Li Auto desperately needs the success of its pure electric vehicles.

Covering the three major market segments of sedans, SUVs, and MPVs signifies a car company's maturity and is the aspiration of every emerging automaker.

During a recent quarterly earnings call, Li Xiang, CEO of Li Auto, stated, "When sales of our extended-range SUVs and pure electric MPVs meet expectations, we will decide on the launch of sedans based on market demand, anticipating the release of one or two models."

Judging from the market performance of Li Auto's MEGA, the company is not yet prepared to introduce its first sedan so soon.

However, prior to Li Xiang's revelation of the sedan plan, Li Auto had already contemplated entering the sedan market.

Tang Song, head of Li Auto's product line, revealed that the Porsche Panamera has become the benchmark for Li Auto's brand. In other words, this classic luxury vehicle, representing opulence and elegance, is likely to compete with Li Auto's first sedan.

Screenshot: Weibo @ Old Tang Ge Tango

Li Xiang has made it clear that Li Auto will not pursue a multi-brand strategy. It can be essentially confirmed that the first sedan's tone will align with the currently available products, with the primary audience still being family users.

At this juncture, the fundamental strengths of Li Auto's first sedan have indeed emerged.

A luxury tone is inevitable, with pure electricity potentially compensating for performance shortcomings?

Li Auto's bold move to directly target the Porsche Panamera is quite daring.

While Li Auto's sales data have recently surpassed Porsche's by a significant margin, and the gap between the two is gradually widening, sales do not equate to market position. Porsche's influence in the domestic market will not be easily disrupted, and its Porsche Panamera remains the "dream car" for many.

Similar to the Zenith S800 launched at the end of May, the premise of daring to directly compete with the Maybach S-Class is possessing strong comprehensive capabilities, which may bridge the historical brand heritage gap.

In other words, for Li Auto's first sedan to compete with the Porsche Panamera, it must demonstrate sufficient sincerity in terms of configuration and pricing.

Source: Porsche's official website

Currently, the main "turn-off" for the Porsche Panamera is the high cost of options. We chose the cheapest Porsche Panamera standard version, with a guide price of 1,138,000 yuan. Most items, such as body color, wheels, tires, interior materials, ventilated seats, etc., require additional charges for customization.

Diantuche selected only the more appealing 21-inch 911 Turbo Design wheels, black leather interior, and front seats with a massage function, and the option price reached 134,700 yuan. Configurations like active lane-keeping assist also require an option price of 34,300 yuan. If night vision assist systems, electric sunshades, and other configurations are added, the option price could easily reach 200,000 yuan, which could buy an entry-level luxury car...

Screenshot: Porsche's official website

Despite declining sales, Porsche still offers such high option prices, presumably because this is the brand tone the company wishes to uphold. However, this is also Li Auto's greatest opportunity for breakthrough.

Whether it's the Li L series or the Li MEGA, Li Auto has presented a core product strategy—making most comfort configurations standard, with the configuration gap between versions mainly focusing on assisted driving capabilities and batteries.

Obviously, configuration and pricing will be the primary selling points of Li Auto's first sedan. Features like "refrigerators, TVs, and large sofas" and the latest assisted driving system will appear on the first sedan, and it may even include privacy configurations required for executive-level sedans.

Source: Li Auto's official website

Furthermore, netizens have a significant question: Will Li Auto's first sedan be equipped with the same extended-range hybrid system as the Li L series or the same pure electric powertrain as the Li MEGA?

Diantuche believes that at least a pure electric powertrain will be introduced; it is improbable that only an extended-range hybrid version will be launched.

The Porsche Panamera boasts impressive performance. With a 4.0T engine, the vehicle can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.8 seconds. After adding a drive motor, the acceleration time from 0 to 100 km/h can even drop to an astonishing 3.2 seconds.

Since it is targeting the Porsche Panamera, Li Auto's first sedan must at least approach the Porsche Panamera in terms of performance. To achieve this, Li Auto cannot solely rely on its current extended-range hybrid system but will heavily depend on pure electric powertrains.

Source: Li Auto's official website

Moreover, Li Auto will only introduce its first sedan when both extended-range SUVs and pure electric MPVs are selling well, which implies that Li Auto's charging system will be relatively comprehensive by then. The pure electric MPV will no longer be constrained by charging difficulties, and the pure electric SUV Li i8 will soon be launched, making it unlikely for a pure electric sedan to be absent.

There are consumers willing to purchase domestically produced luxury cars, but not many.

Diantuche noticed that more and more domestically produced luxury sedans, positioned similarly to the Porsche Panamera, are entering the market, such as the NIO ET9 and the newly launched Zenith S800.

For domestic brands, the high-end luxury sedan market is still a void, but through differentiated advantages in intelligence, luxury configurations, and black technology, they dare to compete directly with other high-end luxury sedans. The resulting sales data can make other competitors envious.

According to official data, Zenith S800 received a large order of 2,600 units 72 hours after its launch; NIO ET9 delivered 835 units in April, surpassing the traditional executive luxury car market's BMW 7 Series and Audi A8, two veteran models, and ranking second only to the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

Source: Diantuche

Facts have proven that although the influence of luxury brands will not diminish due to the entry of domestic brands, Chinese consumers are willing to pay for luxury cars that demonstrate sincerity and strength.

The Li L series is the cornerstone of Li Auto's sales. Relying on the Li L series, even though Li Auto is still incurring losses in the pure electric field, it has achieved "turning losses into profits."

However, entering 2025, Li Auto's monthly sales data have been repeatedly surpassed by emerging brands such as XPeng, ZERO, and Hongmeng Zhixing. Li Auto's net profit fell by 20%, and the average price per vehicle dropped by approximately 40,000 yuan. Many key indicators are slowing down.

Ultimately, the trick of "one size fits all" will not always be effective. After a year of charging infrastructure development, Li Auto will invest more resources in the new model Li i8 to explore more possibilities in the pure electric SUV market.

It should be noted that the timing of the brand's launch of its first sedan coincides with the strong sales of both extended-range SUVs and pure electric MPVs, implying that the Li sedan is not being introduced to the market as a "savior."

Perhaps in Li Xiang's view, it is challenging for luxury pure electric sedans to sell as well as extended-range SUVs, and they will not account for a significant portion of the brand's total revenue.

Source: Li Auto's official website

Admittedly, there are consumers willing to pay for domestically produced high-end luxury sedans, but judging from May's sales results, in the new energy sedan market above 400,000 yuan, only the BMW i3 and the Enjoy S9 have monthly sales exceeding 2,000 units. Domestic cars like the AITO 12 and the Denza Z9GT, which garnered some attention during their early launch phases, sold only 1,215 and 744 units respectively in May.

When domestic consumers have a budget exceeding 400,000 yuan for purchasing a car, they are more inclined to choose a more practical SUV, which also determines that the demand ceiling in the high-end sedan market will not be excessively high.

Unless Li Auto plans to bring the price of its first sedan down to the 300,000 yuan level to compete with the Tesla Model 3, given the market demand in the price range above 400,000 yuan, it will be challenging for Li Auto to obtain substantial profits from it.

This also explains why Li Xiang does not place significant importance on the high-end sedan market.

Li Auto needs the success of pure electric vehicles more than ever.

Whether it's sedans or the humanoid robots and L4 autonomous driving technology previously mentioned in "AI Talk," they are relatively distant prospects for Li Auto. The most crucial task at this stage is to create a genuine pure electric blockbuster.

In the past year of 2024, Li Auto's MEGA, which was the result of the brand's collective efforts, was not well-received by the market. The fundamental reason was that the charging system had not kept pace, so Li Auto invested heavily in building the charging system throughout the past year.

Li Xiang stated that this year, two new pure electric SUVs, Li i8 and Li i6, will be released. Among them, Li i8 is scheduled for release in July, and 2,500 Li Supercharger stations will be operational to ensure the improvement of the supercharging system.

Source: Li Auto's official website

Based on current technology, Li i8's performance in smart cabins and intelligent driving will at least be at Li Auto's most advanced level currently. It will also be equipped with the same 5C supercharging technology as Li MEGA, alongside family car attributes and endurance capabilities.

It is evident that Li Auto truly hopes to gain a firm foothold in the pure electric field, but the prerequisite for achieving this goal is to find a way to surpass the Tesla Model Y.

(Cover image source: Li Auto's official website)

Source: Lei Technology