• The previously unannounced Sky Nomad N70 Pro will join the N70 Max and N90 Max in their official launch on September 7.
• The new lineup will be key to Xiaomi Auto's push to meet its annual delivery target of 550,000 vehicles.

Xiaomi (HKEX: 1810) will launch 3 extended-range SUV (sport utility vehicle) models in its Sky Nomad lineup next week, expanding its vehicle portfolio.

Xiaomi Auto said on Weibo on Wednesday that the N70 Pro, N70 Max and N90 Max will officially launch at its fall flagship product event at 7 pm Beijing Time on September 7.

This is the first time Xiaomi has announced a specific launch date and time for the Sky Nomad lineup since pre-sales began on July 30.

Only the N70 Max and N90 Max were previously available in pre-sales. The flagship 7-seat N90 Max has a pre-sales price of 299,900 yuan ($44,230), while the N70 Max is priced at 259,900 yuan.

The addition of the N70 Pro will broaden the initial launch lineup. Judging by its name, it is likely to be priced below the N70 Max, signaling Xiaomi's ambitions for the series.

Sky Nomad is Xiaomi's second automotive product series and marks the company's first expansion from battery electric vehicles into the extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) segment.

The N90 Max measures 5,285 mm in length and has a wheelbase of 3,080 mm. It uses a dual-motor all-wheel-drive system and has a CLTC battery-only range of 464 km and a combined range of 1,705 km on a full charge and a full tank.

The smaller N70 Max offers 52-kWh and 76-kWh battery packs, with a maximum CLTC battery-only range of 505 km. It also uses a dual-motor all-wheel-drive system.

The entire Sky Nomad lineup comes standard with Xiaomi's HAD (Hyper Autonomous Driving) driver-assistance system and is powered by an Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) Drive Thor chip with 700 TOPS of computing power.

The launch of the new lineup will test whether Xiaomi Auto can significantly increase deliveries in the final 4 months of the year.

The company said on September 1 that its vehicle deliveries remained above 30,000 units in August, marking a fifth consecutive month above that level, though it did not disclose an exact figure.

Based on the 30,000-unit lower bound, Xiaomi Auto delivered an estimated 246,322 vehicles in the first 8 months, equivalent to 44.8% of its annual target of 550,000 units.

To meet that target, the company would need to deliver an average of about 75,900 vehicles per month from September through December, roughly 2.4 times its actual July deliveries.

The EREV market that Sky Nomad is entering has also faced recent pressure. Retail sales of EREVs in China fell 15.35% year-on-year to 535,000 units in the first 7 months, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

That means the new lineup's ability to accelerate Xiaomi's growth will depend on its final pricing, order performance and the pace of its delivery ramp-up after launch.

The Xiaomi 18 Fold foldable smartphone and Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max tablet will also be launched at the event and will debut the Xring O3 flagship AI processor designed by Xiaomi.

The event is scheduled 3 days before Apple's fall product launch on September 10 Beijing Time, underscoring Xiaomi's efforts to strengthen its ecosystem across vehicles, mobile devices and in-house chips.

($1 = 6.7829 yuan)