- Xiaomi will offer owners a free upgrade to fix the SU7 Ultra’s “fake” hood vents.
- The automaker was sued after owners who bought the $5,800 upgrade and found that the vents didn’t actually move air as expected.
- A three-hour upgrade adds electronically-actuated vanes to fix the airflow problem.
Not long ago, Xiaomi got blasted by owners for a rather expensive performance upgrade that proved to be all show and no go. That upgrade? A $5,800 carbon fiber hood with gigantic vents in the front marketed to provide “track-level cooling” to the flagship performance sedan.
It turns out those vents provided no actual airflow and it resulted in owners demanding refunds for the entire cost of the car. Almost a year after owners revolted, Xiaomi finally has a fix: an upgrade that turns those fake vents into real ones.
Photo by: Xiaomi
The change, as originally reported by Chinese news outlet IT Home, adds electronically-actuated vanes that can open and close to adjust the airflow (and as a result, the car’s downforce at highway speeds), sending air from the car’s front grille through the vents when the owner puts the car in track mode, or automatically at speeds above 93 mph.
Xiaomi says that owners could see a slight range dip at high speeds, but that low-speed driving should be unaffected.
This hood drama dates back to last May when owners first realized that the hood didn’t actually provide the aerodynamic upgrade that Xiaomi promised. Owners took the automaker to court over claims of false advertising where a court in Suzhou, China ruled against Xiaomi and ordered it to pay damages to some owners.
However, last month, Xiaomi scored a win in a separate local court in Changsha. That court ruled that marketing terms like “high-efficiency airflow” used by Xiaomi to describe the function of its hood didn’t actually constitute deliberate intent to mislead customers.
Even if the Xiaomi SU7’s hood vents took all of this drama to become functional, at least Xiaomi is offering an upgrade—especially one at no cost to owners. It’s unfortunate that it had to come to lawsuits and public shaming from owners, but seeing the automaker actually provide an upgrade that is technical in nature and not just adding a rivet or slapping on some adhesive is refreshing in 2026.
Xiaomi says that qualifying owners can schedule the complimentary service in its app to arrange the upgrade. The installation takes about three hours to complete.