Li Auto promises lifetime cover against battery fires

Chinese carmaker Li Auto used its Power Day event on Tuesday to unveil Lianshan, an in-house electric powertrain system that covers batteries, electric drive units and the company's charging network. The headline for buyers is a pair of lifetime safety guarantees for its own batteries, CnEVPost reports. IT Home confirmed both pledges from the event.

What the two guarantees cover

• No self-ignition: if a car catches fire on its own because of a quality problem with the original battery, and the car meets scrapping criteria, Li Auto says it will give the owner a new car of the same configuration.
• No fire after a crash: if the battery catches fire after a collision or a scrape to the underbody and the car is written off, Li Auto will pay the difference between the car's insured value and the actual insurance payout.

Both come with eligibility conditions, which Li Auto has not fully published yet.

Why Li Auto is doing this

Li Auto is moving its cars from CATL batteries to cells it designed itself, made by a 50/50 joint venture with Sunwoda set up in 2025. The in-house packs are already used in the Li L8, L6 and i8 and will go into every model. Many Chinese buyers see CATL as the safer, premium brand, so the guarantees look like a way to win their trust. CnEVPost also notes that Sunwoda's EV battery unit was sued in December 2025 by Geely-affiliated Vremt over alleged cell quality problems.

The claimed numbers

Li Auto made these claims at the event. None of them has been independently tested yet:

• Durability: at least 75% battery health within 8 years or 160,000 km, across all models.
• Abuse tests: the pack's underside survives a 500-joule impact without fire or explosion, stays watertight after 48 hours under 1 m of water, and won't catch fire for 24 hours after a single cell goes into thermal runaway.
• Charging heat: the new 5C ternary (nickel-based) cells run 12 °C cooler during supercharging than ordinary 2C cells.
• Range: 430 km of electric-only range (CLTC) for the new extended-range Li L8, and 780 km for the 2026 Li i6, more than 8% better than the 2025 versions. Part of the gain comes from a new rotor material and a redesigned power module.
• Charging network: more than 4,200 supercharging stations, all highway sites with 5C chargers, and 99.9% equipment availability.

For what "5C" means in practice and why chemistry matters, see our explainer on LFP vs NMC batteries and our EV battery care guide. China's price war is the backdrop: BYD launched the new Seagull from 65,900 yuan on the same day.