Li Auto Inc. (NASDAQ:LI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Xiang Li: I think my earlier response covered a lot of your question. And I just want to emphasize that our focus has always been our core user value, what makes the most — create the most value for our users. I think with the intense competition, as you mentioned, incremental changes are definitely taken for granted, whether it’s lower price, whether it’s more features or more screens, these are things we’ll definitely do well in. But when we think about competition, we think it’s really the way to stand out is to compete on a higher dimension and to create really focus on the three values that consumers care about most. And taking 5C charging as an example, in our real-world chart testing, even when the battery state of charge reaches 85%, it can still have a charging power of over 300 kilowatts, which is even higher than the maximum charging rate of many other competitors.

This really establish a new standard for the industry, and that is only the result of years of innovation through product and R&D in our efforts. And that is something we will continue to invest in and continue to prove — create value for our users.

Operator: Your next question comes from Ming-Hsun Lee with BofA.

Ming-Hsun Lee: So currently, Li Auto has put a lot of charging stations in China. So what is the difference of charging station within the cities and also on a highway? And in terms of your charging technology and also the user experience for your BEV, how do you want to differentiate from maybe your competitor?

Liangjun Zou: Okay. Ming, thanks for your questions. This is James. I will take your question. At present, there are urban — in urban areas, whether it is public charging or home charging consumers have good access to charging facilities that provide a decent charging experience. Therefore, for BEVs, we must first tackle the most critical pain point and focus on fulfilling the need for rapid energy replenishment during highway long distance travel. Through the construction of large-scale charging stations along the highways, coupled with experience of charging for 12 minutes to support 500 kilometers driving range, we strive to eliminate consumers’ worries around BEV purchases. Furthermore, with the launch and the delivery of the BEVs next year, we will also start the construction of charging stations in cities.

In addition, with respect to product experience, we will consider both the hardware and software as a whole product. For example, when Li Auto car owners is looking for a charging pile, the status of charging gun and charging pile can be checked on the infotainment system in the car. We also provide plug and play, possible free payment among those services to provide a better experience for our users. And for BEVs, the batteries can be remotely preheated, we think from user experience perspective aiming to help our users have a better charging experience. Okay, this is my answer.

Ming-Hsun Lee: [Indiscernible] and also some other NEV companies, first-generation EV start-up in China. But currently, we are seeing more and more competitive peers to enter the market, for example, Huawei with a lot of partners in China and also started to bring some good sales. Xiaomi now will also launch a new car in 2024. So in your view, for the longer term, how do you think the market dynamic in China through EV industry for auto companies, how can they provide more accolades well? How do you think — what is the most important in your view?

Xiang Li: First of all, I think what many people are really asking is, how do we look at the competition from Huawei? And this is actually a question we have broad consensus across the company. When we look at Huawei, 80% of what we’re thinking is how do we learn from them; and two, 20% is really respect, and there’s zero complaint in fact. Because as we become a company that has — we’re still a start-up company, and as we reach the CNY 100 billion revenue benchmark — milestone, we’re actually very lucky and impressed to have a role model which has done businesses on a scale of RMB 1 trillion. So we’re very excited to have Huawei along the way. And when we look internally in terms of how we want to weather the storm and stand out in intense competition, we look at really nine areas across three broad categories.