Li Auto starts L9 deliveries amid power cuts

Li Auto’s Li L9 is off to a bumpy start despite the launch and subsequent marketing campaign being a runaway success. According to the company, over 120,000 visited the Li Auto Experience Centers across China and took test drives. Since the car officially launched on June 21, the company amassed over 50,000 orders.

China is currently going through one of the worst and prolonged droughts that is severely affecting its hydropower and the effects are being felt across all the industries. Li Auto wasn’t immune to it and had to shut down production on numerous occasions.

First cars started to leave the production line on August 18 and initially the deliveries were scheduled for August 28. Unfortunately that changed and customers were informed their deliveries will now happen between August 30 and September 4. It’s worth noting that only the first delivery slots are affected for now, those who had their delivery scheduled initially for September aren't affected.

To compensate for delays, the company is issuing a RMB 1,000 fuel card to all those affected. That’s good enough 110 liters of gasoline and since the Li L9 is an EREV it translates to about 2 full tanks of fuel or about 2,600 km of free driving - if the claimed range of 1,315 km is correct.

Despite that initial hiccup, the company is upbeat about its delivery schedule. Li Auto plans to deliver 10,000 Li L9s in September alone, out of the 50,000 initial orders over 30,000 has been confirmed with a non-refundable deposit.

Company has already opened its first delivery center in Hangzhou, in eastern China. The new Li Auto Space Design 2.0 based center is focused on family users, is a child friendly place and it connects people with the brand and its products, according to the official release.

Li L9 is the second car from Li Auto after Li ONE, it is a large electric SUV with range extender. It uses a small 1.5T gasoline engine as a generator that provides electricity to its 44.5 kWh battery pack. On the battery alone, the L9 can travel for 180 miles (WLTC), but with the range extender 60l tank full it can do up to 1,315km, which is an achievement for a 5.2 meter long and nearly 3 metric ton SUV.

EREV is an interesting concept, it provides a stop-gap between gasoline and electric cars. No, it’s not an ideal solution but for places where charging infrastructure is non-existent it can be a viable option.

Source (in Chinese)