CarBrandLogos archive · Li Auto · 2024

Li AutoLi Auto Mega

A wind-tunnel-shaped electric MPV whose launch became a case study in going wrong.

Photo: S5A-0043 · CC BY 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Li Auto history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Li Auto Mega, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The Mega is a large battery-electric MPV, launched in 2024 as Li Auto's first vehicle without a petrol generator on board. The engineering case for it was sound: an MPV has the height and floor area to package a very large battery, and the Mega was designed around fast charging, using a high-voltage architecture and a battery developed with CATL that could take a substantial charge in the time it takes to buy a coffee. Aerodynamics were treated as the primary design constraint, which is why the nose is rounded down almost to the ground and the body tapers sharply at the rear.

Li Auto Mega IMG003 · Zotyefan · CC0

Design and engineering

The reaction was not what the company expected. Chinese social media seized on the shape, comparing it unfavourably to a coffin and a high-speed train, and the mockery spread far enough to affect the order book. Li Auto, which had grown used to launches going well, publicly cut its sales forecast and its founder wrote at length about having misread the market and having let the company chase volume before it had established what the product was.

Private Li Mega 粤BD988xx rear · S5A-0043 · CC BY 4.0

In production

It remains in production, built in Beijing and designed under Benjamin Baum, and later revisions softened both the styling and the positioning. As a piece of packaging it is impressive; as a lesson in how much a silhouette can cost, it is more instructive still.

At a glance