Li Auto drops i8: first all-electric SUV starts at USD 44,700

In the evening of July 29, Beijing Time, Li Auto officially unveiled its i8 mid-large pure-electric SUV, with three trims on the menu, priced from RMB 321,800 to RMB 369,800 (USD 44,700–51,400).

The brand’s inaugural EV, the Li Mega MPV, was hit by an unprecedented smear campaign and has yet to gain sales momentum. Will it succeed in this re-enter into the BEV arena with the i8?

Trim Options and Performance Specifications

Trim walk first. The i8 offers three trims, including Pro, Max, and Ultra, here are the basic battery, range and pricing.

• i8 Pro – 90.1 kWh pack, 670 km CLTC, Li Auto AD Pro, RMB 321,800  

• i8 Max – 97.8 kWh pack, 720 km CLTC, Li Auto AD Max, RMB 349,800  

• i8 Ultra – 97.8 kWh pack, 720 km CLTC, Li Auto AD Max, RMB 369,800  

Spacious, Family-Focused Interior

Positioned as a mid-large SUV, the i8 remains family-focused aligning with the brand positioning, with “fridge, big screen, lounge seats” ethos. The dimensions of the car land at 5,085 mm in length, 1,960 mm in width, and 1,740 mm in height, with a 3,050 mm wheelbase. A 2+2+2 six-seat layout delivers a spacious cabin volume, as the brand proclaimed, exceeding that of 5.2-metre full size SUVs.

Standard Configuration across All Trims

The family-focused SUV put most of the comfort and intelligent features as standard across all trim. Here are what Autocango found out.

• An in-house developed 5C ultra-charging battery pack, enabling for 500 km of range after a 10-minute charge.

• Dual-motor AWD is capable of handling varied terrain.

• Sic drive motors delivers 400 kW / 660 N·m (150 kW front, 250 kW rear), a 180 km/h top speed and 4.5s 0–100 km/h acceleration rate.

• The suspension system is adopting double-wishbone front, five-link rear and twin-chamber air springs, making a comfort drive as ever.

• MindVLA – Li Auto’s next-gen autonomous-driving architecture scheduled to launch on August 20.

• Intelligent driving hardware includes one ATL (all-weather lidar), eleven cameras, twelve ultrasonic sensors and one millimeter-wave radar

• Highway NOA, auto-park, AEB and AES are all standard.

Cutting-Edge Intelligent Driving and Smart Cabin Technology

We’d like to put more words on the intelligent driving system Li Auto is to provide in the i8 SUV. The MindVLA integrates vision, language and behavior, with the ability to evolve and enhance its driving abilities more like an experienced driver. While the AD Pro and AD Max systems are armed with the industry-leading chips, making sure the full execution of the autonomous driving technology.

The Pro Edition, applies AD Pro system (Horizon Journey 6M silicon, 128 TOPS), while Max and Ultra, utilize AD Max system (NVIDIA DRIVE Thor-U, 700 TOPS).

In terms of the smart cabin, the car utilizes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 compute platform with up to 32 GB RAM. Li Auto self-developed voice assistant, “Lixiang Tongxue”, evolves into a proactive decision-making agent, which is able to use tools autonomously, handling complex tasks, and memories and understand the user exclusively.

The i8 delivers a solid all-round strength on cabin comfort, chassis composure, and intelligent experience. Though, some netizens argues that the price is too high with no surprise on the configurations.

Market Positioning Amidst Fierce Competition

In China’s hyper-competitive six-seat electric SUV market, Li i8 is rivaling with formidable contenders, including the Tesla Model X, NIO ES8, Dongfeng eπ 008 six-seat BEV, Leapmotor C16 BEV and the recently-launched NIO Onvo L90. Wiil it win the market? We’ll be watching this space.

Outlook: Expanding the Li Auto i-Series

Following i8, Li Auto is planning to launch its second pure-electric SUV i6 in September 2025. From a bigger picture, we see that Li Auto is establishing its three line-ups covering both EREV and BEV: the extended-range L-series, the Mega MPV series and the i-series.

*(Exchange rate: RMB 7.2 = USD 1)*