Chinese premium brand Li Auto will enter the UK market autumn next year with a new car, the company said at the Paris motor show last week.
Li Auto is China’s best-selling homegrown premium brand, having established itself with range-extender (REx) EVs and then launching pure electric cars, starting with the extraordinary Mega MPV.
The brand is starting its European push with the i6, a slippery large electric SUV, which was China’s best-selling premium model to the end of August this year. It will be sold first in Norway and the Netherlands from spring 2027.
Li Auto said another model will come to the UK; it didn’t supply additional details but its head of international business, Nestor Wu, told Autocar that the brand’s line-up will target family buyers with both EV and REx options.
“Families have different market needs. That’s what we focus on and succeed in China, and we think it will work here,” he said.
Along with the i6, Li Auto showed the latest version of the 5355mm-long Mega, called Megahome (below), which is also available in right-hand drive.
The EV has sliding seats in the second row that swivel and then fold down in ‘bed mode’. Both the Megahome and i6 are available with a 21in drop-down rear screen.
The i6 measures 4950mm long and will be priced to roughly match that of the BMW iX3, Wu said. The iX3 starts at £53,250 in the UK in 40 form, offering up to 395 miles of range of 320bhp of power.
The rear-wheel-drive version of the i6 comes with 335bhp and an 96kWh battery for a range of 398 miles on the WLTP cycle. A four-wheel-drive model with 563bhp reduces that to 348 miles.
Charging power is quoted at 500kW, beating the iX3’s 400kW ability - although the German car offers more range, spec for spec.
Li Auto has adapted the i6 to European tastes, including fitting new locally sourced air springs to give it more dynamic handling than the model sold in China, where customers prefer a softer ride.
Like much of its Chinese premium market competition, the i6 positions most of its controls on an enormous (29in) touchscreen, which extends over to the passenger side. The driver is served by an ultra-wide head-up display.