ELON Musk has announced a major prediction regarding the future of electric vehicles.

The founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX said that he sees his electric car company being among the top 10 carmakers in the future along with nine Chinese EV makers.

Elon Musk said that he believes Chinese car companies will become dominant players in car manufacturing on the global stage Credit: The Mega Agency

The Tesla boss called Chinese car companies ‘extremely competitive’ in a recent interview Credit: Reuters

He explained that the top 10 automakers of the future could very well be mostly Chinese ones, with Tesla sitting atop them all, of course.

Musk stated that he believes Chinese car companies will become dominant players in vehicle manufacturing on the global stage.

“The Chinese car companies are extremely competitive,” he said at last month’s New York Times Dealbook conference.

“China is super good at manufacturing, and the work ethic is incredible.”

On Thursday in Beijing, popular smartphone company Xiaomi unveiled its first electric vehicle.

The smartphone giant said it aims to become, as CEO Lei Jun put it, “one of the world’s top five automakers” over the next 10 to 15 years.

“There’s a lot of people out there who think that the top 10 car companies are going to be Tesla followed by nine Chinese car companies,” he stated.

“I think they might not be wrong.”

CEO of Shanghai-based advisory firm Automobility Bill Russo told Reuters: “They have a significant opportunity to break through as the automobile becomes a smart device.”

The car released by Xiaomi is called the SU7, or Speed Ultra.

It will share an operating system with the company’s phones and other devices.

Russo noted that Xiaomi has “hundreds of millions of ‘Mi Fans,’ or members of its smart device ecosystem.”

Xiaomi was founded in 2010.

It’s already among the world’s top five global smartphone brands, alongside Apple, Samsung, and China’s Oppo and Vivo.

The company also makes other consumer electronics and household appliances.

Xiaomi’s new five-seat sedan will have a range of up to 500 miles on a single charge.

It’ll also have a top speed of about 165 miles per hour.

The vehicle will be equipped with a “super electric motor” that will allow it to accelerate faster than Tesla or Porsche EVs, the company’s CEO said.

Apple has also been rumored to be working on an EV that would integrate with its iOS.