Li Auto will enter the UK market in autumn 2027 with a different model from the Li 6 SUV that leads its push into continental Europe, British magazine Autocar reported on Tuesday.
The Chinese carmaker made the announcement at the Paris Motor Show last week, where it confirmed the Netherlands and Norway as its first two European markets.
Nestor Wu, Li Auto’s Head of International Business, told the magazine that the brand’s lineup would target family buyers with both battery-electric and range-extender options.
The company unveiled its fully electric model in November 2023 after spending the first years dedicated to extended-range vehicles.
“Families have different market needs. That’s what we focus on and succeed in China, and we think it will work here,” Wu said. Li Auto did not provide details of the UK model, Autocar reported.
Netherlands and Norway First
The Li 6, the European name for the i6 sold in China, is scheduled to launch and begin deliveries in the Netherlands and Norway in the first quarter of 2027.
The company said it will set up local sales, delivery, aftersales and service systems before gradually expanding into more European markets.
A spare parts distribution center in the Netherlands, roadside assistance and a customer call center are all scheduled to become operational in December, it said.
Li Auto plans to introduce at least one new model in Europe each year from 2027 to 2029, developing fully electric and extended-range vehicles in parallel.
The company had said in May that it would make its European debut this year with the i6.
Priced Against the iX3
Li Auto’s European website lists the Li 6 with a 96-kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery and a choice of rear-wheel drive with 250 kilowatts (kW), or about 335 horsepower, and all-wheel drive with 400 kW, or about 536 hp.
The rear-wheel-drive version has a range of 640 kilometers (398 miles) on the WLTP cycle, while the all-wheel-drive version is rated at 560 km (348 miles).
The SUV is 4,950 millimeters (194.9 inches) long and accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.8 seconds, or 4.8 seconds with all-wheel drive, the company said.
Wu told Autocar the Li 6 would be priced to roughly match the iX3, which starts at £53,250 ($70,990) in the UK in its 40 version, according to the magazine.
Li Auto has not published European prices, and its website lists the Li 6 as “coming soon.”
The European model gets new locally sourced air springs for more dynamic handling than the version sold in China, where customers prefer a softer ride, Autocar reported.
Li Auto describes itself as the best-selling Chinese brand in China’s premium car market, with more than 1.8 million customers.
The company delivered 31,817 vehicles in September, down 6.3% year over year, and 293,436 in the first nine months, down 1.2%.
Chip Unit Raises Funds
Separately, Li Auto said late last week that its chip and domain controller subsidiary, Shanghai Mahe Xin Technology (MHX Technology), had signed agreements for equity financing totaling 1.625 billion yuan ($243 million).
Li Auto will invest 1 billion yuan through a wholly owned subsidiary, and external investors will contribute 625 million yuan, according to its filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Hangzhou Jingtao, Lanchi Ventures and Huaye Tiancheng led the round, with MiraclePlus participating, the filing said.
Hangzhou Jingtao also received a one-off right to invest up to 500 million yuan more at the same price by December 31.
The deal implies a pre-money valuation of 15 billion yuan and a post-money valuation of about 16.63 billion yuan ($2.49 billion), the filing said. Full exercise of the extra right would lift that to about 17.1 billion yuan, by EV’s calculation.
LatePost had reported the 15 billion yuan valuation in September.
Li Auto will continue to control and consolidate MHX Technology, the company said.
The carmaker’s in-house Mach M100 chip is made on a 5-nanometer automotive-grade process and delivers 1,280 trillion operations per second (TOPS), the company said in August. It called the M100 the “world’s first high-compute on-device inference chip built on a dynamic dataflow architecture.”
Power Day
Li Auto will hold a Power Day event on its EV technology at 7:30 pm Beijing time on Tuesday.
Founder and CEO Li Xiang wrote on Weibo on Monday that carmakers researching core battery technology benefited both the industry and consumers.
“The battery suppliers we work with are all excellent, top-tier suppliers worldwide, and they are still our partners today,” Li wrote.
“Which parts we do ourselves and which we do with partners are different choices at different stages. There is only one standard: which way is better for users,” he added.
Li said the company decided in 2020 to develop its own batteries.
Li Auto said in September that it would fit in-house batteries across its entire lineup, including a refreshed i6 that also carries the Mach chip.
That model’s launch in China moved to late October, with deliveries still due to start in early November.
