New compact electric SUV targets family market with 501km range and advanced driver assistance systems.
Li Auto has launched the i6, a streamlined mid-to-large crossover that marks the Chinese manufacturer’s electric entry into the sub-RMB 300,000 market segment with pricing starting from RMB 249,800 (£26,100 / $35,100 / €29,900).
The five-seat SUV offers up to 720km of CLTC range from its 87.3kWh battery pack and features the company’s latest AD Max autonomous driving system with lidar technology.
The i6 looks set to be a vital model for Li Auto with last year’s stunning domestic performance seemingly collapsing in 2025 and the brand needing to land a hit with a fully electric model to take on the Tesla Model Y, Zeekr 7X, and XPeng G7.
It’s the brand’s second fully electric launch this year after the release of the larger i8 last month, and their third after the MEGA MPV which appears to be steadily overcoming a difficult start to life, with Li Auto now confident they can better support their new electric customers with over 2,500 5C chargers across China, more than Tesla’s Supercharger network.
The i6 adopts Li Auto’s electric family design language, an unconventionally streamlined appearance that Li Auto claims is inspired by sharks, with a short and low nose and heavily tapered rear designed to improve aerodynamic performance.
Measuring 4,950mm long, 1,935mm wide, 1,655mm tall, and with a 3,000mm wheelbase, it sits between the L6 and L7 EREV SUVs in Li Auto’s line-up, and does a good job of looking sleek with a standard two-tone colour scheme with blacked out roof and large 20- or 21-inch alloy wheels.
It incorporates Li Auto’s distinctive full-width daytime running lights front and rear, and features a LiDAR unit as standard atop the windscreen to support the autonomous driving system.
Five colour options will be made available with a muted colour palette, meanwhile there’s a pop-out tow hook at the rear and mounting points for both bike racks at the rear and luggage racks on the roof.
The i6’s cabin very much sticks with Li Auto’s trademark styling and set up with simplified shapes, soft surfaces, and a twin screen set-up at the front, as well as a smaller screen on the steering wheel and head-up display ahead of the driver.
Twin ventilated wireless chargers, heated, ventilated, and massaging front seats, and the smaller of two panoramic windows complete the front seats experience, along with ambient lighting around the cabin.
In the rear, there’s heating across the rear bench and ventilation on the outer seats, as well as a ‘queen seat’ function on the passenger side seat with a footrest on the back of the front seat which can move forward to create more legroom.
For entertainment, there’s a 21.4-inch 3K screen which folds down from the ceiling, supported by a Platinum audio system with a comprehensive speaker package across the car, while manual sunblinds in each rear door help keep kids away from direct sunlight.
There’s also an 8.8-litre heating and cooling drawer on the back of the centre console along with a small screen for controlling the ventilation and seat controls, and a ‘single bed mode’ that enables the front seat to lie flat to the rear bench forming space for a 1.83-metre bed area.
The boot volume isn’t given but it is 1.1-metres deep, features a sunken storage compartment, and there’s a frunk as well.
Like other Li Auto models, the i6 gets a 250kW motor on the rear axle as standard, and can optionally be specced with an additional 150kW motor on the front axle, giving a minimal 0-100kph sprint of 4.5 seconds.
The single battery is an 87.3kWh CATL LFP unit capable of 5C charging, delivering as much as 720km of range on the CLTC cycle, and with the ability to add 500km of range in 10 minutes on the right charger.
Li Auto claims energy consumption as low as 13.6kWh/100km, and can retain range of 70% in temperatures as low as -7°C.
The i6 also gets all-aluminium suspension, high-performance hydraulic bushings, and continuous damping control as standard, and can be specced with Li Auto’s dual-chamber Magic Carpet air suspension.
The i6 benefits from Li Auto’s AD Max VLA-driven ADAS system as standard, meaning there’s a LiDAR unit and a wide array of cameras and sensors used in collaboration with the NVIDIA Thor-U chip providing 700TOPS of processing power.
This, Li claims, gives industry-first full speed AEB and AES, with obstacle avoidance even possible at 130kph.
Meanwhile, the cabin infotainment gets Li Auto’s MindGPT artificial intelligence that supports different dialects, agent-to-agent functionality for things such as KFC ordering, and automatic parking payment among other features.
Li Auto has learned from the chaos around the i8’s launch, opting to offer the i6 in one standard form, which starts from RMB 249,800 (£26,100 / $35,100 / €29,900) with a whole bunch of optional features, something of a rare sight in the Chinese market.
That means the 21.4-inch rear screen and HD rearview mirror are RMB 10,000 options, the dual-motor set-up an RMB 20,000 option, dual chamber air suspension a RMB 15,000 option, soft-close doors RMB 5,000, heating/cooling drawer RMB 5,000, Platinum audio package RMB 5,000, and tow hook RMB 3,000.
Buyers before October 31 will get an RMB 10,000 discount and complementary air suspension, heating/cooling drawer, and soft-close doors, while any buyers of the Li ONE, Li’s first car, will get free Platinum audio system and an RMB 10,000 final payment reduction.
Sales have begun immediately across China.
