Xiaomi Is China’s First Automaker With A Bespoke Gran Turismo Car

• Xiaomi unveiled China’s first electric car designed exclusively for the Gran Turismo game.
• The Xiaomi Vision GT broke cover yesterday on the Mobile World Congress stage in Barcelona, Spain.
• The futuristic and probably extremely fast EV will make its debut in GT7 soon.

Xiaomi went from smartphone upstart to a global powerhouse that has its sights set on becoming one of the biggest names in the car industry. After impressing the CEOs of several Western automakers, it’s now coming for your gaming console with a bespoke concept car.

The Xiaomi Vision GT is a sleek two-door electric hypercar developed exclusively for the virtual world of Gran Turismo 7, which is widely considered one of the best car racing simulators out there. It’s China’s first Vision GT car, and it follows in the footsteps of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, which became the first Chinese car featured in the sim last year.

The car maker said the Vision GT is based on its 900-volt silicon carbide platform, which is really cool, until you realize that this is a car made for a video game. For what it’s worth, Xiaomi also made a full-scale model for this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, but there’s no word on whether that car is anything more than a pretty shape on training wheels.

Nonetheless, the Chinese company is serious about its global expansion, and seeding its cars in a game that’s played around the world increases its chances of gaining a following among today’s teenagers. Those teenagers will become adults with money to spend, and maybe they’ll buy a Xiaomi car in the future, who knows.

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Source: Xiaomi

The Vision GT sits extremely close to the ground and adopts a “less is more” design philosophy. This forced designers to treat almost every body part with aerodynamics in mind. Inside, the two-seater has a jet-fighter look, with an integrated panoramic display at the bottom of the windshield and a Formula 1-like yoke steering wheel that accommodates several knobs and screens. And because this is a Xiaomi, it integrates seamlessly with the company’s other products–in theory, at least.

It’s a radical car, just like the other vehicles to wear the Vision GT badge. The game has convinced over 40 brands to bring their bespoke concepts into the virtual gaming scene, including Volkswagen, Bugatti, Ferrari, Chevrolet, Porsche and Jaguar. The Xiaomi Vision GT will join the huge list of cars in Gran Turismo 7 soon.