Li Auto will enter Europe with the fully electric, five-seat i6 SUV, the company’s founder and CEO Li Xiang said during its first-quarter earnings call on Thursday.
Speaking at this month’s Li L9 Livis launch, the founder said “Europe is already underway,” framing the region alongside Asia as one of the brand’s next key battlegrounds.
The Beijing-headquartered brand opted for the i6 over its extended-range SUVs.
The battery-electric SUV is one of the premium Chinese automaker’s most affordable vehicles, priced on par with the L6 and accounted for the majority of the company’s deliveries in April.
Li Auto built its business on extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), a powertrain that pairs a battery-electric drivetrain with a small petrol engine acting as a generator, delivering combined ranges exceeding 1,000 kilometers.
The format eliminates range anxiety and has been the brand’s core strength in China.
Despite being hybrids in the conventional sense, EREVs are classified alongside fully electric vehicles under the European Union’s tariff framework, meaning Li Auto‘s L-series SUVs would face the same duties imposed on Chinese-made BEVs.
Only plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and conventional hybrids (HEVs) sit outside the EU’s countervailing measures.
That removes the tariff advantage the EREV format might otherwise have carried, and leaves Li Auto choosing its European launch vehicle on commercial merit rather than regulatory positioning.
i6 Launch
The Li Auto Li i6 launched in China last September, priced from 249,800 yuan ($36,900) for the rear-wheel-drive variant, with an all-wheel-drive version at 269,800 yuan ($39,800).
It carries an 87.3 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery from CATL or Sunwoda and sits on an 800-volt platform supporting 5C charging at up to 500 kW, enough to add 500 km of range in 10 minutes.
CLTC range reaches 720 km on a full charge.
The model targets the 200,000-to-300,000-yuan segment, positioning it against the Tesla Model Y, Xiaomi Auto’s YU7, XPeng‘s G7, and both Nio‘s ES6 and the recently launched Onvo L80.
European Groundwork
Li Auto has picked the Benelux region as its first European market, covering Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
The company appointed Zach Zhou, formerly responsible for Chery Automobile‘s European corporate and fleet sales and previously an XPeng overseas executive, as Deputy General Manager of Europe and Managing Director of Benelux.
Li Auto had opened a German R&D center in early 2025, assembling a team focused on styling, power semiconductors, chassis systems, electric drivetrains, and regulatory certification for the European market.
According to the company, all new models scheduled for launch in 2026 will comply with overseas market regulations.
Beyond the i6, the right-hand-drive Li Mega will be introduced in Hong Kong, Singapore, and other markets by year-end.
An International Exclusive Version of the all-new Li L9 will launch in the third quarter of 2026, beginning in Central Asia, the Middle East, and additional markets.
Domestic Pressure
Li Auto‘s European push comes as the company faces sustained pressure at home.
The automaker’s gross profit plunged 66% in the first quarter, as its vehicle margin collapsed to 6.1%.
The automaker delivered 34,085 vehicles in April 2026, essentially flat year-on-year and down 17% from March.
For the first four months of the year, deliveries totaled 129,227 units, up just 1.9% from the same period in 2025.
Li Auto delivered 406,343 vehicles in 2025, falling 37% short of its revised 640,000-unit target.
The company has set a 20% growth target for 2026, implying roughly 490,000 deliveries, with international expansion cited as one of the levers for reaching that figure.
The brand’s BEV models, including the i6 and i8, have faced weaker-than-expected demand against competitors such as Xiaomi‘s YU7 and the Onvo L90.
Li Auto has since refocused its product strategy on EREVs, aiming to reclaim leadership in that segment, and launched the updated L9 Livis with a combined range of 1,650 kilometers earlier this month.
Onvo Rivalry
The i6’s competitive set in China increasingly includes Onvo, the Nio sub-brand focused on the family segment.
The two companies have a history of friction that first surfaced during the parallel launches of the Onvo L90 and the Li i8, and reignited this month as the firms rolled out the Onvo L80 and the new Li L9.
Onvo‘s chief Fei Shen cited “unpleasant memories” with Li Auto as the rivalry resurfaced.
While the L9 is an EREV and not a direct rival, the L80 competes head-on with the i6 as a five-seat battery electric SUV.
Onvo is scheduled to enter Europe in 2027.
The i6 has surpassed 24,000 units in monthly deliveries after Li Auto resolved early production bottlenecks; the model delivered just 404 units in its debut month.
Li Xiang has warned that demand could exceed production capacity, telling buyers at the launch event that they could order with confidence.
