Li Xiang, the founder and CEO of the Chinese carmaker Li Auto, said on Thursday that the brand is aware of the smear campaign it has been targeted with and knows which “brand” is behind it.
“I know which brand is smearing Li Auto. You can make jokes about me, but don’t maliciously slander Li Auto owners,” the chief executive stated on a video posted on Chinese social media platform Douyin.
The executive mentioned that this behavior had also been noticed when the brand previously launched its flagship L9 SUV and the first fully electric Mega MPV.
“When the L9 was launched, there was a wave of claims saying Li Auto was going bankrupt,” he said, adding that “then, when the i8 was launched, there was another flood of negative publicity.”
Since late 2019, Li Auto has delivered 1,368,541 vehicles. With a vast majority of them being extended-range vehicles, the Beijing-based brand became the first Chinese startup to reach the 1 millionth milestone.
The company’s CEO highlighted that “behind each accident, there was a different brand pulling the strings” and, this time, Li Auto also knows which company it is.
However, the executive did not name any brand.
“It’s all handled by professional troll organizations,” which “hide their tracks very well.”
Nevertheless, the chief executive does not want to “turn dark and become like them,” as that would mean “they’ve completely won.”
Also this week, a Li Auto employee shared on Weibo a screenshot of a chat group where users were organizing part-time trolling against the company. “Can you add me to the group?,” he joked, saying that he could “post a thousand messages a day.”
Public disagreements have been brewing between Li Auto and Nio‘s sub-brand Onvo in the past weeks, as both companies promote their newly launched six-seat SUVs — the Li i8 and the L90, respectively.
Onvo‘s chief Shen Fei said earlier this week that the L90 sales “remain strong as always,” contradicting claims from a Li Auto‘s salesperson who suggested that “many” customers were canceling pre-orders for the newly launched L90 SUV in favor of a rival model.
Nio‘s founder and CEO William Li noted that the model has “entered the weekly top 3 in large SUV sales and continues to accelerate production and delivery,” despite a two-month delivery waiting time.
On the other hand, just a week after the model’s launch, Li Auto trimmed its variants from three to one, signaling weak demand.
The company discontinued the Pro and Ultra versions, leaving only the Max trim, starting 10,000 yuan below its previous price, at 339,800 yuan ($47,300).
The Onvo L90 is priced from 265,800 yuan ($37,000) without Nio‘s battery as a service program, through which the price lowers to 179,800 yuan ($25,000).
In late July, Shen Fei commented on a Li Auto advertisement video, saying that people were “welcome to test drive the Onvo L90 as well” as the Li i8, adding that “both are good cars.”
The posts drew criticism from some users, one of whom accused Shen of lacking marketing resources, to which Shen replied that he doesn’t “have the budget to hire paid commenters.”
A week before, Li Auto‘s VP Liu Jie had shared a screenshot of an online comment online comment falsely claiming to have test-driven the i8, asking, “is this the next major smear direction by the online trolls targeting the Li Auto i8?”
The user had commented that he “test-drove the Li Auto i8 and the Onvo L90,” saying that “the i8 felt like sitting in a boat — it shook noticeably and lacked the stability of the L90.”
Li Auto‘s VP clarified that “user test drives for the i8 have not even started yet” and “there are no small-scale user trials either.”
Shen Fei responded to Liu’s post, telling Li Auto to reach out to authorities. “Suggest reporting it to the police directly,” he stated.
Last month, the Nio Group denied allegations that its sub-brand Onvo engaged in orchestrated online attacks against rival carmakers, calling the claims defamatory and vowing legal action.
