Faced with the fact that its competitors have already completed the launch of at least two models, Li Auto is working to upgrade its second model in order to enhance the competitiveness of its products.
Li Auto co-founder and president Shen Yannan recently visited Xinchen China Power, a Hong Kong-listed company of Brilliance Auto, to discuss the development, industrialization, and quality of the CE15F engine in the Li Auto X01 project, according to cls.cn.
Xinchen China Power has been confirmed as Li Auto's supplier, and the CE15F engine may be used in the Li Auto X01 model in the future, the report said, citing Li Auto executives.
The Li Auto X01 is Li Auto's second new model, a full-size SUV that will be launched in 2022.
According to Xinchen China Power's website, the CE series engine is based on the Prince engine, which has won eight consecutive BMW Top 10 Engine Awards, and is fully supported by BMW Germany's expert team.
Xinchen China Power said in its financial report for the first half of this year that the CE engine series now includes three engine sizes: 1.2-liter, 1.6-liter, and 1.8-liter, but did not introduce the CE15F engine.
However, the nomenclature suggests that the CE15F could be a 1.5-liter engine.
Xinchen China Power did not respond to these claims.
Xinchen China Power has also introduced the CE series of engines in its 2019 earnings report.
According to the financial report, the company's research and development department has been working on enhancing the Prince engine product's fuel-efficient technology research, as well as fine-tuning the Prince engine technically.
The company is building a plug-in hybrid vehicle based on a combination of a hybrid electric powertrain and an extended-range traditional internal combustion engine to meet future new energy vehicle regulations.
Li Auto's first product, the Li ONE, is powered by a 1.2T three-cylinder (range extender) engine manufactured by Harbin Dongan Auto Engine Co.Ltd, which was first fired up in February 2015. The adoption of Xinchen China Power's CE15F engine means that the Li Auto X01 will have a larger displacement.
Li Auto's listing prospectus mentions that it will launch a full-size SUV in 2022 with a more advanced new range extender powertrain.
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Obviously, as a higher class and larger vehicle, it will need a larger displacement, more powerful, and more technologically advanced engine.
In addition to the possibility of changing suppliers for the powertrain, Li Auto announced on September 22 that the Li Auto X01 will use the most powerful chip in the NVIDIA Orin series.
It can reach 200TOPS (200 trillion operations per second) per chip, which is seven times more than the previous generation of Xavier chips.
According to NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang, Li Auto will be the first car manufacturer in China to feature the Orin family of chips.
Currently, the assisted driving chip used in Li Auto is from Mobileye, model number EyeQ4, and the assisted driving software was developed in collaboration with Yihang Intelligence.
Li Auto CTO Wang Kai explained that the previous cooperation with Mobileye, the system was not open enough, "we were able to participate in a relatively small proportion".
The premise of the partnership with NVIDIA and Huizhou Desay SV Auto is to be more open, and Li Auto will also be working on its own in the perception part, "to complete a closed loop and achieve faster iteration for the whole technology," Wang Kai said.
In addition, one of Li Auto X01's suppliers for the thermal management system has also been identified.
On Sept. 13, Anhui Zhongding Sealing announced that its subsidiary, Anhui Tristone Flowtech Co.
The heat management system assembly and intercooler tube assembly products are based on TFH's leading heat management system technology, with a total project life cycle value of approximately RMB 664 million.
According to publicly available information, the Li ONE thermal management system was jointly developed by Valeo and Li Auto, and the front-end cooling module was supplied by Valeo.
As far as known supplier information is concerned, the Li Auto X01, which will be launched in 2022, will break new ground over the Li ONE.
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