However, early last year, reports emerged that the ambitious project had officially been canned, with up to around 600 employees given their marching orders or being retrenched within the company.

Xiaomi, which produces smartphones and consumer electronics, delivered 135,000 E.V.s last year after tapping China’s robust manufacturing supply chain.

Xiaomi stock price is firing on all cylinders, making it one of the best-performing companies in the Hang Seng index. It has soared by over 300% in the last twelve months and is beating Apple (AAPL) whose shares have jumped by less than 50%.

Xiaomi SU7 — at its MWC global launch. It's fantastic, and here are five features that ever carmaker should adopt.

The Xiaomi Pad 7 series are two well-performing, lightweight 11-inch tablets. There’s an excellent new keyboard that performs well, though it is clearly a design clone.

It isn’t the best at everything, but the Leica co-engineered Xiaomi 15 Ultra has a fantastic all-round camera with its 1-inch wide sensor, 200MP zoom, and excellent grip accessory

The Xiaomi 15 Ultra's incredible camera specification has us really excited. Can the phone lived up to our very high expectations. We find out.

An Android tablet with an excellent ecosystem and sensible price, the XIaomi Pad 7 Pro can be fun and functional in equal measure

The Xiaomi 15 is available in the UK and Europe starting at £849 (€999). The Xiaomi 15 Ultra will set you back £1,299 (€1,499). The Xiaomi 15 Ultra Photography Kit costs an extra £179 (€199).

On paper, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra offers a lot of great specs. Powerful Leica-tuned cameras, including an absurd 200MP telephoto lens, a large battery, and all the performance of the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. However, like all Xiaomi phones, there’s a big emphasis on the own-brand software, rather than a cleaner variation of Android.

With uncompromising camera hardware that puts every rival in the shade, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is as good as it gets for phone photography