Li Auto L8 will come in 5-seat and 6-seat configurations

Li L9 finally launched last month and the deliveries are already under way across China. With that out of the way, the focus of the company goes to the upcoming SUV from Li Auto - the L8.

Li L8 will be slightly smaller than the L9 and it is positioned to sit between the L9 and Li ONE in the company portfolio. There are already spy shots popping up all over Chinese social media sites, with the new car being spied during testing and even parked up at a shopping mall.

The L8 will be around 5.1 meters long according to Chinese press, with a wheelbase of 3,015 mm - that makes it shorter than L9 by 118mm and the wheelbase shrinks by 90mm. The design patent filings show a slight difference between the two cars, but in general the L8 is just a shorter version of the L9.

If you don’t know the brand that well and you are only going by photos, you’d be forgiven for mistaking the two. The D pillar on the L8 will be much thicker, but the overall design and features are nearly identical.

In the spy shots we can clearly see the LiDAR sensor is missing from the roof of the L8, a prominent feature on the L9. The CEO of Li Auto confirmed it won’t be a standard feature, but it will be available on some versions of the car. Mr Xiang also confirmed the L8 will have two configurations - either 6 or 5 seats.

What we can see in some of the shots, is the large front screen just like in the L9, there are screens for rear passengers mounted on the back of front seats as well. Although the L8 is shorter than its sibling, it is still a vast vehicle.

We are nearing the official release of the L8, initially its production was scheduled to begin in October. Li Auto has a busy plan in place, once the production of L8 is up and running, the company has an even smaller model prepared - the L7. That car is scheduled to start a test production in February 2023 with a ramp-up scheduled for April the same year.

Currently all Li Auto cars are using the X EREV platform - a range extended architecture, which the company plans to replace with an all-electric Whale platform. The next generation battery platform to replace the Whale architecture is already in works and will be called Shark.

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