Li Auto executives revealed several significant strategic adjustments during their latest earnings call, including accelerated product iteration, reduced SKU count, enhanced "public opinion defense," and sales system restructuring to address current market challenges.

Li Auto reported second-quarter revenue of RMB 30.2 billion, down 4.5% year-over-year, with deliveries exceeding 110,000 vehicles and capturing a 13.4% market share in the premium new energy vehicle segment above RMB 200,000. The company forecasts third-quarter deliveries of 90,000 to 95,000 units, representing a significant year-over-year decline of 37.8% to 41.1%. Total revenue for Q3 is expected to drop 38.8% to 42.1% year-over-year, falling to between RMB 24.8 billion and RMB 26.2 billion.

Facing market pressures, company management outlined responses through product strategy adjustments, sales system reorganization, and technology upgrades. CEO Li Xiang acknowledged the company faces challenges of "having competitors chase after our revealed hand," promising to accelerate product launch frequency.

Regarding the upcoming Li Auto i6, Li Xiang stated that "i6 will become the most competitive product in the large five-seat SUV market." Management emphasized adopting a "public opinion defense" strategy to ensure issues are resolved before they escalate.

Additionally, Li Auto management highlighted the company's continued AI technology leadership, with VLA technology maintaining its edge and self-developed chip progress proceeding smoothly. Li Auto officially launched its global strategy, designating 2025 as the year of international expansion, primarily targeting Middle Eastern markets.

**Acknowledging Iteration Lag, Clarifying Acceleration Strategy**

Li Xiang candidly admitted Li Auto's shortcomings in product iteration speed during the earnings call, stating:

"The problem we face is that when we play one hand, competitors have already played two hands. Our iteration speed is equivalent to showing our cards to competitors."

To address this issue, Li Auto decided to significantly simplify its product strategy. Li Xiang clearly stated the intention to "reduce SKU numbers," returning to the single SKU strategy of the L1 and Li Auto ONE era, "ensuring maximum competitiveness and providing customers with the best products and value proposition."

The company simultaneously committed to achieving faster iteration at both technology platform and product levels, ensuring quicker product launches. Li Xiang expressed confidence: "We believe that by 2026, whether in vehicle products or AI, we will have stronger leading advantages than during the 2022 L9 period."

**i6 to Become "Strongest 5-Seat Pure Electric SUV," Prepared for Public Opinion Defense**

For the Li Auto i6 launching in September, Li Xiang described it as "the most competitive product in the large five-seat SUV market."

He detailed i6's core advantages: unique exterior design, industry-leading space comfort, ultra-long range, and best-in-class actual range performance.

Li Xiang noted that i6 will also feature Li Auto's industry-leading VLA driving large model and will become "the best-handling Li Auto product to date."

In marketing strategy, Li Auto will adopt "a more user-centric new marketing approach," communicating product value and experience in ways easily understood by users.

Li Xiang stated the company will seriously and comprehensively implement public opinion defense to ensure issues are resolved before they escalate.

Regarding this vehicle, Li Auto President Ma Donghui added that i6 is expected to become the volume driver among Li Auto's pure electric vehicle lineup.

**VLA Technology Maintains Leadership, Self-Developed Chip Progress Smooth**

Li Auto continues maintaining its AI technology leadership. The VLA driving large model officially released on August 20th features 4 billion parameters, representing over a 10-fold improvement compared to previous end-to-end models. President Ma Donghui described this enhancement as "equivalent to upgrading from ChatGPT 3.5 to 4.0."

The VLA system achieved significant improvements in daily driving smoothness and comfort, with many users reporting it's "difficult to distinguish between autonomous driving and human driving." In September, all AD Max models will receive the complete VLA functionality through OTA updates.

Regarding self-developed chips, CTO Xie Yan reported significant progress. The chip successfully completed tape-out and return early this year and is currently undergoing vehicle testing, with expected deployment in flagship models for user delivery next year.

This chip delivers twice the performance of the strongest market chips when running GPT-class large language models and three times the performance when running CNN and other efficient models.

Regarding the autonomous driving industry outlook, Li Xiang believes "2025 represents the darkest moment for the autonomous driving industry, but this is the darkness before dawn." He emphasized that VLA provides a clear path toward L3, L4, and even L5, expecting to achieve ten times safer performance than humans within the next two years.

**International Strategy Launch, Orderly Charging Network Opening**

Li Auto officially launched its globalization strategy. President Ma Donghui outlined the company's development in three phases: 2020-2024 focusing on domestic market and range-extended products, 2025-2027 expanding to global markets and pure electric products, and post-2027 concentrating on autonomous driving and AI agent new formats.

The company has established R&D centers in Germany and the United States and officially begun building overseas sales and after-sales organizations. All products launched in 2026 will consider global regulatory requirements, with market strategy focusing on Middle East, Central Asia, and European regions.

Regarding charging networks, Li Auto operates over 3,100 charging stations with 17,000 charging piles. The company's 2C and 4C charging piles have opened to other brand vehicle owners, but emphasized that Li Auto owners will always enjoy the best charging experience, including exclusive discounted electricity rates and points redemption privileges.