Li Auto facing major challenges in protecting brand image

CnEVPost
Yesterday
  • Following the lukewarm initial acceptance of the Li i8, Li Auto faced a tsunami of negative comments on social media platforms.
  • This is the second time Li Auto has faced a large-scale public opinion attack after the Li Mega.
Li Auto facing major challenges in protecting brand image
(Li i8. Image credit: Li Auto)

After the Li i8's lukewarm initial reception, Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) is facing a new challenge: how to address the flood of negative comments about the company and its owners on social media.

The company's legal department said today on Weibo that a large number of misleading comments targeting its owners have appeared on online platforms recently, which has greatly damaged the image of Li Auto users and seriously disrupted their online and offline lives.

Such negative information has been posted intensively on multiple platforms 24 hours a day, with highly similar content, which the company claims is suspected of being organized and illegal.

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Even in the early hours of the morning, the intense attacks have not stopped, Li Auto said.

Li Auto is gathering evidence and will take measures including complaints to the platforms and litigation to protect the rights and interests of its users and the company, it said.

The company launched the Li i8, its first all-electric SUV (sport utility vehicle), on July 29.

The model suffered poor initial acceptance, forcing Li Auto to relaunch it just one week later and lowered its price.

The launch event for the Li i8 also inadvertently dragged a truck manufacturer into the controversy, bringing it a flood of negative comments.

During the Li i8 launch event, Li Auto showed a video demonstrating that the SUV's A-pillars remained intact after colliding with a truck, while the truck was lifted off the ground with all four wheels in the air and the driver's cabin flipped forward.

The video revealed that the truck belonged to Chenglong Truck, leading to safety concerns for the truck manufacturer.

After both companies faced several days of public pressure, they issued a joint statement yesterday with the China Automotive Engineering Research Institute (CAERI), which conducted the test, putting an end to the matter.

Li Auto and CAERI both apologized, while Chenglong Truck softened its previous hardline stance.

However, this only means that Li Auto has resolved part of the problem. On social media platforms including Weibo and WeChat, posts about the bad behavior of Li Auto owners, such as rude parking, have been shared like a tsunami.

As Li Auto faces a barrage of negative reviews, some auto bloggers have hinted that Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO) could be behind these actions.

Ma Lin, assistant vice president of brand and communications at Nio, said on Weibo today that he hopes Li Auto users will not be misled or exploited.

Li Auto has cultivated a habit of using electricity among its users, who are a group willing to embrace new things and new energy vehicles (NEVs), Ma said on Weibo.

Ma said he hopes Li Auto users will experience Nio's new ES8 and Onvo L90, and that Nio has no motive to cause conflict with Li Auto users.

He suggested that Li Auto resolve the issue through legal channels and report it to the police as soon as possible.

This is the second time Li Auto has faced such a rare challenge since the launch of its Li Mega MPV (multi-purpose vehicle), its first battery electric vehicle (BEV) model.

The Li Mega, which was launched in March 2024, also faced lukewarm initial acceptance, partly due to negative comments on social media.

This is the second time Li Auto has been embroiled in a tricky public opinion controversy after the Li Mega MPV's launch.
Aug 4, 2025

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