China‘s minivan market is heating up, drawing more companies into this expanding segment. The latest entrant is the Li Auto Mega, setting itself apart with a streamlined design resembling a bullet train. This model marks the debut production electric vehicle from the Beijing-based startup, following a series of hybrid range-extender SUVs.
Li Xiang, the CEO of the company, published two photos of the electric minivan on his official social media account, effectively revealing the exterior design of the upcoming model. At first glance, it is obvious that the Li Auto Mega has an unconventionally aerodynamic shape with a swooping uninterrupted line from the front bumper all the way to the rear glass. We can also see a thin LED bar under the front windshield, similar to the Hyundai Staria which also looks like the source of inspiration for the bumper-mounted headlights.
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Photos Li Xiang
In the caption of the post, the CEO asked his followers to guess the drag coefficient figure of the EV. While this has yet to be announced by the company, some commenters suggest it could be around 0.21 cd, which is an impressive number for the standards of the segment.
Camouflaged prototypes of the Li Auto Mega have been spotted in China during development testing, inspiring speculative renderings by independent designer sugardesign_1. While the production model looks very similar to those illustrations, Li Auto’s CEO didn’t seem to like them that much. According to a screenshot of one of his previous posts on social media, he joked that if the model ended up looking like this, he would kill the entire design team and jump out of a window.
Below you can see the illustrations so you can decide for yourself.
Setting aside all this design-related drama, the Li Auto Mega will ride on the Whale architecture. Energy will be stored in a CATL Qilin ternary battery pack that supports ultra-fast charging of up to 500 kW. This is said to add as much as 600 km (373 miles) of driving range in only 22 minutes of charging, as long as you find a compatible fast charger. The model will also come equipped with sophisticated autonomous driving capabilities, as hinted at by the roof-mounted lidar.
The Li Auto Mega is set to make its full debut in December 2023, and sales are slated to begin in January 2024, with initial deliveries anticipated in February. The starting price is expected to be around ¥500,000, equivalent to $68,363 in today’s exchange rates.