At its September 7 launch event, Xiaomi officially priced the Sky Nomad EREV lineup — and the flagship Xiaomi Sky Nomad N90 Max Explorer Edition arrived with the feature nobody saw coming at pre-sale: a factory-fitted electric pop-up roof that turns the cabin into a 2.29-metre standing room. Lei Jun’s summary: “not just a tent — a room you can stand up in.”
Image source: Xiaomi (official)
What the Xiaomi Sky Nomad N90 Max Explorer Edition Adds
The N90 Max Explorer Edition (探索版) tops the N90 line at ¥299,900 (~$41,400) — ¥30,000 above the standard N90 Max, which launched at ¥269,900 (~$37,200). Its signature is the native electric lifting roof: raise it and the interior ceiling opens to 2.29 metres — high enough for adults to stand, cook and change inside, camper-van style, with the roof integrated into the body from the factory rather than bolted on aftermarket. Reports from the event add a second comfort feature to the flagship: floor heating for cold-weather camping. The powertrain stays the big N90 spec — a 76 kWh pack plus the 1.5T Kunlun range extender for 1,705 km of combined CLTC range and 464 km electric-only — so the “second floor” costs no range.
Image source: EVsays — Sheng He, shot on-site at the launch event
Spec Sheet: Space, Power and Range
Space. 5,285 mm long on a 3,080 mm wheelbase, seven seats in a 2+2+3 layout, built on the Kunlun flat floor — 2.9 metres of continuous rail-tracked floor, 4.4 m² of cabin space, front seats that rotate 180°, second-row legroom that extends to 1.55 metres and cargo room up to 1,831 litres. In the Explorer Edition, the raised roof adds a 2.29-metre standing zone on top of all of it.
Power. A 310 kW dual-motor all-wheel-drive system covers 0–100 km/h in 5.9 seconds. The 1.5T four-cylinder range extender (DongAn M15DRE, 112 kW net, 44.3% thermal efficiency) generates rather than drives, and returns a reported 6.26 L/100 km with the battery depleted.
Range. The 76 kWh Dragon Armor battery carries 464 km of CLTC electric-only range; with the extender, combined range reaches 1,705 km. One regulatory footnote: the Explorer Edition is classified in China as a small special-purpose passenger vehicle (小型专用客车) — the closest thing to an RV category an SUV can sit in, a quiet acknowledgment that this is built to be lived in, not just driven.
The Lineup and the Price War
The full Sky Nomad launch spans four variants: the N70 Pro from ¥209,900 (~$29,000), the N70 Max at ¥239,900 (~$33,100) — ¥20,000 below its pre-sale sticker — and the N90 Max at ¥269,900 (~$37,200), ¥30,000 under its ¥299,900 pre-sale price. The Explorer Edition keeps the ¥299,900 mark, with the roof. That pricing is aimed squarely at the Li Auto L6/L9 ladder the Kunlun architecture was designed to attack, and it lands while the EREV segment itself is contracting — Xiaomi’s bet is that value, not category growth, will carry the volume.
10,000 Locked-In Orders in 4 Minutes
The market’s first answer was loud: more than 10,000 locked-in orders within four minutes of the launch, per CnEVPost. Locked-in orders are not deliveries — the conversion will show in October — but it is the same explosive first-weekend pattern Xiaomi’s SU7 produced, and it arrives with the Dragon Armor battery’s new-car replacement guarantee as the confidence mechanism behind the family-SUV pitch. Xiaomi also used the same event to launch its 18 Fold foldable phone: cars and phones, one ecosystem, one stage.
Why a Pop-Up Roof Is a Real Strategy, Not a Gimmick
The pop-up roof is the loudest expression of where China’s family-SUV demand is heading: outdoor, overlanding, “camping economy” — the same trend that made roof tents and portable power stations best-sellers. A factory pop-up roof costs real engineering — sealing, crash integrity, wind noise, waterproofing — which is precisely why almost nobody integrates one. Xiaomi paid that bill to give the N90 Max Explorer Edition something no Li Auto or Aito rival has, in a segment where everything else is converging on the same flat-floor formula. There is no announced export plan; this is a China-market product whose concept, more than its availability, will travel.
The Bottom Line. Xiaomi’s Sky Nomad lineup launched September 7 from ¥209,900, and the ¥299,900 N90 Max Explorer Edition tops it with a factory electric pop-up roof that opens a 2.29-metre standing cabin — plus floor heating and the full 1,705 km EREV range. Over 10,000 orders locked in four minutes, but locked orders are not deliveries. The roof is the differentiator in a contracting EREV segment — a China-market camper concept that tells you exactly where Xiaomi thinks family-SUV demand is going.
Sources & Further Reading
- Xiaomi EV (official) — Sky Nomad N90 Max Explorer Edition product page — primary source, official specs and product positioning.
- CnEVPost — “Xiaomi launches Sky Nomad SUVs, entering EREV market to boost deliveries” (2026-09-07) — launch facts, pricing, lineup.
- CnEVPost — “Xiaomi Sky Nomad tops 10,000 locked-in orders in 4 minutes after launch” (2026-09-07) — order data.
- AAStocks (HK financial wire) — “Xiaomi launches Pengcheng N90 Max Explorer Edition with native electric pop-up roof cabin, ~¥300,000” (2026-09-08) — Explorer Edition trim and pricing.
- Moomoo News — “Lei Jun on the N90 Max Explorer Edition’s lifting roof: not just a tent, a room you can stand up in” (2026-09-08) — Lei Jun quote and 2.29 m figure.
Sourcing note: Launch facts, pricing and the 4-minute order figure are from CnEVPost’s September 7 coverage; the N90 Max Explorer Edition’s ¥299,900 pricing and native electric pop-up roof are confirmed by AAStocks’ September 8 wire item; the 2.29-metre standing height, floor-heating detail and Lei Jun’s “room you can stand up in” quote come from event coverage relayed by Moomoo News. Chinese aggregator reposts (Sohu, Toutiao, 17173) were not used. Locked-in orders (锁单) are order deposits, not deliveries. There is no announced export plan for the Sky Nomad line as of publication. Analysis is original to EVsays.
