europe. That is a shame, because this is precisely the kind of vehicle a lot of hesitant European buyers would love, one that delivers most of the benefits of electric driving without demanding they rebuild their lives around a charging cable. Whether or not this exact model ever arrives, expect the recipe, electric daily, petrol for holidays, a bed in the back, to turn up here before long. The idea is simply too good to stay in China.
