The most eye-catching launch at the Guangzhou motor show last week was a slippery, 5.3-metre-long electric MPV called the Mega.
The car sharply divided opinion with its truncated nose and aero-optimised ‘wind blade’ that fused the body with the C-pillars to wrap around the back end.
It was the brainchild of Li Auto, a Chinese ‘new energy vehicle’ start-up that has steadily become the most successful of the fast-followers of Tesla, beating the likes of Nio, Xpeng, Lucid, Rivian, Fisker and Zeekr to post profits in the past two quarters.
In fact, so successful has Li Auto become that in October it outsold Tesla in China with 40,423 wholesales (sales to dealers) against 28,626, according to figures from sales aggregator Bestsellingcarsblog.com.
The sheer chutzpah of the Mega was even more surprising, given that Li Auto has so far built its reputation and sales growth on a range of elegant but somewhat bland large SUVs.
However, by using an electric drivetrain, Li Auto triggered an even more seismic shift in its brand direction by switching away from the plug-in hybrid strategy it has used to entice premium buyers into SUVs.
China is awash with new electric or electrified brands, but Li Auto, Xpeng and Nio stand out for being independent of the large automotive conglomerates, many of which are state-owned.
Li was started in 2015 by entrepreneur Li Xiang, for whom the company is named, after he made a name (and fortune) for himself building Autohome, a Chinese equivalent of Autotrader.
The company was keen on environmental technology but eased into the EV space by first adding a small combustion engine to extend the range of the battery.
Its first car, the Li Auto One SUV, used a 1.2-litre turbocharged petrol engine to achieve the range needed for it to be pitched at affluent, outdoorsy city families.
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