Li Auto hits 40,000 delivery milestone within only 14.5 months

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Li Auto said the cumulative deliveries of its Li ONE REEV (range-extended electric vehicle) surpassed 40,000 units as of Feb. 18, 2021, only 14.5 months after the delivery kicked off. Notably, the company was also the first Chinese EV startup that achieved the milestone.

To further facilitate users' operation and enhance safety performance, Li Auto has to-day launched 13 OTA (over-the-air) upgrades for Li ONE's car owners, according to the company's press release.

Li ONE; photo credit: Li Auto

Up until now, Li Auto has had users in a total of 328 cities of China with a cumulative driving mileage of 330 million kilometers.

For the month of January 2021, Li Auto delivered 5,379 Li ONEs, representing a precipitous hike of 355.8% year on year.

Meanwhile, the company also announced the establishment of a new R&D center in Shanghai that is dedicated to the development of cutting-edge electric vehicle technologies, including high-voltage platforms, ultra-fast charging technologies, autonomous driving technologies, next generation intelligent cockpits, operating systems and computing platforms.

The R&D hub has already begun recruiting, and expects to house over 2,000 staff in the future.

Currently, Li Auto has only one model for sale, namely the Li ONE REEV with a NEDC range of up to 800 kilometers. It also revealed the plan of launching all-electric vehicles, while the specific timeline has not been announced yet.

The startup announced in last December the pricing of its underwritten follow-on offering of 47 million ADSs (American depositary shares) at a price of $29 per ADS. The company expected to use 20% of the net proceeds for the R&D of the next BEV (battery electric vehicle) platform and future car models.