Xiaomi's new car design looks good enough to rival the finest hypercars on the planet, so it's almost a shame that the only roads the Vision GT will be burning up will be in a game.
Designed to feature in Gran Turismo 7, one of the best driving games around today, Xiaomi will join the esteemed list of manufacturers to add a concept car – or vision – to the game. That's not to say that this car hasn't undergone the same rigorous design process as a real car.
This work was a partnership between Xiaomi's European automotive design studio and China, and puts extreme focus on the aerodynamics of the Vision car. Described as being sculpted by the wind, it features integrated airflow channels in the chassis, an active underfloor and hollow tail lights at the rear. The floating teardrop design enlists every part of the design to have an aero function, rather than aesthetics.
The rear of the car looks more like a luxury yacht. Around the tail lights, tiny holes generate airflow to push the dirty air away from the car to reduce drag in what it fittingly calls the active wave control system.
A special Voltex wheel cover fits flush with the tyre, with a magnetic system to keep it still while the wheels are in motion. Inside the cover, a turbo fan directs airflow for brake cooling. All of this results in a drag coefficient of 0.29 and a downforce of -1.2.
Inside, the cockpit is designed to be both a hypercar in styling and as comfortable as racing from your sofa. Xiaomi's intelligence assistance, Pulse, is built into the dash and interacts using sound and light. The Hyper OS has also been reimagined for driving use, while the X-shaped steering wheel features both a digital display and physical buttons.
The Xiaomi Vision Gran Turismo is due to be added to the game this September, but in the meantime, you can drive the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra. With such a good-looking and thought-out design, it's a shame there won't be a real-world version of the VGT, at least beyond the full-size model.
I got to see this in person at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and it looks just as impressive in real life. While the SU7 and YU7 models are also impressive, the VGT is a strong sign that Xiaomi cars are going to get even better in the future.
