Xiaomi launches a family SUV with an air-conditioned roof tent

Xiaomi has launched a seven-seat family SUV with a factory-fitted pop-up roof, and the loft it creates has its own air conditioning, lighting and charging ports.

The Skynomad N90 Max Studio, also referred to as the Explorer Edition, went on sale in China on Monday at 299,900 yuan, around NZ$71,000, alongside the standard N90 Max at 269,900 yuan and two smaller five-seat N70 models. Deliveries begin in November and December. Our sister channel Inside China Auto has already spent time with the Studio, roof up, in the video below.

The roof is built into the body rather than bolted on. Closed, it adds 100mm to the car’s height and leaves the drag coefficient at 0.245; parked, it rises electrically to open a two-level cabin with 2.29 metres of standing height, an upper loft of around two square metres rated to 200kg, and its own climate control. The Studio trades the standard car’s 2+2+3 layout for five seats whose second row folds flat into a 1.87-metre bed in 30 seconds, over a floor with heating in three settings, and carries a 30-inch projector screen for the cinema part of the evening. Xiaomi markets it as a mobile studio as much as a camper, and says the roof can only be raised while parked off public roads.

The standard N90 Max is a 5,285mm, 1,998mm-wide seven-seater on a 3,080mm wheelbase, with a 2+2+3 cabin Xiaomi says reconfigures into 11 layouts. The front seats rotate 180 degrees to face the second row around a fold-out table, the centre console rides on rails and carries a nine-litre compressor fridge, and the second row has zero-gravity seats with massage, ventilation and heating. A 16.1-inch screen runs Xiaomi’s HyperOS, a 20-inch head-up display faces the driver, and a 21.4-inch screen mounted to the ceiling slides fore and aft to serve whichever row is watching. Every model carries an Nvidia Thor assisted-driving chip, lidar and radar. Wading depth is 750mm.

Skynomad is Xiaomi’s first extended-range line, a departure from its battery-electric SU7 and YU7. A 112kW 1.5-litre turbo engine works purely as a generator for a 210kW front motor and 100kW rear motor. The N90 Max claims 464km of electric-only range and 1,705km combined on China’s CLTC cycle, enough, Xiaomi says, to drive from Shanghai to Beijing without stopping. All Skynomads use the Dragonscale battery, backed by Xiaomi’s pledge to replace the car if the pack catches fire through a defect.

Xiaomi is not sold in New Zealand, and the Skynomad is aimed at China’s large-family-SUV market, where it undercuts the Li Auto L9 and AITO M9 by tens of thousands of yuan. It arrives as extended-range SUVs gather pace globally, with Hyundai confirming a Santa Fe EREV for North America a fortnight ago.