There shouldn't be a Chenglong vehicle in front of the pure-electric wall that ideals are meant to break through.
After being publicly challenged by Chenglong Automobile for several consecutive days, Li Auto finally showed signs of "backing down".
On August 3rd, Li Auto issued a "Statement on the Safety Collision Test of Li i8", no longer adopting the tough stance it had a few days ago, but attempting to ease the relationship with Chenglong Automobile.
Li Auto stated that this test was not intended to evaluate the product quality of any other brand, and the test results should not be interpreted as a judgment on the product quality of other brands. "We truly did not mean to involve the Chenglong brand of Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor in the public opinion dispute during the test process."
Li Auto also praised Chenglong Automobile in the statement, calling it "a benchmark brand in the Chinese truck industry, whose quality and safety have always been worthy of the trust of truck drivers", and "we have always held a respectful attitude towards it".
However, regarding the test results of the Li i8 colliding with a Chenglong truck, Li Auto once again emphasized that "the entire process was scientific and fair".
Li Auto stated in the statement that the test was entrusted to China Automotive Engineering Research Institute (CAERI), and it highly recognized the latter's professional ability and the fairness of the test, firmly believing that the data and results of its collision test were scientifically authoritative.
On the same day, CAERI also issued a statement saying that this test was only to verify the safety of the Li i8, not a standard vehicle-to-vehicle collision test, and did not involve the evaluation of the safety performance of other brand vehicles. The collision object was a second-hand truck "randomly purchased in the market" and weighted to 8 tons.
At the i8 launch event on the evening of July 29th, Li Auto played a test video of the i8 colliding with a Chenglong heavy truck. In the video, the passenger compartment of the i8 remained basically intact, while the truck was hit so hard that its four wheels left the ground and the cab flipped forward. After the video spread on social media, it caused a huge stir.
Chenglong Automobile quickly responded, saying that it "had been set up, and smart people could easily see that it was fake", and directly pointed out that Li Auto had seriously infringed its rights, causing significant negative impacts on its brand and reputation, and was suspected of violating the law.
Li Auto's response was also very "tough". Tang Jing, the product director of Li Auto, said, "We believe in the professionalism of authoritative institutions. How about a retest?" Another product line director of Li Auto, Zhang Xiao, also said, "Sure, we can even do it live."
However, judging from the latest statement, Li Auto has actively softened its attitude, and it is highly likely that the two automakers will not conduct a second collision.
Using other brands as "targets" at product launch events has always been a big taboo in business competition. It can be explained as an unintentional mistake that Li Auto showed the logo of the Chenglong truck in the launch event video. However, the puzzling move of its executives publicly proposing a "retest" further intensified the conflict between the two companies that had no competitive relationship, which seemed a bit overdone.
The reason behind this might be that the success of the Li i8 is a crucial battle for Li Auto.
Previously, Li Auto mainly focused on extended-range electric vehicles and quickly became one of the best-selling brands. However, as other automakers also enter this field, Li Auto is facing more and more competitors.
Meanwhile, the new growth point that Li Auto is targeting - the pure-electric SUV market - is becoming increasingly crowded. Leapmotor is seizing market share with its "half-price Li Auto" strategy. After Xiaomi launched the YU7, its monthly sales have exceeded 30,000 units, almost on par with Li Auto. Tesla has launched an extended version of the Model Y, and a more affordable version is also on the way.
Previously, Li Auto tried to break into the pure-electric market with the MEGA, but due to the controversial vehicle design, it failed to achieve a good start. Now, with the launch of the i8, Li Auto is once again caught in the eye of the public opinion storm.
A
The reason why Li Auto chose to "back down" and "show goodwill" in the dispute with Chenglong Automobile might be that the collision test was not well thought out and was quite controversial.
Li Auto stated in the latest statement that the Li i8 adopts a short front overhang safety structure design. To ensure the safety and reliability of the new design, the company entrusted CAERI to conduct a high-intensity collision test and formulated the test requirements based on the common traffic accident scenarios on ordinary roads.
However, Chenglong Automobile does not agree with this statement. In its statement on July 31st, it expressed doubts about the test itself.
The company stated in the statement that Li Auto did not disclose the specific conditions of the test vehicles, including key information such as whether the vehicles were modified, whether there were any component reductions, whether the buckles were fixed, and whether the vehicles had passed inspections. At the same time, it did not disclose the detailed parameters of the test environment, such as the condition of the test site, the vehicle speed, and the driving state.
Chenglong Trucks believes that Li Auto customized the collision conditions, specifically designed an unconventional test scenario, and released video content that deviated significantly from the normal collision results recognized by the public.
In addition, some industry insiders also have different views on the most eye-catching part of the video - the flipping of the truck cab.
In the comment section of a video of the two-vehicle collision test, a user who claimed to have more than ten years of experience in heavy vehicle maintenance said that the cab tilter of a cab-over truck requires three procedures to open, and the three safety mechanisms are independent of each other, so it is impossible for them to fail simultaneously.
Regarding the above doubts, Li Auto did not directly respond in the latest statement, nor did it provide key information such as whether the vehicle was empty and the state of the tilter. It only emphasized the fairness of the test and the authority of the results.
B
In the automotive industry, it is a common marketing strategy for automakers to "imply" or benchmark against competitors in various ways at product launch events.
Normally, automakers usually blur the identity of their competitors, referring to them as "Car X", "Car Y", etc., and most of the time, it is limited to comparing paper data or conducting separate tests and comparing the results.
It is very rare for an automaker like Li Auto to use another company's product as the "target" of a collision test and present the results in an almost "crushing" manner.
The background for Li Auto's "overdone" actions is that it has just experienced two months of declining sales.
According to the delivery data released by Li Auto, in June this year, it delivered 36,279 new vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 24% and a month-on-month decrease of 11.2%, hitting a new low in monthly deliveries since March 2024 and ending the consecutive 14-month year-on-year growth trend.
In July, Li Auto failed to reverse the downward trend. The company's delivery volume that month was 30,731 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 39.74% and a month-on-month decrease of 15.29%.
In terms of absolute numbers, Li Auto still ranks among the top-tier brands.
According to the data compiled by Yiche, in the first half of this year, Li Auto sold a total of 204,000 vehicles, ranking second among new energy vehicle startups after Leapmotor's 222,000 vehicles, and leading XPeng (197,000 vehicles), Xiaomi (about 157,000 vehicles), and NIO (114,000 vehicles). Considering that the average price of Li Auto's vehicles is much higher than that of Leapmotor, Li Auto can still be regarded as one of the most successful new energy vehicle startups.
Nevertheless, the significant decline in sales for two consecutive months still put considerable pressure on Li Auto.
At the end of June, Li Auto actively lowered its delivery forecast for the second quarter, from the original range of 123,000 - 128,000 vehicles to about 108,000 vehicles.
Li Auto stated that this move reflected the short-term impact of upgrading its sales system for long-term development. The company is confident that it will complete the organizational upgrade before the launch of the Li i8 to better meet the new product cycle with improved organizational capabilities.
The last time Li Auto lowered its delivery forecast was in March 2024. At that time, the underperformance of its first pure-electric vehicle, the MEGA, prompted the company to lower its delivery forecast for the first quarter of that year from 100,000 - 103,000 vehicles to 76,000 - 78,000 vehicles.
The flagship MPV model MEGA, which Li Auto had put a lot of effort into, was highly anticipated to be the "key" to enter the pure-electric market. However, after its launch, the unique design of the MEGA sparked a huge public outcry, and its market performance fell far short of expectations, casting a shadow over Li Auto's pure-electric journey.
Now, with the official launch of the i8, Li Auto has an opportunity to turn the tables in the pure-electric market.
Against the backdrop of the MEGA's setback, the success or failure of the Li i8 has taken on greater strategic significance for Li Auto. Li Auto urgently needs a product that can gain a foothold in the pure-electric market and shoulder the responsibility of high sales volume to prove its pure-electric technology strength and pave the way for subsequent models such as the i6.
The eagerness to win this pure-electric battle might have made Li Auto a bit too aggressive and unbalanced in the marketing and promotion of the i8, ultimately leading to this dispute with Chenglong Automobile.
C
In the past, Li Auto once led the new energy vehicle startups with its extended-range electric vehicle technology that met the needs of family users, achieving profitability that many of its peers dreamed of.
However, to date, the "blue ocean" of the extended-range electric vehicle market has long turned into a "red ocean". The "moat" that Li Auto built through its precise positioning in the past is now facing increasingly fierce attacks from competitors.
From an external perspective, the competitive pressure that Li Auto faces has become unprecedentedly intense. Since 2024, the Chinese new energy vehicle market has entered a new cycle, and major automakers have accelerated the launch of new models. Whether it is new energy brands incubated by traditional automakers or other new energy vehicle startups, they have all deployed significant resources in the family SUV market, which Li Auto is good at.
Especially in the price range of 200,000 - 300,000 yuan, there are all kinds of competitors. The Tesla Model Y, NIO ES6, LeDao L90, XPeng G9, AITO M7, and even SUVs from brands such as Voyah, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, and Avatr are all competing with Li Auto's main model, the L6, for market share.
Meanwhile, the pure-electric SUV market, the main battlefield, is also becoming increasingly crowded. Old competitors such as Tesla, NIO, and XPeng have been deeply involved in this field for many years. It is not easy for Li Auto to gain a foothold in the pure-electric market.
On paper, the Li i8 has quite strong competitiveness: it has a starting price of 320,000 yuan and a top - of - the - line price of 370,000 yuan, with dual - motor four - wheel drive, 5 doors and 6 seats, 544 horsepower, and a maximum range of 720 kilometers. With such data and price, the Li i8 has the opportunity to replicate the success of the L8.
Looking back at Li Auto's rise, the key to its success was that in the early stage of new energy vehicle development, it precisely chose the extended-range hybrid technology route.
In an era when pure-electric vehicles generally had short ranges, imperfect charging facilities, and users had serious charging anxiety, Li Auto hoped to solve the core pain points of users by "burning fuel to generate electricity" and provide the experience of an "electric vehicle without range anxiety".
With a series of comfort features such as "refrigerators, color TVs, and big sofas", Li Auto's L-series models quickly became bestsellers and have long led the sales list of new energy vehicle startups.
However, the only constant in the business world is change.
With the continuous progress of battery technology, the range of pure-electric vehicles has been significantly improved. At the same time, the charging network, which has been vigorously developed by the government and enterprises, has also become more and more perfect. The advantages of extended-range electric vehicles in user experience are gradually shrinking.
In this industry trend, Li Auto, which has achieved great success with extended-range electric vehicles, has also made pure-electric vehicles a new focus.
After the setback of the MEGA, Li Auto launched the i8 this year and will release the more mass-market i6 in September. These intensive actions all demonstrate Li Auto's determination to break through in the pure-electric market.
The highly anticipated Li i8, due to a marketing oversight, got involved in an avoidable dispute with a peer at a crucial time right after its launch. Li Auto may have realized that the entanglement with Chenglong Automobile, which mainly focuses on the truck market, has no practical significance, so it chose to actively "back down" and end the war of words as soon as possible.
The dispute with Chenglong Automobile is ultimately just a "paper war", a war of words at the brand public relations level. For Li Auto, the real challenges still come from its old competitors - Tesla, XPeng, NIO, Hongmeng Zhixing, and other second - and third - tier brands - who are competing with it in the real market. Compared with the extended-range electric vehicle market, Li Auto has more and stronger competitors in the pure-electric market.
After all, the collision incident is just an episode. The real question facing Li Auto is still the old one: How should it develop in the pure-electric market? In the past, Li Auto built its market share with extended-range electric vehicles, which was well - recognized by the market and users. But now, when Li Auto has to enter the pure-electric vehicle market, the situation is completely different. The competitors, the market environment, and the users' expectations have all changed.