Gran Turismo Series Producer Kazunori Yamauchi: China is Very Advanced in Electric Vehicle Technology, More Chinese EVs May Be Included in the Future
During the 2026 Beijing Auto Show, Xiaomi's first Vision GranTurismo concept car made its domestic debut. Li Tianyuan, General Manager of Industrial Design at Xiaomi and Vice Chairman of the Group Design Committee, and Kazunori Yamauchi, producer of the GT series, spoke with the media, detailing the cooperation process between the two sides.
Regarding the initial intention of inviting Xiaomi to join the GT series, Kazunori Yamauchi told Sina Technology that he initially went to Shanghai to watch the Shanghai F1 race, where he came into contact with the Xiaomi team and had a conversation. It was then that he first learned what kind of company Xiaomi was and what it wanted to do. "Xiaomi doesn't just make smartphones, it also makes home appliances and cars, and recently even some semiconductors. It's a very rare company. Google and Apple haven't achieved these things. After truly understanding it, I realized how great this company is. If we cooperate with Xiaomi, they will definitely design a very good car, so I extended an invitation to Xiaomi."
He said that the design of the Xiaomi VGT is very clean, very pure, but at the same time it is also a very intelligent and very smart car. The design of extreme performance supercars is usually too exaggerated, with too much muscle, but the Xiaomi VGT is very simple, concise, and pure, which is also the biggest difference from other GT series models.
In June 2025, "Gran Turismo 7" announced that it would include the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, becoming the first domestically produced car in the series' history. Kazunori Yamauchi admitted that he previously thought that electric vehicles couldn't be driven on the track, for example, there would be problems such as battery overheating and weight. But he drove the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra for 4 laps on the Nürburgring at a relatively high pace, and no car overtook him the entire way, with 25% of the battery remaining at the end. "I was actually very surprised."
He said that China is very advanced in electric vehicle technology and also has many users who like electric vehicles and games. He believes that there will be more and more Chinese cars in the GT series games in the future.