At the end of last year, Li Auto was able to deliver 376,030 sequential hybrids to customers, which is an impressive achievement in itself for a Chinese automaker. As its first purely battery-electric vehicle, Li Auto has decided to launch the 5,350 mm long Mega minivan, which will provide family buyers with unrivaled comfort combined with the ability to travel 710 km on a single charge.
We emphasize that before this Li Auto offered only crossovers with a power plant operating according to a series hybrid scheme: the internal combustion engine did not have a mechanical connection with the wheels, but was used only to power traction motors and recharge the battery. The current Li Auto product range includes three fairly large crossovers, and the debut model Li One has already been discontinued. Now they will be accompanied by the all-electric Mega minivan, the only configuration of which will be offered to Chinese customers from March 11 at a price of $77,800. Other configurations will appear later, and the possibilities of adding options to an already feature-rich vehicle are not so rich.
CATL has provided Li Mega with an advanced Qilin traction battery with a capacity of 102.7 kWh, which should be enough for 710 km of range without recharging according to the conventional CLTC cycle. The body, which is not the most proportional when viewed in profile, has an aerodynamic drag coefficient of 0.215, which, with overall dimensions of 5350 × 1965 × 1850 mm, is admirable. Combined with a mass of 2785 kg, the average energy consumption of 15.9 kWh per 100 km seems overly optimistic, but the truth in this matter should be established by the first independent tests of the new product.
The ability to replenish the charge from DC stations with a peak power of up to 520 kW is also intended to alleviate the so-called “power reserve concerns”. In this case, it will be possible to replenish the range by 500 km in about 12 minutes, but it is important to understand that there are no such charging stations even in China, and here Li Auto is going to take part in the development of such infrastructure, expecting to build 5000 corresponding ones by the end of 2025 express charging stations that will cover 90% of major highways in China. It is promised that in the temperature range from minus 10 to plus 40 degrees Celsius, the Li Mega traction battery will be able to replenish up to 80% of its capacity at such stations in 12 minutes. The on-board system can also power external consumers with a power of up to 3.5 kW, and two 50 W pads for wireless charging of smartphones are built into the armrests of the “captain’s” chairs of the second row. By the way, these chairs are equipped with a wide range of motorized adjustments, a massage function and heating, which even covers the armrests.
A wheelbase of 3,300 mm is combined with interior space defined by a length of 3,791 mm, so even with seven seats, there is still room in the trunk for 500 liters of cargo. This volume can be increased to 1067 liters by folding the third row sofa. Since it reclines in two stages, including the cushions, it creates a flat floor in the trunk. The second row seats also take part in the transformation, which is not so common in premium minivans. Their backs fold out into a horizontal position, but to form a sleeping place you will have to use a special mattress. The seat backs of the first row also recline to a horizontal position, so when relaxing, the driver and his companion on the right can move to the second row and fully stretch their legs, reclining in the comfortable seats of the center row.
In the center console between the front seats, traditionally for Li Auto products, there is a food box that can either cool them to zero degrees Celsius or heat them up to plus 50 degrees. The front row seatbacks feature durable fold-down tables, while the rear two rows are entertained by a flip-up 17-inch 3K OLED monitor paired with a 21-speaker surround sound system with 2,160-watt amplifier power.
Naturally, the entertainment system, based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295P processor with 32 GB of memory and a 5G modem with dual SIM cards, not only provides high performance, but also supports Chinese voice recognition and monitors gestures. You can control electronics and climate control without touching the displays, using only your voice and gestures. Six paired microphones are distributed throughout the cabin, so passengers do not need to strain their voice to issue commands.
Autopilot, which on most Chinese roads already allows you to change lanes, drive through intersections and junctions, and overtake other cars without driver intervention, is managed by an on-board computer based on two NVIDIA Orin-X processors. It is assisted by a lidar on the roof at the edge of the windshield and 11 cameras. In addition to the automatic parking function, there is also the possibility of remote control of the car using an application from a smartphone, although in this case the minivan must be within sight of the owner.
The Li Mega accelerates to 100 km/h in 5.5 seconds, the maximum speed reaches 180 km/h, nine airbags and a body made of high-strength steel are responsible for safety, in addition to many electronic assistants. The power plant involves the presence of two electric motors: 211 hp. on the front axle and 333 hp. on the back. In the first two hours since the announcement, Li managed to accept more than 10,000 pre-orders for the Mega minivan, which in the Max configuration will begin to be delivered in China on March 11.
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