Jessica, reporting from ROBO
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"Li Auto must become the intelligent electric vehicle company that understands batteries best."
When asked why he devoted effort to developing batteries in-house, Li Xiang gave his judgment.
Immediately afterat the Power Day electric technology launch event, Li Auto officially unveiled theLianshan electric technology system, centrally disclosing its R&D achievements inbatteries, motors, electronic controls, silicon carbide power chips and its ultra-fast charging network.
5C LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery cellsactually have higher energy density than 2C cells; winter battery peak power increased by40%or more; 4 million self-developed silicon carbide power chips have been installed in vehicles cumulatively, and Li Auto claims to maintain a zero-failure record to this day.
Li Auto also announced for the first time alifetime warranty policy related to battery spontaneous combustion and collision-induced fires:
For spontaneous combustion caused by battery quality issues meeting the required conditions, as well as battery fires caused by collisions or underbody scrapes, Li Auto will provide corresponding compensation according to the vehicle's loss. For example, if a self-developed battery spontaneously ignites due to quality issues and the vehicle reaches the scrap standard,Li Auto will compensate with a new car of the same configuration。
Confidence was not built overnight. Li Xiang revealed a few days ago that the in-house battery development started 6 years ago,2020, six years ago.
Interestingly, Li Xiang, who had posted on Weibo for two consecutive days, sat in the audience throughout the official launch event, sometimes contemplative, sometimes smiling.
Opening the event was Li Auto co-founder, President and Chief EngineerMa Donghui, joined on stage by the three technical leads of Li Auto's battery, electric drive and charging network divisions.
They presented a great deal of detail on materials, algorithms, chips and manufacturing processes, and also gave the reasons Li Auto persisted with in-house battery development for six years.
Li Auto's Lianshan launch: comprehensive upgrades in batteries, electric drive and ultra-fast charging
The technological achievements Li Auto showcased at Power Day are mainly concentrated in three areas:
Improve battery charging efficiency, range and lifespan, further reduce electric drive energy consumption, and expand ultra-fast charging network coverage to improve the recharging experience.
The LiXiang Shan released this time includesLiXiang Shan battery, LiXiang Shan electric drive, ultra-fast charging equipment and a self-built ultra-fast charging network, backed by a LiXiang Shan quality early-warning platform responsible for connecting manufacturing, inspection and vehicle usage data of core components.
LiXiang Shan battery: 430 km extended range, 780 km pure electric
The launch event announced that the new-generation extended-range L8 will be equipped with Li Auto's self-developed 5C ternary lithium battery, with a CLTC pure electric range of430 km; the 2026 Li Auto i6, launching on October 28, has a maximum CLTC range of780 km, an 8% improvement over the 2025 model.
Beyond the range increase, Li Auto emphasizes one technical result:achieving 5C ultra-fast charging without any reduction in battery energy density。
Li Auto announced two cathode and anode improvements:
The anodeuses gradient porosity electrode technology, with larger external pores improving lithium-ion transmission efficiency and high internal density ensuring energy storage;the cathodeincreases the filling density of active materials through the blending of particles of different sizes. The new-generation lithium iron phosphate 5C cell, compared with the 2C cell, improves energy density by2.6%。
The battery pack has also been redesigned: the long longitudinal beams have been removed in favor of a new frame structure, cooling pipes are integrated with the crash beams, and the power distribution unit and upper cover matching have been optimized, together adding about7.4 kWhof additional layout space.
Beyond hardware, the software algorithms have also been upgraded.
The voltage plateau of lithium iron phosphate batteries has always made state-of-charge estimation difficult. Li Auto developed theATR adaptive trajectory library reconstruction algorithm, combining historical charge-discharge data with dynamic voltage correction to keep the state-of-charge estimation error within3%。
For winter, theAPC power adaptive algorithmincreases winter peak power by more than 40% without changing battery hardware; battery waste heat is reused for cabin heating, and after multiple optimizations combined, officials claim winter equivalent range can increase by30 km。
With the hardware unchanged, the vehicle's range and low-temperature performance can still be further optimized—this is exactly the change brought by the synergy between vehicle software control and battery technology.
Battery safety and lifetime warranty
Li Auto announced six lines of safety defense for the LiXiang Shan battery:Protection against bumps and impacts, water ingress, leakage, thermal propagation, manufacturing quality control, and operational risk early warning.。
To address everyday bottoming out, collisions, and similar situations, Li Auto has installed a multi-layer protective structure at the bottom of the battery pack and optimized the cells' compressive strength.
In the equivalent 500-joule bottom impact test demonstrated by Li Auto, the Lianshan battery did not catch fire or explode, and its waterproof performance reached IPX8 and IPX9K ratings.
Thermal diffusion protection is achieved through cell heat-insulating materials, directional venting, and emergency water cooling, reducing the risk of thermal runaway spreading to surrounding areas. According to official test results, when a single cell undergoes thermal failure in a 50℃ environment, the battery pack can achieveno fire for 24 hours。
In terms of battery life, the next-generation ternary battery adopts adual-path rapid cooling architecture, improving heat exchange efficiency by 30% and keeping the temperature difference between cells within 5℃.
Li Auto says that extended-range and pure electric models equipped with its self-developed 5C ultra-fast-charging battery in 2026 will retain battery health above 75% after 8 years of use and 160,000 km of driving.
Battery safety also includes quality management during manufacturing and vehicle use: the Lianshan battery manufacturing system has9,960 quality control points, with key data recorded through inline CT, X-ray, and AI visual inspection. Every cell has its own independent electronic file, and manufacturing records can be traced back up to 20 years.
After vehicle delivery, the vehicle side, charging piles, and the cloud continue to monitor battery status, and the cloud-based early warning system can issue alerts for some potential risks up to 72 hours in advance.
After these technical introductions, Li Auto officially announced theLianshan Battery Protection Plan, offering two lifetime protection commitments:
The first is thelifetime no-self-ignition battery guarantee. If a self-ignition is caused by a quality defect in Li Auto's self-developed battery itself and the vehicle reaches scrapping standards, Li Auto will compensate with a new car of the same configuration.
The second is thelifetime no-fire-on-collision guarantee. If a fire is caused by a collision or underbody scrape and the vehicle reaches scrapping standards, Li Auto will cover the difference between the vehicle damage insurance policy coverage amount and the actual insurance payout.
Self-developed electric drive continues to upgrade, ultra-fast charging network expands to 4,200 stations
Currently, Li Auto has mass-produced a five-in-one electric drive system and a high-voltage silicon carbide three-in-one electric drive system, with R&D covering motors, electronic controls, power chips, materials, and manufacturing processes.
Two innovations were highlighted this time.
The first isthe CAR119 cast aluminum rotor material。
. By adjusting the microstructure of the rotor material, Li Auto increased mechanical strength by 21% and electrical conductivity by more than 8%. The next-generation auxiliary drive motor can increase the city pure electric range of the all-new L9 and L8 by more than 15 km and highway range by over 8 km.
The other isthe distributed terminal-free direct connection technology。
. Li Auto redesigned the power module, connecting the copper busbar directly to the module substrate, only 3 mm from the chip.
To ensure reliable connection, laser welding depth deviation is controlled within 100 micrometers, and over four years more than 10,000 sets of samples were produced. Officially, the related design can add about 30 km of range for the next-generation electric drive and free up 24 mm of overall vehicle height space.
Electric drive reliability is also being strengthened. The number of electronic control components has been reduced by 53% and assembly steps by 65%; each electric drive undergoes 93 quality inspections before leaving the factory, and, drawing on aviation fault prediction and health management technology, failures are identified in advance using operational data from 230,000 vehicles.
According to reports, since the self-developed electric drive entered mass production, the overall failure rate has improved 5.7-fold. Li Auto also revealed that targets for the next-generation electric drive have been set: system efficiency exceeding 94%, power increased by 30%, and power density increased by 40%.
While batteries and electric drives keep upgrading, the construction of the ultra-fast charging network has not stopped either.
As of this launch event, Li Auto has built4,200 ultra-fast charging stations and more than 23,000 ultra-fast charging piles, covering 25 national-level highway trunk lines and 138 long-distance scenic charging routes.
Li Auto plans to achieve an average of one ultra-fast charging station every 100 kilometers along national highway trunk lines by the end of this year, and toincrease the number of 5C ultra-fast charging guns to 8,300 before the Spring Festival in 2027。
. At present, Li Auto's ultra-fast charging equipmentcan start charging in as fast as 13 seconds, with an equipment availability rate of over 99.9%; more than 99.8% of stations nationwide support free parking fees during charging.
In addition to improving charging speed, Li Auto has also reduced charging time through features such as automatic navigation-based route planning, power scheduling, and pre-heating in low temperatures, and has put into operation fully automated ultra-fast charging stations with all-position coverage, allowing users to complete charging without getting out of the car.
With this, the LiXiang electric technology system is basically complete: the battery determines energy storage, charging performance, and service life; the electric drive affects energy utilization efficiency; the ultra-fast charging network improves long-distance travel convenience; and a unified quality data system has also been established across R&D, manufacturing, and vehicle use.
But for Li Auto, there is one important prerequisite for these technologies to gradually reach mass production:automakers need to deeply master the R&D, design, and manufacturing processes of core components.
After Six Years of In-House Development, Li Auto Redefines Supply Chain Division of Labor
The day before the launch event, Li Xiang published a long Weibo post discussing why automakers should develop batteries in-house.
Li Xiang believes that a mature industry needs both specialized suppliers for continuous innovation and OEMs conducting in-depth research into core technologies—in the automotive industry,we need both battery companies that best understand smart electric vehicles, and smart electric vehicle companies that best understand batteries.
Afterwards, Li Xiang also revealed that Li Auto had decided as early as2020to develop batteries in-house, and that core technologies such as chips, the three-electric systems, and range extenders had also been gradually brought into the scope of independent R&D.
But he also emphasized thatin-house development and cooperation are different choices for different stages, and Li Auto will not reject any technologically leading supplier.
When Li Auto first developed its range-extender system, it discovered the limitations of purchasing standard off-the-shelf components—the coordination between the engine and generator, power generation efficiency, noise, and vehicle smoothness all required dedicated design tailored to the needs of the whole vehicle.
Pure electric product development raises this bar even further: 5C ultra-fast charging requires high-rate cells and sufficient heat dissipation capacity, high-voltage platforms require compatible electric drive and control systems, and charging speed is also affected by charging pile output power and network layout.
Li Auto chose to go deep into cell materials, power chips, and control algorithm R&D, and to decide manufacturing methods based on actual needs:
Cells are self-developed and manufactured by partners; LFP battery packs are self-developed and self-made; power chips are developed by Li Auto and manufactured by specialized vendors, while some power modules and electric drive assemblies are produced in its own factories.
The expansion of self-development has not interrupted cooperation with battery suppliers: in September this year, Li Auto announced plans to invest2.65 billion yuan in a capital increase in Sunwoda Power, and it has maintained long-term cooperation with professional battery companies such as CATL.
Automakers increasing self-development investment while continuing to invest in purchasing products from specialized suppliers reflects that the division of labor between the two sides is being adjusted: Li Auto controls the technical solutions, vehicle system design, and key quality data, while specialized suppliers continue to carry out a large share of manufacturing work.
Moreover, self-development does not necessarily directly reduce costs. Ma Donghui previously stated clearly in a media interview thatthe comprehensive cost of self-developed batteries is not necessarily lower than direct external procurement.
So why is Li Auto still willing to invest six years?
Another answer given at this launch event isthe completeness of manufacturing and usage data。
. The traditional industry chain has a clear division of labor: vehicle companies can obtain suppliers' product performance data, test results, and quality documents, but may not possess the original data of all manufacturing processes for components. Once a quality anomaly occurs, tracing materials, production equipment, and process parameters requires crossing multiple companies.
Through deep self-development and contract manufacturing cooperation, Li Auto hopes to eliminate these information silos as much as possible.
With complete manufacturing data, Li Auto can identify subtle changes in the production process in advance and improve together with contract manufacturers.
Batteries follow a similar logic. The Shanshan system released this time links raw material batches, cell production processes, battery pack testing, vehicle operation, and charging records, supporting subsequent fault tracing and risk prediction.
This means that after Li Auto participates in the R&D of core components,quality managementcan go deeper into the manufacturing stage and continue beyond vehicle delivery.
For vehicle companies, quality management itself also carries very real lessons.
In October 2025, Li Auto recalled 11,411 units of the 2024 MEGA due to insufficient coolant anti-corrosion performance; the relevant vehicles carried a risk of power battery thermal runaway under specific conditions.
The anti-leakage structure, insulation protection, thermal diffusion control, and data-based early warning detailed at this launch event directly correspond to such problems — technical solutions need verification, and scaled-up manufacturing must also maintain a stable level of quality.
In a Weibo post on the day of the launch event, Li Xiang also said that consumers buying electric vehicles should not have to become battery technology experts first; whether the remaining charge reading is accurate, how winter range performs, how long charging takes, whether the vehicle is safe, and how its lifespan is guaranteed — all of these should be answered by the vehicle company — and the vehicle's safety, quality, performance, and lifespan should also be Li Auto's responsibility.
For Li Auto, the more deeply it masters R&D and manufacturing, the more sufficient the technical basis it needs to assume responsibility for the complete vehicle product.
Looking across the automotive industry, this change may continue. R&D investment in power batteries, electric drives, and power chips keeps increasing, and the division of labor between automakers and suppliers around vehicle design, manufacturing data, and quality control is deepening. Li Auto's concentrated showcase of the Shanshan system is a microcosm of this trend.
The larger backdrop is that competition in electric vehicle technology is accelerating.
Li Auto initially chose extended-range mainly to solve the problems of insufficient pure electric range and recharging capacity, and the Li ONE and L series won market recognition as a result; but now 800V high-voltage platforms, ultra-fast charging, and large-capacity batteries are becoming widespread, and the advantage once built on extended-range faces new competition.
Technology R&D requires longer-term investment, yet the industry's advanced level keeps rising, and many technologies that once constituted differentiation are becoming baseline requirements of market competition.
For Li Auto, the release of Shanshan means that years of R&D achievements are entering large-scale application, and it also means that the next round of technological upgrading has already begun.
Competition in the automotive industry is becoming increasingly fierce, and maintaining the existing level of technology and product competitiveness requires ever greater investment.
Because when all participants are increasing investment simultaneously, the industry's baseline level keeps rising. Technologies that once constituted product differentiation may accelerate into industry standards; today's lead may soon be caught up by competitors.
"You have to keep running just to stay in place."