Category: eMobility

"We are confident that it will be the No. 1 seller of all passenger cars priced at RMB 500,000 ($70,160) or more, regardless of energy form and regardless of body form," Li Auto said.

Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) announced the naming of its first battery electric vehicle (BEV) model and set an ambitious goal for its sales.

Li Auto's first BEV, its super flagship model, has been officially named Li MEGA and is expected to be released by the end of 2023, the company announced today at its first Family Tech Day event held at its facility in Changzhou, Jiangsu province.

"We are confident that it will be the No. 1 seller of all passenger cars priced at RMB 500,000 ($70,160) or more, regardless of energy form and regardless of body form," the company said.

Li MEGA will break the traditional perception that high-end pure electric vehicles cannot be hot sellers, Li Auto said.

Li Auto currently has three models on sale, the five-seat Li L7, and the six-seat Li L8 and Li L9, all of which are extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), essentially plug-in hybrids.

The Li MEGA will be Li Auto's first foray into the BEV market, and it will be an MPV (multi-purpose vehicle, or van) model, according to information it previously shared.

By 2025, Li Auto's product array will include one super flagship model, five EREVs, and five BEVs, it said on the first day of the Shanghai auto show on April 18.

By then, Li Auto's models for the market priced above RMB 200,000 will fully meet the needs of family users, the company previously said.

Li Auto models currently on sale have a starting price range of RMB 319,800 to RMB 459,800.

Li Auto's first all-electric model will be the world's first to feature CATL's 4C Qilin Battery, it said on April 18.

C refers to the battery's charge multiplier, and 4C means that the pack can theoretically be fully charged in a quarter of an hour.

Notably, Li Auto began today's Family Tech Day event by introducing its 5C charging solution, which it said allows for charging power of more than 500 kW.

Li Auto has developed its own 800 V high-voltage all-electric platform and will mass-produce 5C all-electric vehicles, it said.

The company has optimized the battery at the system level to take fuller advantage of the battery's 5C charging multiplier, giving vehicles a range of 400 kilometers in 9 minutes and 30 seconds and 600 kilometers in 22 minutes of charging.

As a comparison, Tesla's latest V3 Supercharger has a peak charging power of 250 kW and can charge the vehicle with up to about 250 km of range in 15 minutes at peak power.

Li Auto will fast-track the deployment of the 5C supercharging network, completing more than 300 supercharging stations by the end of this year and more than 3,000 by 2025, it said.

Li Auto did not say whether Li MEGA will use that 5C solution, but said that with mass deliveries of its 5C BEV models, more Chinese households will enjoy the high-voltage, pure-electric technology that will replace fuel-powered vehicles on a large scale.

The company unveiled its auto-charging robot at today's event, saying it will provide an energy replenishment experience that goes far beyond refueling.

Li Auto's vehicles will automatically drive to charging spaces and park themselves, and the charging robot can automatically connect, charge and settle with the vehicle through visual recognition.

Li Auto also announced its progress on advanced driver assistance systems, saying it will open internal testing of City NOA (Navigation on ADAS) in Beijing and Shanghai this month.

In the second half of the year, Li Auto will open up the commute NOA feature and make City NOA available in more cities, it said.

For the commute NOA feature, vehicles can be activated for simple routes in less than 1 week and trained for more complex routes in 2-3 weeks.

Li Auto estimates that commute NOA can cover more than 95 percent of commuting scenarios, making the vehicle a "dedicated elevator" for owners.

The company said its City NOA is the first in China that doesn't rely on high-precision maps, and with the help of AI big models, will achieve driving performance close to that of a human driver.

Li Auto also unveiled the progress of its in-car voice assistant, Lixiang Tongxue, at today's event, saying it built Mind GPT, a cognitive big model, to make the feature even smarter.

With the help of Mind GPT, Lixiang Tongxue can turn into a teacher for users, a professional car butler, an expert in teaching drawing and programming, Li Auto said.

In addition to its technological advances, Li Auto announced that its 400,000th vehicle rolled off the assembly line today.

Li Auto delivered a record 28,277 vehicles in May, bringing cumulative deliveries to 363,876.

($1 = RMB 7.1266)

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