Li Auto will give owners a new car if one of its own batteries catches fire on its own. At its Power Day event in Beijing on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, the Chinese automaker launched "Lianshan," an in-house system covering batteries, electric drive units and its charging network, and backed the batteries with two lifetime safety pledges, CnEVPost reported.
The two guarantees
- If a car self-ignites because of a quality problem with the original battery and meets scrapping criteria, Li Auto will replace it with a new vehicle of the same configuration.
- If a battery catches fire after a collision or underbody scrape and the car is scrapped, Li Auto will cover the gap between the insured amount and the actual insurance payout.
Both are subject to eligibility conditions that have not been fully published, CnEVPost and CarsEVs report.
Why now: moving off CATL
Li Auto is switching its models from CATL cells to in-house designs produced by a 50-50 joint venture with Sunwoda set up in 2025, according to CnEVPost, which says the pledges appear aimed at Chinese buyers who see CATL batteries as safer and more premium. CATL's own shares are under pressure this week after a Q3 profit miss (our CATL story).
The specs Li Auto quoted
Li Auto says Lianshan batteries keep at least 75% health after 8 years or 160,000 km, survive a 500-joule underbody impact without fire, and will not catch fire for 24 hours after a single cell goes into thermal runaway at 50°C. Its 5C cells can add 500 km of range in 10 minutes, CarsEVs reports. The new Li L8 is rated at 430 km of CLTC pure-electric range and the 2026 Li i6, launching Oct. 28, at 780 km. Li Auto says it now has more than 4,200 supercharging stations in China.
What it means for Tesla
Li Auto competes with Tesla's Model Y in China's family SUV market, and it plans to enter the UK in 2027 (our earlier story). Tesla offers no comparable replacement-car pledge for battery fires.