Li Auto‘s founder and chief executive officer Li Xiang said that, besides him, only Xiaomi‘s co-founder and CEO Lei Jun is capable of creating a “super product” among China’s new wave of automakers.
On the latest episode of Luo Yonghao’s Crossroads, Li revealed that he and Lei Jun had a two-hour phone conversation before Xiaomi announced it would launch an EV division.
He shared this after the host questioned whether he felt “nervous” about Xiaomi entering the electric vehicle market.
Li Auto‘s CEO said that Lei Jun has asked him about his views on Tesla, BYD and Huawei then.
According to Li, Xiaomi‘s chief asked him, “if you could give me one piece of advice, what would it be?,” to which he answered, “don’t look for any agents, you should go all in yourself, and then you’ll succeed.”
According to Li, Lei Jun is the only other “super product manager-type boss” among this wave of car-making entrepreneurs, apart from himself.
Li Auto‘s chief said that Lei Jun also helped the company when they faced difficulties later on.
The automaker launched its second fully electric model, the Li i8, in late July. The first batch of deliveries start from August 20.
“By the end of September, we will ensure that over 8,000 units of the Li Auto i8 are delivered to our customers,” the brand stated last week.
The chief executive thanked customers on Weibo and commented that “the current order volume of theLi Auto i8 shows that the target users recognize its product definition,” without disclosing specific figures.
Li noted on the same post that “nowadays, if I simply say ‘thank you,’ some friends think I’m imitating Lei Jun,” adding that “from another perspective, the owners who invested nearly 400,000 yuan of their own money in voting for us — supporting us at key moments — truly deserve my heartfelt thanks!”
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).
Earlier this month, the chief executive noted that Li Auto 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.
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.
On the other hand, Xiaomi launched the much anticipated YU7 SUV earlier in July, which achieved 240,000 locked-in orders in just 18 hours, an industry record.
Delivery waiting times for both its SU7 debut model and the newly launched SUV have stretched beyond 52 weeks.
Earlier this month, Lei Jun has advised customers who can’t wait that they may want to consider models from other brands.
“If you need to buy a car quickly, other China-produced new energy vehicles are pretty good,” he said, recommending the recently launched XPeng’s G7, Li Auto‘s Li i8 and even Tesla‘s Model Y.
