China’s market for ‘new energy vehicles’ – a category that includes hybrid, fuel-cell and battery-powered vehicles – is booming.
Battery electric vehicles account for a large share of the new energy vehicle market, but hybrids are also seeing significant growth.
With China being the world’s largest car market and home to dozens of car brands and factories, this is fertile ground for new energy vehicle startups.
Li Auto is one of them, but while startups like Nio and Xpeng have been established as battery electric car brands, Li Auto is currently focusing on plug-in hybrids.
Company history and overview
Li Auto borrows the name of its founder Li Xiang. Xiang says that while at best an average student in his class, he found his real hobby when he left school: the Internet.
Realizing the potential to make money from an online business, Xiang founded a website called PCPop.com in 1999, an online store for various electronic devices and computers.
After slow growth and increased revenue from the website, Xiang expanded PCPop to include automotive electronics, such as after-purchase stereo receivers and other products, with this portion of site called ‘Autohome.’
Autohome was later spun off as a separate website dedicated to all things automotive and expanded its reach to more than just a place where customers could shop for auto electronic parts and components. but also a place where they can find and buy cars themselves.
Xiang and his management team were able to grow Autohome rapidly, and combined with the already established presence of the broader PCPop business, attracted the attention of investors. private around the world.
One of these investors was Australian telecoms giant Telstra, which took control of a 55% stake in both businesses, with the result that Xiang was no longer involved in running the companies or bringing Make your big decisions. Telstra then sold Autohome to a Chinese insurance company in 2018.
Instead of selling cars, Xiang decided to try building his own cars in 2015. However, instead of the tried-and-tested Tesla-style approach of producing an original, all-battery-powered car. at high prices and low volumes before switching to cheaper models sold in larger volumes, Xiang decided to try a dual-pronged approach.
This involved prioritizing the development of an affordable and compact Renault Twizy-style ‘low-speed electric vehicle’, perfect for carpooling, before launching a much larger, practical enough SUV Economical for family purposes and also comfortable enough for long commutes. inner distance.
Unfortunately, the Chinese government did not approve the new low-speed electric vehicle category, causing Xiang’s initial business strategy to fail and forcing his fledgling company to focus on development and release. replacement SUV.
With the company changing its name from Chehejia Technologies to the more ambitious (and eponymous) Leading Ideal Inc (later shortened and renamed Li Auto), the production version of this SUV was revealed in October. April 2019, with deliveries to begin in early 2020.
Currently, Li Auto is listed as a public company on the Nasdaq and Hong Kong stock exchanges, with a market capitalization of $29.71 billion, which is valued at par with its major competitors. in the country are Nio and Xpeng. The company’s current market capitalization notably makes it larger than that of older automakers including Kia, Subaru, Nissan and Renault.
Headquartered in Beijing, the company employs more than 2500 employees and claims to have delivered a total of 90,491 vehicles in 2021, up 177.4% from 2020.
Having established a retail presence across China with 206 stores operating in 102 cities, Li Auto is also rapidly expanding its production capabilities.
While all cars are currently manufactured in the eastern Chinese city of Changzhou in a plant with an expected production capacity of 100,000 vehicles per year, the company is in the process of building a second plant. near the company office in Beijing and also announced plans for a third factory in Chongqing.
Current product line
Starting mass production in 2020, Li Auto continues to sell a single model, the Li One SUV.
A large six-seat SUV with a length of 5030mm, about the same size as BMW X7 and Mercedes-Benz GLSThe One differentiates itself from domestic competitors through the fact that it is a plug-in hybrid SUV (PHEV), rather than a purely battery-powered SUV.
The One uses a large (for PHEV) 40.5kWh liquid-cooled battery pack combined with a 1.2-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine that acts as a generator, providing power to the engine. Dual power with total system power of 245kW and Torque of 455Nm. This gives the One a claimed 0-100km/h time of 6.5 seconds.
With the motor and battery working in sync, Li Auto claims a combined driving range of 1080 km on the highly optimistic NEDC cycle (with a pure electric driving range of more than 180 km).
Priced at the equivalent of $73,000, the One, typical of Chinese cars, has a very high-tech interior, with the front compartment employing no less than four infotainment screens, including a technical instrument display. number in front of the driver. as the other three screens to control vehicle settings and enjoy the vehicle’s infotainment system.
Li Auto also claims the One is equipped with a full range of driver assistance systems, including technologies such as automatic emergency braking (AEB), adaptive cruise control with lane-keeping assist, as well as parking. automatic car.
The company claims to be the first automaker to use an automotive-grade 8.0-megapixel camera sensor to control some of these driver-assistance systems.
International Expansion
Li Auto is not currently exporting its One SUV internationally, and aside from vague plans to invest in setting up a factory in Europe, has not announced any immediate plans to Europe, the US or other countries. other Asian countries.
As starting sales in these larger markets is likely to be a priority for any international presence, it’s likely Australians won’t see Li Auto locally any time soon. near the.
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