CarBrandLogos archive · Li Auto · 2019
A petrol generator in an electric SUV, because China's chargers were not ready.
Discover the storyPhoto: User3204 · CC BY-SA 4.0
The story
Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Li Auto One, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.
01
Li Xiang had already built and sold Autohome, China's largest car information website, before founding the company that bears his name. His reading of the market was that Chinese buyers wanted electric drive but could not rely on public charging outside the biggest cities, and that a plug-in hybrid with two drivetrains fighting each other was the wrong answer.
Lixiang D · Trucks v2 · CC BY-SA 4.0
02
The Li One, launched in 2019, is an extended-range electric vehicle. The wheels are driven only by electric motors, front and rear. A 1.2-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine runs as a generator to charge the battery when it depletes, and is never mechanically connected to the wheels. Around town it behaves as an EV; on a long drive it becomes a series hybrid with no range anxiety and no need for a fast charger.
2020 Lixiang ONE · User3204 · CC BY-SA 4.0
03
The rest of the package was aimed squarely at families: a six-seat mid-size SUV with four screens across the dashboard, a single trim level, and one price. It became one of China's best-selling new-energy vehicles and took the company close to profitability far faster than most of its rivals managed.
04
Its ending was less graceful. Li Auto discontinued it in 2022 to launch the L8 replacement, with a short enough gap that recent buyers complained loudly about being left holding a superseded car. The extended-range formula, however, was vindicated, and much of the Chinese industry has since copied it.
At a glance
Produced
2019–2022Engine
Petrol engineDesigner
Qiu ShiBody
5-door SUVTechnical specification
Badge at launch
This is the marque emblem that accompanied the Li Auto One's era. The full identity timeline is documented in the brand archive.
Explore the logo history →From the journal
Contemporaries from the 2010s
Spotted something wrong on this page? Send us the correction — with a source, and we will fix it. How this site is written.
