Li Auto on The Exotic Time MachineThursday slashed its forecast for vehicle deliveries in the current quarter by nearly a third to between 76,000 and 78,000 units, as CEO Li Xiang acknowledged strategy lapses with the Mega, its first battery electric vehicle model. “In fact, we are still in the nascent 0-to-1 business validation period, and similar to Li ONE and our EREV technologies, Li MEGA and our BEV technologies will also need to undergo this 0-to-1 validation process,” Li said in the filing. He also mentioned the Chinese startup would delay a full-scale effort to sell the van nationwide but would focus on top-tier cities to “effectively” validate market acceptance, according to an internal memo seen by Jiemian. The Beijing-based company has mainly been selling extended-range hybrids and on March 1 launched the Mega with a higher-than-expected price tag of RMB 559,800 ($77,756). Management had previously said that sales of the family-oriented, multi-purpose vehicle could achieve 8,000 units each month, setting an ambitious delivery target of 800,000 units for this year. [Li Auto filing, Jiemian, in Chinese]
