Is it too late for Li Auto to go global?
In 2026, Chinese automakers are accelerating their expansion into overseas markets with continuously rising sales, and China's annual automobile exports are heading towards 10 million units.
Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that from January to August, automobile exports reached 7.153 million units, a year-on-year increase of 66.7%. It is worth noting that monthly automobile exports have exceeded 1 million units for 3 consecutive months, with the single-month export volume surpassing the total figure for 2020, hitting an all-time record.
Against the backdrop of China's booming auto overseas expansion, Li Auto has finally stepped up its global expansion pace and taken a key step to target Europe, the core base of the global automobile market.
As Chinese automakers are "racing" to go global, can Li Auto, whose overseas business is still in its initial stage, keep up with the trend?
01. Marching into Europe
Li Auto's development in the European market started with its appearance at the golf event known as the "sport for the affluent".
From September 7 to 13, the Solheim Cup, the world's top women's team golf tournament, was held in the Netherlands. As an official partner, Li Auto provided a fleet of 20 Li i6 vehicles to offer official concierge transportation services for players and VIP guests throughout the event; the 2025 Li MEGA was also displayed in the fan carnival area. This move marks Li Auto's official launch of its strategic pace to enter Europe.
"This is a milestone moment for Li Auto to enter Europe. The Solheim Cup represents the highest standard of women's team golf competitions, and its first hosting in the Netherlands is exactly our perfect stage," said Wu Zuomin, Head of International Business at Li Auto.
In the upcoming October, the Li i6 will also make its European debut at the Paris Motor Show. At that time, Li Auto will announce its global product lineup and European business plan, and elaborate on its European strategy and future product roadmap.
Since its establishment, Li Auto has launched a number of auto products that are deeply loved by consumers. Why did it choose the Li i6 as the first model to debut in the European market?
In response to this, James, founder of the self-media "Full Charge Start James", analyzed to DoNews: "Because the i6 is the smallest car of Li Auto, and the unique car usage environment in Europe determines that local consumers do not prefer large-sized vehicles. The roads in Europe are very narrow, and parking spaces are extremely scarce, making large cars almost impossible to move in big cities."
James used to work at traditional auto groups and new EV startups, and is now engaged in auto export related businesses, with rich practical experience in overseas markets. "Usually, automakers purchase automotive data of each country from consulting firms, including sales volume, body type, power type, size and other indicators. After screening, you will find that the proportion of sedans in Europe is very small, about 20% in each country."
James told DoNews, "The best-selling cars in Europe are models of the size of MG4, and vehicles of the size of Volkswagen ID.3 are also the most popular in Europe. Hatchbacks like Peugeot 206 and Peugeot 307 are also very popular. The most popular cars in Europe are definitely hatchbacks without trunks."
Public information shows that the length of MG4 and Volkswagen ID.3 is basically around 4.3 meters, while the Li i6 is nearly 5 meters long.
In James' view, although the Li i6 is the smallest car of Li Auto, it is actually still a relatively large model in the European market. "It does not rule out the possibility that Li Auto will develop smaller cars in the future or even launch a second brand dedicated to producing small vehicles."
02. A Market Full of Challenges
In the era of fuel vehicles, China's complete vehicle exports were mostly concentrated in developing countries and regions such as Latin America, West Asia and Southeast Asia. But in the new energy vehicle era, traditional automakers and new EV startups have all set their sights on Europe.
The research report from Huatai Securities Research Institute shows that in the first half of 2026, the global new energy market saw obvious differentiation, and Europe was the best-performing mature market. In Europe (EU+EFTA+UK), new car registrations in the first half of the year increased by 6.1% year-on-year, among which pure electric vehicles reached 1.608 million units, up 35.1% year-on-year, and the market share rose from 17.5% in H1 2025 to 22.2% in H1 2026, while plug-in hybrid vehicles saw a year-on-year growth of 24.8%.
The European automobile market is in an accelerated period of electrification transformation, with strong overall consumer demand and huge opportunities. However, it is quite difficult to achieve successful development in the European market.
Li Li (pseudonym), who works at a Chinese automaker, told DoNews that Chinese automobiles entering the European market face multiple challenges in terms of access thresholds alone, including high tax costs and mandatory certifications. To enter the EU market, complete vehicles must pass the EU WVTA whole vehicle type approval.
Public information shows that the EU WVTA whole vehicle type approval is recognized as one of the strictest vehicle access systems in the world, which requires meeting dozens of regulatory requirements in terms of safety, environmental protection, energy efficiency, production consistency and others, and the certification cycle usually takes 12 to 24 months.
As of September 18, no news has been released that any model of Li Auto has passed the EU WVTA whole vehicle type approval.
In Li Li's view, Li Auto has been promoting relevant certifications for the European market and has joined the China Chamber of Commerce to the EU. Its choice to debut at the Paris Motor Show and announce the European development plan in October means that the certification is likely to have made certain progress. "Moreover, Li Auto's entry into the European market does not mean that it will immediately enter the EU market."
Even after crossing the access threshold, the competitive environment Li Auto faces in Europe is still not easy. The European automobile industry is highly developed, with local established players such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW that are accelerating their transformation to new energy vehicles, and Tesla also has a strong influence in Europe. In addition, Li Auto will also compete with veteran Chinese automakers that have the first-mover advantage in overseas expansion.
"Simply raising overseas consumers' brand awareness of Li Auto is a big challenge," Li Li gave an example, for instance, MG, a brand under SAIC, performs most prominently in the European market, but it was originally a British auto brand with high popularity and consumer recognition in Europe before it was acquired by SAIC.
"Automakers that sell well in China do not necessarily sell well overseas." According to James' observation, the automakers that sell well in Europe are all veteran players, such as SAIC, BYD and Geely.
In James' view, Li Auto faces huge challenges in Europe. "Li Auto lacks international talents. Chery, SAIC MG have been deeply cultivating the European market for more than 20 years, with very complete organizational structures. First of all, they have a European division, under which there are country managers for each country, and then there are marketing managers, sales managers, channel managers, after-sales managers and other positions. A country may need 10 to 20 stationed staff, and the whole of Europe may need hundreds of people. For example, Chery has many brands including the main brand Chery and the sub-brand Jetour entering Europe, and each brand has a complete team, with a very well-built organizational structure and sufficient talent reserve."
"But Li Auto lacks sufficient talent reserve in this regard. It needs to poach talents from other automakers and then carry out cultural integration and adaptation, which will inevitably lead to staff turnover in the process, and the team needs to be built gradually."
03. Learning from Peer Players' Experience?
In fact, from the timeline perspective, Li Auto's overseas expansion is not only far behind veteran automakers, but also slower than the leading new EV startups founded in the same period.
As early as around 2021, Xpeng Motors and NIO had launched their official overseas expansion and focused on the European market; Leapmotor, which started a bit later, also reached a cooperation with Stellantis in 2023 to launch its overseas strategy.
However, Li Auto was not in a hurry to go global before. Li Xiang, founder of Li Auto, clearly stated on his Weibo in July 2023: "Li Auto will not develop overseas markets before 2025, and will concentrate all resources to achieve its 2025 goals." At the strategic meeting of that year, Li Auto judged that it would formally consider overseas expansion after 2028, and before that, it would mainly rely on parallel exports.
But at the 2025 strategic meeting, Li Auto's attitude towards overseas expansion changed dramatically. Li Auto reflected that "the biggest mistake is that we started full-scale overseas expansion too late", and it will fully accelerate the pace of official global layout in the future.
So in 2025, what happened to Li Auto, which focused on the domestic market, that prompted it to change its mindset and go global?
In short, it is the intensifying competition that Li Auto is facing. Li Auto's advantages in extended-range power and large-sized vehicles have gradually lost their appeal to consumers as many peer players have "learned from Li Auto's experience", and it has encountered many setbacks in its transformation to the pure electric route, with its long-held top spot in sales among new EV startups taken by Leapmotor. As a result, Li Auto's performance in 2025 came under pressure, with declines in revenue, net profit and gross profit margin.
Since 2026, Li Auto has seen obvious acceleration in overseas expansion, with clearer plans for the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe, and Asia-Pacific right-hand drive markets. After entering Central Asia, Li Auto also reached a strategic cooperation with Allur, the leading automotive group in Kazakhstan, in July to launch localized assembly production at its Kostanay plant; in the Middle East, Li Auto officially signed contracts with leading dealers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in April, and entered Dubai in September to officially launch full sales; in the Asia-Pacific right-hand drive market, Li Auto has successively entered Macao (China), Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar since May, and will launch the right-hand drive version of MEGA in Hong Kong (China) and Singapore by the end of 2026.
Regarding Li Auto's accelerated overseas expansion, James analyzed to DoNews: "On the one hand, Li Auto's domestic sales are not ideal this year, and the company must have found through internal analysis that the overseas market has great potential; on the other hand, as far as I know, overseas dealer groups have been contacting Li Auto through various channels to obtain the distribution rights for its vehicles in certain countries. Li Auto has the willingness to go global, and overseas dealer groups have the intention to introduce Li Auto's products, so the two sides hit it off."
Although Li Auto's overseas expansion is still in its initial stage, James believes that it is not too late for Li Auto to go global. "For automakers like Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Kia, their domestic sales only account for 20% of their global sales, while overseas sales account for 80%. At present, for Chinese automakers, domestic sales may account for 80% and overseas sales account for 20%, and even most Chinese automakers' overseas sales proportion is less than 20%. China's auto overseas expansion is equivalent to a marathon that has only run 50 meters. Other automakers may have run 50 meters, and Li Auto has only run 10 meters, but for a marathon of dozens of kilometers, being 10 or 20 meters faster than others does not make a big difference."
In Li Li's view, although Li Auto started its overseas expansion late, it has the advantage of being a latecomer: starting later means that it can learn from the overseas expansion experience of other automakers, and choose the most cost-effective way to sell vehicles and recover revenue as quickly as possible. "Judging from Li Auto's current overseas expansion plan, it launches models with different power types in different regions, and adopts an asset-light model, avoiding many 'pitfalls' that other overseas-expanding automakers have stepped into."
Obviously, in the domestic market, many automakers are "learning from Li Auto's experience", while in the overseas expansion process, Li Auto is "learning from peer players' experience". But how many overseas consumers will eventually be willing to pay for Li Auto's vehicles? It remains a question to be answered by Li Auto.
This article is from the WeChat public account "DoNews" (ID: ilovedonews), written by Xu Yun, and authorized for release by 36Kr.