By Che Pan and Brenda Goh

BEIJING, March 21 (Reuters) - China's Xiaomi 1810.HK has hired at least five senior executives from firms including Germany's BMW, LinkedIn posts showed, as it advances plans to build an electric vehicle research and development centre in Europe.

The world's third largest smartphone maker began manufacturing EVs last year with the launch of the SU7 sedan after selling phones, household appliances and smart gadgets for most of its 15-year history.

It has since become one of the biggest disrupters in the Chinese auto market, outselling Tesla's TSLA.O Model 3 since December, with company president Lu Weibing saying this week that it will begin selling its cars abroad in 2027.

Xiaomi hired Rudolf Dittrich, a 15-year BMW veteran, last year to head the planned research centre, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Other new hires include Dusan Sarac, a former manager at BMW Group BMWG.DE, who said on his LinkedIn profile that he had joined the European research centre this month. Jannis Hellwig also joined Xiaomi from BMW and will serve as a senior engineer on performance development and integration.

BMW spokespeople did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Xiaomi is also hiring for several other positions to be based in Munich, Germany, including senior automotive designer, senior automotive exterior designer and vehicle dynamics engineers, according to LinkedIn jobs page.

The company told Reuters on Friday that its EV research and development centre in Europe is "in the process of planning." It gave no details on the facility's planned location, when it will open or the size of Xiaomi's investment.

Company president Lu did not elaborate on which markets it plans to target when it launches sales outside China.

(Reporting by Che Pan and Brenda Goh; Additional reporting by Zoey Zhang; Editing by Joe Bavier)

((Che.Pan@thomsonreuters.com;))