Li Auto Deliveries & Margins 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy | Last updated: September 20, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
Li Auto delivered 98,330 vehicles in the second quarter of 2026 on revenue of RMB25.7 billion, with vehicle margin at 9.4% — less than half the 19.4% it earned a year earlier. Axis Intelligence Research finds the company now earns RMB28,842 of gross profit per vehicle, down 47.2% year over year, while its sales split evenly between range-extenders and battery-electrics for the first time.
Quick Answer
Li Auto delivered 98,330 vehicles in Q2 2026, down 11.5% from 111,074 a year earlier, and generated RMB25.7 billion (US$3.8 billion) in total revenue, down 15.1%. Gross margin was 11.0% against 20.1% in Q2 2025. Axis Intelligence Research calculates gross profit per vehicle at RMB28,842, down from RMB54,621 — the sharpest per-unit profitability decline in the company’s history as a volume manufacturer.
Key Findings
- According to Axis Intelligence Research, Li Auto’s gross profit per vehicle fell 47.2% year over year in Q2 2026, to RMB28,842 from RMB54,621 — a decline more than four times steeper than the 11.5% fall in unit volume.
- Axis Intelligence Research calculates Li Auto’s average selling price at RMB244,752 per vehicle in Q2 2026, down 5.9% year over year but up 8.1% from Q1 2026, indicating that mix, not discounting, drove the sequential revenue recovery.
- The Axis Powertrain Transition Cost Index (PTCI) reads 51.0 for Q2 2026 against a Q2 2025 baseline of 100.0, up from 34.6 in Q1 2026 — Li Auto has recovered roughly half the margin structure it held before the transition began.
- Li Auto’s management stated on its Q2 2026 earnings call that extended-range and battery-electric vehicles each accounted for 50% of total sales, the first even split since the company began selling BEVs.
- Li Auto delivered 37,679 vehicles in August 2026, its strongest month of the year, bringing cumulative deliveries since inception to 1,801,834 as of August 31, 2026.
How Many Vehicles Did Li Auto Deliver in 2026?
Li Auto delivered 98,330 vehicles in Q2 2026 and 95,142 in Q1 2026, a first-half total of 193,472 — down 5.1% from the 203,938 delivered in the first half of 2025.
| Quarter | Deliveries | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2024 | 152,831 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Q4 2024 | 158,696 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Q1 2025 | 92,864 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Q2 2025 | 111,074 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Q3 2025 | 93,211 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Q4 2025 | 109,194 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Q1 2026 | 95,142 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Q2 2026 | 98,330 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
Source: Li Auto Inc. Announces Unaudited Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results, August 26, 2026.
The quarterly series understates how much the shape of the business has changed. Li Auto’s peak quarter remains Q4 2024 at 158,696 units — a level it has not approached in seven quarters. What replaced that peak is not collapse but a plateau in the 93,000–110,000 range, held through two consecutive years while the product line was rebuilt underneath it.
Li Auto Monthly Deliveries, 2026
| Month | Deliveries | Source |
|---|---|---|
| February 2026 | 26,421 | Li Auto 6-K, February update |
| March 2026 | 41,053 | Li Auto 6-K, March update |
| April 2026 | 34,085 | Li Auto 6-K, April update |
| May 2026 | 33,350 | Li Auto 6-K, May update |
| June 2026 | 30,895 | Li Auto 6-K, June update |
| July 2026 | 30,468 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| August 2026 | 37,679 | Li Auto August 2026 update |
Sources: Li Auto monthly delivery updates filed with the SEC on Form 6-K and the August 2026 delivery update, September 1, 2026.
Axis Intelligence Research calculates January–August 2026 deliveries at 261,619 vehicles. The monthly series reconciles exactly against the reported quarterly totals: April, May and June sum to 98,330, matching the reported Q2 figure without residual.
Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy: The March spike is the tell. Li Auto’s own filing attributes it to a resolved production bottleneck rather than a demand surge, with i6 monthly deliveries clearing 24,000 units that month. When a quarter’s shape is set by how fast a line runs instead of how fast orders arrive, you’re reading a supply chart wearing a sales chart’s clothes. The August number matters more: 37,679 units with no new-model launch in the month is order flow, not catch-up.
Source: Axis Intelligence Research — CC BY 4.0
How Much Revenue Does Li Auto Generate?
Li Auto reported total revenues of RMB25.7 billion (US$3.8 billion) in Q2 2026, a 15.1% decrease from RMB30.2 billion in Q2 2025 and an 11.7% increase from RMB23.0 billion in Q1 2026.
| Metric | Q2 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenues (RMB m) | 30,245.6 | 22,982.9 | 25,666.9 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Vehicle sales (RMB m) | 28,885.1 | 21,533.2 | 24,066.5 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Other sales and services (RMB m) | 1,360.5 | 1,449.7 | 1,600.4 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Gross profit (RMB m) | 6,067.0 | 1,808.0 | 2,836.1 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
All figures as reported for the three months ended. US dollar translations in the source use RMB6.7851 to US$1.00, the June 30, 2026 rate from the Federal Reserve H.10 release.
One line in that table moves against the others. Other sales and services rose 17.6% year over year to RMB1.6 billion while vehicle revenue fell 16.7%, because that stream tracks the installed base rather than current-quarter sales — 1.8 million vehicles on the road buying parts, service and charging regardless of what the showroom does this quarter.
Average Selling Price per Vehicle
Li Auto does not publish an average selling price. Axis Intelligence Research derives it by dividing reported vehicle sales revenue by reported deliveries for the same period:
ASP = vehicle sales revenue ÷ vehicle deliveries
- Q2 2025: RMB28,885,133,000 ÷ 111,074 = RMB260,053
- Q1 2026: RMB21,533,182,000 ÷ 95,142 = RMB226,327
- Q2 2026: RMB24,066,488,000 ÷ 98,330 = RMB244,752
ASP fell 5.9% year over year but recovered 8.1% from Q1. That recovery is the strongest single piece of evidence that Li Auto held its pricing through the refresh: the company told analysts it would absorb rising semiconductor and battery costs through internal cost management rather than raise prices, and the ASP series shows it did not cut them either.
Why Did Li Auto’s Margins Fall in 2026?
Vehicle margin was 9.4% in Q2 2026, against 19.4% in Q2 2025 and 6.1% in Q1 2026. Overall gross margin was 11.0%, against 20.1% and 7.9% respectively. Li Auto attributes the change in both to product mix.
| Margin | Q2 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicle margin | 19.4% | 6.1% | 9.4% | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Gross margin | 20.1% | 7.9% | 11.0% | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Operating margin | 2.7% | (13.0)% | (9.0)% | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
Gross Profit per Vehicle
Margin percentages compress what happened. Axis Intelligence Research converts them to currency per unit:
Gross profit per vehicle = gross profit ÷ vehicle deliveries
- Q2 2025: RMB6,066,969,000 ÷ 111,074 = RMB54,621
- Q1 2026: RMB1,808,045,000 ÷ 95,142 = RMB19,004
- Q2 2026: RMB2,836,055,000 ÷ 98,330 = RMB28,842
Li Auto gave up RMB25,779 of gross profit on every vehicle it delivered, year over year — a 47.2% decline against an 11.5% fall in volume. The unit economics deteriorated four times faster than the unit count.
Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy: This is the pack-cost problem arriving on schedule, and it is worth being precise about why. An EREV carries a small battery — the new Li L6 runs a 51 kWh LFP pack, the L8 a 72.7 kWh unit — with a range extender covering distance. A comparable BEV carries the whole energy budget in cells. Swap half your volume from the first architecture to the second and your bill of materials moves before a single price changes, because cells are the expensive part and you are now buying far more of them per car. Management named chips, PCBs, memory and lithium carbonate as cost pressures on the call. Those are real, and they are also cyclical. The mix shift is structural, and it does not reverse when lithium does.
The Axis Powertrain Transition Cost Index (PTCI)
Margin percentages and unit counts each tell half the story. Axis Intelligence Research built the Powertrain Transition Cost Index (PTCI) to hold both in one figure: how much of its pre-transition margin structure an automaker retains while it rebuilds its powertrain lineup.
PTCI = [0.6 × (vehicle margin ÷ baseline vehicle margin) + 0.4 × (gross margin ÷ baseline gross margin)] × 100
Baseline is Q2 2025, the last quarter before Li Auto’s refresh cycle began, set at 100.0. Vehicle margin carries the heavier weight because it isolates the powertrain economics; overall gross margin carries the remainder because it captures the services and parts business that partly offsets them.
| Period | Vehicle margin ratio | Gross margin ratio | PTCI | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 2025 (baseline) | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | Axis Intelligence Research |
| Q1 2026 | 31.4 | 39.3 | 34.6 | Axis Intelligence Research |
| Q2 2026 | 48.5 | 54.7 | 51.0 | Axis Intelligence Research |
Worked for Q2 2026: 0.6 × (9.4 ÷ 19.4) = 0.2907, and 0.4 × (11.0 ÷ 20.1) = 0.2189. Sum 0.5096, × 100 = 51.0.
Read plainly: at the trough in Q1 2026, Li Auto retained roughly a third of its pre-transition margin structure. One quarter later it retains slightly over half. The index moved 16.4 points in a single quarter without a volume recovery of comparable size — deliveries rose only 3.4% sequentially — which locates the improvement in mix and cost, not in scale.
Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy: What would move this reading next is not a better quarter for the L-series. It is whether the i-series can carry a premium trim at volume. Li Auto’s CFO tied second-half margin expansion to a higher sales contribution from the Livis trim and the launch of the Li i9. The Livis trims are priced at RMB429,800 for the L8 against RMB369,800 for the Ultra — a RMB60,000 spread on the same body. If that spread sells, the index climbs on mix alone. If buyers take the cheaper trim, the index stalls near 51 no matter how many cars leave the plant.
What Share of Li Auto’s Sales Are BEVs?
Li Auto’s management stated on the Q2 2026 earnings call that its dual-energy strategy had produced a mix in which extended-range and battery-electric vehicles “each account for 50% of total sales.” Applied to reported Q2 deliveries of 98,330, that implies roughly 49,165 units of each — an Axis Intelligence Research estimate derived from a management-stated percentage rather than a disclosed unit split, which Li Auto does not publish by powertrain.
The BEV line reached that share on the strength of one model. Li Auto reported that the Li i6 surpassed 150,000 units of cumulative production as of June 2026 and that monthly i6 deliveries consistently exceeded 20,000 units from March onward. Management described the i6 as one of its top three selling models priced above RMB200,000 for six consecutive months.
The Product Lineup Behind the Mix
| Model | Powertrain | Launch | Price (RMB) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Li L6 (new) | EREV, 51 kWh LFP | July 2026 | 249,800 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Li L8 Ultra | EREV, 72.7 kWh | June 2026 | 369,800 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Li L8 Livis | EREV, 72.7 kWh | June 2026 | 429,800 | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Li i6 | BEV | September 2025 | — | Li Auto June 2026 update |
| Li i9 | BEV | September 2026 | — | Li Auto August 2026 update |
An even split is a milestone for a company that built its business on range extenders, and Li Auto’s own corporate description still calls it “a pioneer in successfully commercializing extended-range electric vehicles in China.” Reaching parity took the i-series roughly a year from the i6’s launch.
Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy: Li Auto is the clearest test case for a question the rest of the industry is quietly asking — whether the range-extender was a technology or a bridge. The company’s answer, read off its own delivery mix rather than its slide deck, is that it was a bridge with a longer span than anyone expected. It carried Li Auto to 1.8 million cumulative deliveries and profitability that pure-BEV competitors spent the same years failing to reach. What the margin series shows is the toll charged at the far end. The 5C supercharging battery and 800V architecture now appearing in the refreshed L-series are the hedge: EREVs built to charge like BEVs, for buyers who want the charging curve without the range anxiety.
Is Li Auto Profitable in 2026?
No. Li Auto reported a net loss of RMB1.7 billion (US$251.3 million) in Q2 2026, against net income of RMB1.1 billion in Q2 2025 and a net loss of RMB2.3 billion in Q1 2026. It was the company’s second consecutive quarterly loss.
| Metric | Q2 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss/income from operations (RMB m) | 827.0 | (2,998.8) | (2,300.9) | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Net income/(loss) (RMB m) | 1,096.9 | (2,276.0) | (1,705.3) | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Non-GAAP net income/(loss) (RMB m) | 1,468.2 | (2,108.0) | (1,498.5) | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Diluted net loss per ADS (RMB) | 1.03 (earnings) | (2.26) | (1.69) | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
| Free cash flow (RMB m) | (3,841.8) | (7,388.3) | (1,300.8) | Li Auto Q2 2026 results |
The losses narrowed on every line sequentially. Free cash flow is the cleanest signal: negative RMB1.3 billion in Q2 against negative RMB7.4 billion in Q1, an 82.4% improvement, with operating cash flow turning marginally positive at RMB15.0 million. Li Auto attributes that swing to timing differences between customer receipts and inventory payments, which is worth taking at face value — it is a working-capital effect, not an earnings recovery.
Research and development held at RMB2.8 billion, effectively flat year over year, through two consecutive loss-making quarters. Selling, general and administrative expenses fell 16.2% year over year on lower employee compensation. The company is cutting overhead and protecting engineering.
Li Auto ended the quarter with a cash position of RMB87.5 billion (US$12.9 billion) and repurchased approximately 91.7 million Class A ordinary shares for roughly US$631.5 million under its US$1.0 billion buyback program.
What Is Li Auto’s Guidance for Q3 2026?
Li Auto guided to Q3 2026 deliveries of 95,000 to 100,000 vehicles, a year-over-year increase of 1.9% to 7.3%, and total revenues of RMB26.6 billion to RMB28.0 billion, a year-over-year change of −2.8% to +2.3%.
The guidance is flat against a quarter the company has already substantially completed: July and August deliveries totalled 68,147, meaning September alone would need 26,853 to 31,853 units to land in range. August’s 37,679 was well above that pace.
Aidan Jad, EV & Clean Energy: Guidance that implies a slower September than August, in a quarter with two flagship launches landing inside it, is guidance built with room underneath it. The Li MEGA launched September 2 and the i9 in mid-September; neither contributes a full month. Revenue guidance is the more informative half — the RMB26.6–28.0 billion range against 95,000–100,000 units implies an ASP band that brackets the Q2 figure of RMB244,752 rather than clearing it. Management is guiding mix-neutral into a quarter it has told investors will improve mix. Take the caution as calendar, not conviction.
Methodology
Collection. Every figure in this analysis comes from a Li Auto Inc. document retrieved and read on September 20, 2026: the Q2 2026 unaudited results press release of August 26, 2026; the August 2026 delivery update of September 1, 2026; monthly delivery updates filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Form 6-K; and the Q2 2026 earnings call transcript for the management-stated powertrain mix. No figure is drawn from a secondary aggregator.
Formulas. Three derived measures appear above, each computed only from figures in the accompanying dataset:
- Average selling price = vehicle sales revenue ÷ deliveries, same period.
- Gross profit per vehicle = gross profit ÷ deliveries, same period. Note that this allocates total gross profit, which includes the services business, across vehicle units; it measures profit generated per vehicle delivered rather than profit earned on the vehicle alone.
- PTCI = [0.6 × (vehicle margin ÷ 19.4) + 0.4 × (gross margin ÷ 20.1)] × 100, with Q2 2025 as the 100.0 baseline.
Validation. The monthly delivery series was reconciled against reported quarterly totals. April, May and June 2026 deliveries sum to 98,330, matching the reported Q2 figure exactly.
What the PTCI does not capture. The index measures margin retention, not cash generation or demand. A company could hold a high reading on falling volume. It is also anchored to a single baseline quarter, so it describes recovery relative to Q2 2025 specifically, not to any long-run normal. The BEV and EREV unit figures are estimates derived from a management-stated percentage; Li Auto does not disclose deliveries by powertrain, and any rounding in that stated 50/50 split carries into the implied units.
About This Dataset
Contents. 105 observations covering Li Auto Inc. quarterly deliveries (Q3 2024–Q2 2026), monthly deliveries (February–August 2026), quarterly income statement and cash flow line items, margin series, Q3 2026 guidance, retail and charging network counts, model pricing and battery specifications, powertrain mix, and Axis Intelligence Research derived measures including the PTCI.
Structure. One row per observation, long format, with full provenance on every row: source organisation, source document, source URL, retrieval date, primary-source flag, and a calculation flag with method note for every derived figure.
License. CC BY 4.0. Free to use, redistribute and build on with attribution.
Citation. Axis Intelligence Research, Li Auto Deliveries, Revenue and Margins 2026: The Cost of the EREV-to-BEV Transition, 2026.
How to Cite This Research
APA Axis Intelligence Research. (2026). Li Auto deliveries, revenue and margins 2026: The cost of the EREV-to-BEV transition. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/li-auto-deliveries-revenue-statistics/
MLA Axis Intelligence Research. “Li Auto Deliveries, Revenue and Margins 2026: The Cost of the EREV-to-BEV Transition.” Axis Intelligence, 2026, axis-intelligence.com/li-auto-deliveries-revenue-statistics/.
Chicago Axis Intelligence Research. “Li Auto Deliveries, Revenue and Margins 2026: The Cost of the EREV-to-BEV Transition.” Axis Intelligence, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/li-auto-deliveries-revenue-statistics/.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does an EREV or a BEV make more money for Li Auto?
Li Auto does not report margin by powertrain, so no direct answer exists in its disclosures. What the record shows is that vehicle margin fell from 19.4% to 9.4% year over year across the period in which BEV share rose to half of sales, and that the company attributes the change to product mix. The direction is consistent with BEVs carrying thinner margins, but the refresh of the entire L-series ran concurrently, so mix and launch costs cannot be separated from the outside.
Why did Li Auto’s deliveries fall while Chinese NEV sales grew?
The Q2 2026 decline coincides with Li Auto refreshing its entire L-series: the L9 launched in May, the L8 in June and the L6 in July. Buyers who know a replacement model is weeks away defer, and the outgoing inventory has to clear. Li Auto’s president described the effect as temporary disruption from the model refresh cycle. The pattern is visible in the monthly series, where deliveries dipped through May and June and recovered to 37,679 in August.
Is the Li i6 outselling Li Auto’s EREV models?
Li Auto reports the i6 surpassed 150,000 units of cumulative production as of June 2026, with monthly deliveries consistently above 20,000 from March, and describes it as one of its top three models priced above RMB200,000 for six consecutive months. Since total deliveries ran between 30,000 and 41,000 per month in that window, the i6 alone accounted for a substantial share — but the company does not publish model-level delivery figures, so an exact ranking against individual L-series models is not available from primary disclosure.
What does Li Auto’s 5C supercharging battery change about the EREV case?
The refreshed L-series pairs a third-generation range extender with a 5C supercharging battery — the L8 carries a 72.7 kWh pack, the L6 a 51 kWh LFP unit. A 5C rate means the pack accepts charge at five times its capacity per hour, so the range extender becomes a backstop rather than the primary energy strategy. It narrows the practical gap between Li Auto’s two architectures, which is one reason the mix can move to 50/50 without the brand repositioning itself.
How much cash does Li Auto have to fund the transition?
RMB87.5 billion (US$12.9 billion) as of June 30, 2026, against a quarterly free cash outflow of RMB1.3 billion and total shareholders’ equity of RMB66.0 billion. At Q2’s burn rate the balance sheet is not the binding constraint. Li Auto also repurchased roughly US$631.5 million of stock under a US$1.0 billion programme, which is not the behaviour of a company managing a liquidity problem.
When does Li Auto expect margins to recover?
Li Auto’s CFO tied second-half margin expansion to three things: a richer product mix, a higher sales contribution from the Livis trim, and the launch of refreshed BEV models and the Li i9. No target percentage was given. The PTCI reading of 51.0 for Q2 2026 is the benchmark any recovery will be measured against.
Where does Li Auto sell outside China?
Li Auto is prioritising BEVs for Europe, with the i6 launching at the Paris Motor Show in October 2026 and sales beginning in Q4. It planned a Dubai launch event in September 2026 to commence Middle East sales, is bringing the MEGA to Hong Kong and Singapore, and has signed a partnership with Allur for local assembly in Kazakhstan. All delivery and financial figures in this analysis are China-market operations.
Primary sources: Li Auto Q2 2026 unaudited financial results · Li Auto August 2026 delivery update · Li Auto June 2026 delivery update, SEC Form 6-K · Li Auto May 2026 delivery update, SEC Form 6-K · Li Auto April 2026 delivery update, SEC Form 6-K · Li Auto March 2026 delivery update, SEC Form 6-K
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