Li Auto - Q3 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for Li Auto's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Today's conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host, Ms. Janet Zhang, Investor Relations Director of Li Auto. Please go ahead, Janet.

Janet Zhang (Investor Relations Director)

Thank you, operator. Good evening and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Li Auto's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. The company's financial and operating results were published via a press release earlier today and were posted on the company's IR website. On today's call, we will have our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Xiang Li, and our CFO, Mr. Johnny Tie Li, begin with prepared remarks. Our President, Mr. Donghui Ma, and Senior Vice President, Mr. James Yanxun Zou, will join for the Q&A discussion.

Before I continue, please be reminded that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provision of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's actual results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding risks and uncertainties is included in certain company filings with the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. Please also note that Li Auto's earnings press release and this conference call include discussions of unaudited U.S. GAAP financial information as well as unaudited non-GAAP financial matters.

Please refer to Li Auto's disclosure documents on the IR section of our website, which contain a reconciliation of the unaudited non-GAAP matters to comparable U.S. GAAP matters. Our CEO will start his remarks in Chinese; there will be English translation after he finishes all his remarks. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. Xiang Li. Please go ahead.

Xiang Li (Chairman and CEO)

在智能驾驶方面，自7月份以来，我们全栈资源的端到端加VLM的新一代智能驾驶方案以每周2至3个正式版本的速度快速迭代。在三个月的时间里，模型训练数据规模从100万clips提升到400万clips，平均接管里程MPL翻了约2.5倍。基于强大的数据模型和全场景覆盖下对交通环境的深度理解，这一全新的双系统智驾方案可大幅提升用户智驾的体验。10月23日，我们向MEGA和理想L系列车型开启OTA 6.4推送，陆续向超过32万的AD Max用户全量推送全新的智驾方案。自7月全国无图NOA推送后，仅历时三个月，再次实现AD Max的技术战更新。此外，OTA 6.4还为全部车主带来了更生动的理想同学、大语言模型加持下的任务大师2.0、充电体验升级等智能空间和智能电动方面的功能新增和体验优化。行业领先的累计训练里程，我们为智能驾驶技术的不断创新奠定了核心优势。截止10月30日，理想汽车智能驾驶训练里程已经达到了26亿公里，理想汽车用户NOA总里程达到了13.9亿公里，累计使用智能泊车功能超过6000万次，理想汽车主动安全累计为用户避免潜在的大小事故345万次，其中包括516次极端恶性事故。 第三季度，我们持续升级销售和服务网络。截至9月底，理想汽车在全国145个城市运营479家零售中心，在221个城市运营436家售后维修中心及授权配送中心，其中位于头部汽车城和优质物业的中心店数量达到了165家，其单店展位数为9至11台，带动总展位超过了3000个。在支持现有车型销量提升的同时，也为我们的全新纯电SUV做好准备。在充电网络建设方面，截止目前，理想汽车已经开放运营1000座理想超级充电站，配备了4888个超充桩，覆盖全国31个省份的175座城市，其中理想高速超充站达到了582座，位于高速超充网络建设规模行业第一名。此外，我们持续加大与优质行业伙伴的合作。10月12日，我们与中国石化正式达成战略合作，双方将在充电站建设和平台互联互通等方面展开深入合作。我们搭建的优选超充平台目前累计上线了超过1200座高功率高稳定的第三方优选充电站。在纯电领域，我们将保持战略定力，纯电车型的补能效率和可靠性一直是消费者关注的核心之一。我们会持续大力加快充电网络布局，积极探索新技术，目标在明年建成包括高速和城市内行业领先的充电网络，为我们的全新的纯电SUV车型做好准备，也持续为更多用户提供便捷可靠的补能体验。最后，跟大家分享一下我们在ESG方面取得的成绩。今年9月，凭借在公司治理、产品质量安全以及清洁能源技术方面的卓越表现，理想汽车连续第二年获得MSCI ESG的3A全球最高评级。我们将继续探索前沿低碳技术和绿色运营管理方式，切实履行社会责任。接下来，有请我们的CFO李铁为大家详细介绍我们的财务表现。

Hello everyone, this is Li Xiang and thank you for joining today's earnings conference call. In the third quarter, China's NEV penetration rate has reached 50.3%, marking the first time NEV overtook ICE vehicles in terms of new vehicle registration. The market share of leading brands continued to expand, especially in the RMB 200,000 and over NEV market, where the top three brands combined account for over 50% market share in Q3.

Li Auto delivered over 152,000 vehicles in Q3, up 45.4% year over year, and driving our segment market share to 17.3% in Q3 compared to 14.4% in Q2. Our historically high quarterly deliveries and market shares solidified our market leadership in the segment. In addition, our sales in China's overall RMB 200,000 and above PV market surpassed multiple established European premium brands for the very first time, making us the top three brands among all brands and number one across all Chinese brands in this segment.

With a multitude of players entering the EREV market, Li L Series sustained its strong sales performance, partly attributable to our ongoing innovation and high-quality monthly OTA updates, encompassing improvements in autonomous driving, smart cockpit, and electric drive. In Q3, the average monthly sales of Li L Series exceeded 50,000 units. It is worth noting that AD Max take rate continues to grow, owing to our investments in R&D that have led to rapid iterations and breakthroughs in our vehicle's autonomous driving capabilities.

The deployment not only reflects user recognition of our technologies but also improves our overall product mix. In the third quarter, we continued to upgrade our sales and servicing network. As of the end of September, we had 479 retail stores located in 145 cities, as well as 436 service centers and Li Auto authorized body and paint shops operating in 221 cities in China.

Among these, 165 sales centers are located in major auto parks and premium commercial properties, with nine to 11 display spots per store, driving our total display spots to over 3,000. This supports the sales growth of our existing models while also prepares us for the launch of BEV SUVs. On the supercharging network as of now, we have 1,000 supercharging stations with 4,888 charging stalls operating in 175 cities across 31 provinces nationwide. Notably, our network includes 582 Li Auto supercharging stations along highways, the largest network of its kind in China.

In addition, we continue to strengthen our collaboration with premium partners in the industry. On October 12th, we officially formed strategic cooperation with Sinopec on charging station construction and platform interconnectivity. As of now, our Li Auto supercharging network includes 1,200 high-power, highly stable third-party charging stations. We remain on track in terms of our BEV strategy. Charging efficiency and reliability remain top concerns for BEV customers.

We will continue to accelerate the deployment of our charging network while actively exploring new technologies, aiming to establish an industry-leading charging network covering both highways and urban areas by next year. The initiative will prepare us for the launch of our BEV electric SUVs and ensure that we continue to provide convenient and reliable charging experience for a growing number of users. Moving on to autonomous driving.

Since its release in July, our proprietary full-stack end-to-end and vision language model autonomous driving solution has been iterating at a rate of two to three versions per week. In just three months, the amount of training data per model went from 1 million video clips to 4 million, while the average mileage per intervention increased nearly 2.5 times. Our new System 1 and System 2 autonomous driving solution significantly enhanced user experience with its robust model and deep comprehension of the traffic environment.

On October 23rd, we began rolling out OTA 6.4 for Li MEGA and Li L Series. The update includes our new autonomous driving solution, which is now fully deployed on over 320,000 Li AD Max vehicles, only three months after we rolled out our nationwide map list in LA in July. The OTA 6.4 update also features a more lively Li Xiang Tong Xue, TaskMaster 2.0 powered by large language models and improved charging experience, among many other improvements.

Our industry-leading amount of real-world training data is a key competitive advantage and powers rapid innovations in autonomous driving. As of October 30th, our total real-world training mileage has reached 2.6 billion kilometers, with NOA mileage hitting 1.39 billion kilometers, and automated parking has been activated 60 million times.

Additionally, our active safety features have prevented 3.45 million potential accidents, including 516 severe accidents. In Q3 2024, our total revenues reached a record high of RMB 42.9 billion, up 23.6% year over year. Our gross margin expanded to 21.5%, and non-GAAP income from operations hit an all-time high of RMB 4.4 billion, and operating cash flow reached RMB 11 billion. The solid financial performance is driven by our improving product mix, economies of scale, and operating efficiency.

In October, we reached an important milestone of one million cumulative vehicle deliveries in just 58 months, the first among emerging new energy vehicle automotive brands in China. The milestone marked a new beginning. Looking forward, we will continue to innovate through R&D and develop outstanding products and services while maintaining our production and delivery efficiency as an industry leader.

In Q4 of this year, we expect vehicle deliveries to be between 160,000-170,000 units, with full-year deliveries falling between 502,000-512,000 units. Last but not least, I would like to share the highlights in our ESG performance. In September, we received MSCI's highest AAA ESG rating for the second consecutive year, a testament to our outstanding performance in corporate governance, product quality and safety, and clean energy technology.

We will continue to explore cutting-edge low-carbon technologies and implement green operational management practices, proactively fulfilling our social responsibilities. I will now turn it over to our CFO, Johnny, to walk you through our financial performance.

Tie Li (CFO)

Thank you, Xiang. Hello everyone. I will now walk you through some of our 2024 third-quarter financials. Due to time constraints, I will address financial highlights here and encourage you to refer to our earnings press release for further details. Total revenues in the third quarter were RMB 42.9 billion, or $6.1 billion, up 23.6% year over year and 35.3% quarter over quarter. This included RMB 41.3 billion, or $5.9 billion, from vehicle sales, up 22.9% year over year and 36.3% quarter over quarter.

The year-over-year and sequential increase was primarily attributable to the increase in vehicle deliveries, partially offset by the lower average selling price, mainly due to the different product mix. Cost of sales in the third quarter was RMB 33.6 billion, or $4.8 billion, up 24.5% year over year and 32% quarter over quarter. Gross profit in the third quarter was RMB 9.2 billion, or $1.3 billion, up 20.7% year over year and 49.3% quarter over quarter.

Vehicle margin in the third quarter was 20.9%, relatively stable compared with 21.2% in the same period last year, and improved from 18.7% in the last quarter. The sequential increase was mainly due to the cost reduction, partially offset by the lower average selling price, mainly due to the different product mix. Gross margin in the third quarter was 21.5%, versus 22% in the same period last year, and 19.5% in the prior quarter.

Operating expenses in the third quarter were RMB 5.8 billion, or $825.4 million, up 9.2% year over year and 1.5% quarter over quarter. R&D expenses in the third quarter were RMB 2.6 billion, or $368.6 million, down 8.2% year over year and 14.6% quarter over quarter. The year-over-year and sequential decrease was primarily due to the decreased design and development costs for new products and technologies and decreased employee compensation.

SG&A expenses in the third quarter were RMB 3.4 billion, or $478.7 million, up 32.1% year over year and 19.3% quarter over quarter. The year-over-year and the sequential increase was primarily due to the increased employee compensation associated with the recognition of share-based compensation expenses regarding the CEO's performance-based awards in the third quarter of this year, as the achievement of the related performance condition was deemed probable.

Income from operations in the third quarter was RMB 3.4 billion, or $489.2 million, up 46.7% year over year and 633.4% quarter over quarter. Operating margin in the third quarter was 8%, improved from 6.7% in the same period last year and 1.2% in the prior quarter. Net income in the third quarter was RMB 2.8 billion, or $401.9 million, up 0.3% year over year and 156.2% quarter over quarter.

Diluted net earnings per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders was RMB 2.66, or $0.38 in the third quarter, versus RMB 2.67 in the same period last year and RMB 1.05 in the prior quarter. Now turning to our balance sheets and cash flow. Our cash position remains strong and stood at RMB 106.5 billion, or $15.2 billion as of September 30th, 2024.

Net cash provided by operating activities in the third quarter was RMB 11 billion, or $1.6 billion, versus net cash provided by operating activities of RMB 14.5 billion in the same period last year, and net cash used in operating activities of RMB 429.4 million in the prior quarter. Free cash flow was RMB 9.1 billion, or $1.3 billion in the third quarter, versus RMB 13.2 billion in the same period last year, and negative RMB 1.9 billion in the prior quarter. And now for our business outlook.

For the fourth quarter of 2024, the company expects the deliveries to be between 160,000 and 170,000 vehicles, representing a year-over-year increase of 21.4%-29%. The company also expects fourth quarter total revenues to be between RMB 43.2 billion and RMB 45.9 billion, or $6.2 billion and $6.5 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of 3.5%-10%.

This business outlook reflects the company's current and the preliminary view on its business situation and market condition, which is subject to change. That concludes our prepared remarks. I will now turn the call over to the operator to start our Q&A session. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. For the benefit of all participants on today's call, please limit yourself to two questions. And if you have additional questions, you can re-enter the queue. If you are a Mandarin speaker, please ask your questions in Chinese first, then follow with English translation. Your first question comes from Tim Hsiao with Morgan Stanley.

Tim Hsiao (VP and Equity Research Analyst)

大家好，我是Tim，感谢接受我的提问，也恭喜公司维持一个非常强劲的业绩增长。我有两个问题。第一个问题是有关于理想L系列增程式车型未来的一个增长空间。因为我们全年的指引50.2到51.2万，全年目标代表L系列四季度平均月销可以达到5.3万的一个水平。所以往明年去看的话，想问问管理层，我们觉得理想L系列大概还有多大的增长空间？如果有的话，这个增长空间是来自于新的车型，比如说L5还是现有车型的改款，或是出口，或者是低线城市的一个渗透。所以这是我的第一个问题。

Thanks for taking my question. So my first question is about the potential growth potential of EREV. The full-year target of 502,000-512,000 units implies the average monthly sales of the L series could exceed 53,000 in fourth quarter. So looking to next year, how much upside do you think the L series would still have? If there is ample upside, where would the opportunities be emerging from? Is it going to be new models like L5, facelift, export, or further penetration into the lower tier cities in China? So that's my first question.

Yanxun Zou (SVP)

Okay. Tim, this is James. I will take your first question. Overall, we hope our sales growth next year will be twice the growth rate of RMB 200,000 and higher NEV market. Thank you.

Tim Hsiao (VP and Equity Research Analyst)

谢谢管理层。那我第二个问题想请教的是有关于智驾，因为我们9月份的时候，理想汽车也推出了车位到车位的一键智驾的内测版。想问一下管理层什么时候我们会开始全量推送？另外的话，就是城市NOA的功能明年是不是有机会伴随着硬件升级进一步下沉到新款Pro的车型？

My second question is about the autonomous driving. So in September, Li Auto launched a better version of point-to-point, all-scenario, smart driving with just one click. So when will such function be officially deployed in full scale? And in addition, is there any chance that Li Auto will launch its City NOA function on the new Pro version with hardware spec upgrade next year? Thank you.

Xiang Li (Chairman and CEO)

我是马东辉，我来回答这个问题。我们支架的话，在过去十个月，完成了几个大版本的迭代，从最开始的清图，再到无图，再到分导端。也能看出大家对于理想汽车支架的认可和期待也越来越高。关于的话，车位到车位的一键支架，我们计划的话是今年年底12月份之前，会全量推送给所有的AD Max的话用户。同时我们也将一同推送了全国的ETC，不退出的一个通行能力。我们会采用的话VLM模型，来进行的话识别ETC。无论是说从城市到高速的NOA，还是说从高速到城市的NOA，都不会因为通过的话ETC收费站退出，给用户带来更加流畅的一个用户的体验。另外就是关于说目前的话城市NOA是否有机会下沉到Pro车型，因为城市NOA的话需要更强的感知能力，以及更高的算力。我们现在的话城市NOA是不支持现款的话Pro车型的。关于后续的新车型，也请大家关注我们新产品的一个发布会。谢谢。

In the past 10 months, we have went through several major iterations in our autonomous driving features. We went from reducing reliance on maps to mapless and to end-to-end, which you've seen today. In the meantime, people's recognition and expectations for our NOA have kept increasing. In terms of parking space to parking space at one click, our plan is to launch it to all of you AD Max users by the end of December of this year.

Along with this launch, we will also be releasing the feature to pass all of ETC toll stations automatically, which relies on our VLM model to recognize ETC toll stations so that our users can drive from highway to urban roads or to urban roads to highway through ETC toll stations without exiting NOA, which provides a more fluid user experience.

In terms of whether our City NOA will be released on Pro models, because City NOA relies on stronger perception and a larger amount of computing power, the current City NOA features unfortunately won't be provided on our Pro models. As for specifics of future models and information, please stay tuned to our product launch events in the future. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Bin Wang with Deutsche Bank.

Bin Wang (VP in Investment Banking)

i6在年中中间的时候，想问这个是否正确。

My first question is about the new upcoming BEV products. Kind of what's the timing for the first products and what's the pricing range likely to be? And what's your expectation for the monthly sales volume? Because some of the local media report actually will have Li i6 in the middle of 2025. Can you confirm that? Thank you.

Xiang Li (Chairman and CEO)

我是理想。至于详细的产品的计划，我们会在合适的时间通过正式的产品发布会再和大家做分享。因为对于这种全新的产品，保密工作还是非常重要的。整体来讲，我们对于后续的纯电车型还是非常有信心的。正如我们增程L系列在高端新能源车市场的表现是一样的，我们会努力让我们的纯电SUV成为高端纯电市场的第一梯队。

First of all, as for exact information about our launch plan, I will be releasing this information at the appropriate time in a formal product launch event, because for automotive products, confidentiality is quite important. Overall, we're still very confident about our best products overall. As you've seen with our L series, our EV models, they have performed very strongly in the high-end new energy vehicle market. It is also our goal to make our best SUVs tier one players in the high-end BEV market.

Bin Wang (VP in Investment Banking)

谢谢。我第二个问题是关于我们这个季度有一些关于CEO的一些奖励，基于股权的奖励。请问一下，因为之前讲过是过了50万，这个就可以确认。想问一下我们现在还没有达到50万，这个季度大概确认了多少，以及在四季度还会有多少主要的费用，以及这个费用的区分跟时间划分的原则是什么？谢谢。

My question is about the share-based compensation for the CEO. We know that previous announcements that more than 500,000 units in the past 12 months can grant the CEO some options. Can I know how much expense you're booking in the third quarter and how much you are going to book in the fourth quarter this year? Thank you.

Tie Li (CFO)

Hi, Bin Wang. This is John. Regarding the CEO share-based compensation, as of September 30th, the company expects the Q4, the fourth quarter delivery plus the delivery in the first three quarters will probably meet the CEO's performance required for the first batch of share-based compensation awards, which means the total delivery in the trailing 12 months first reach over 500,000.

As a result, we recognize the share-based compensation expenses in the third quarter of RMB 593 million. There will be additional RMB 42 million in the fourth quarter. Every batch of the reward, which means the next 500,000 milestone, the expense will be the same as each batch. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Tina Hou with Goldman Sachs.

Tina Hou (VP)

感谢管理层的时间。首先恭喜有非常好的业绩，特别是咱们的整车的一个毛利率。我这边有两个问题。第一个问题是关于咱们四季度的一个销售政策，因为一般四季度可能是一个大家各个车企都会销售政策放得比较多的一个时间，所以想问一下咱们今年的一个计划。同时相关的，我看到我们今年因为四季度的销量的指引跟三季度相比的话，可能就增长了大概一到两万辆，但是去年的四季度跟三季度增长了，其实是两万六、两万七千辆。考虑到我们今年其实还多了一款车，但是整体销量的指引是比较保守的。想问一下这个是怎么样考虑的？是不是我们今年可能销售政策不会像去年那么多，给的那么多？

So my first question is regarding our sales policy strategy into the fourth quarter of the year. And then also in relation to that, our fourth quarter volume guidance seems to be quite conservative, incremental volume in 4Q versus 3Q compared to last year. So wondering how we're thinking about the volume and the sales policy.

Yanxun Zou (SVP)

Okay. Hi, Tina. This is James. I will take your first question. First of all, against the competition, sales of the L Series remain strong, mainly due to the strengthening momentum of our brand recognition with over one million deliveries and the rapid breakthrough of our autonomous driving capabilities. We are very confident about our sales in the first quarter. The competition has been intense since the beginning of this year. Against such tough competition, our market share has been continuously increasing.

In the third quarter, our market share in the RMB 200,000 and above NEV market reached 17.3%, a record high year to date. Meanwhile, since L6 launch, its monthly deliveries have exceeded 25,000 units, with cumulative deliveries exceeding 139,000. Li L6 is the best-selling model among the new vehicles released this year. As to sales, we initiated a new round of change in the second half this year to give more operating autonomy to each region.

The person in charge in each province will be responsible for overall operations, not just the sales as in the past. With operating autonomy, each province can run region-specific sales and marketing activities according to the local market condition, further increasing brand awareness and market share. If we look at this region by region, the competition landscape varies for different provinces. We will formulate region-specific sales policies according to the local conditions. Thank you.

Tina Hou (VP)

好的，谢谢。我第二个问题也是跟咱们销售网络相关的。因为我们今年到现在为止，好像这个门店数量没有怎么增长。想问一下今年到年底，还有包括明年2025年，我们整个做一个扩张的计划。

My second question is regarding our sales network expansion plan. What will be our target store number by end 2024 and also by end 2025? Thank you.

Yanxun Zou (SVP)

Okay. We expect our retail stores to reach about 500 at the end of this year. Our key channel adjustments we have been implementing this year is to gradually replace lower-performing shopping mall stores in our network with sales centers in leading and auto parks. As a result, the proportion of sales centers in auto parks will increase to over 40% at the end of this year from 24% at the end of 2023.

Our total display stores in China is expected to reach over 3,600 at the end of 2024 from over 2,600 at the end of 2023. Meanwhile, we are expanding our coverage in the third tier cities and some key fourth and fifth tier cities in terms of sales and servicing networks. As to the store target next year, we will share that after the first quarter earnings release. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Jing Chang with CICC.

Jing Chang (Equity Research Analyst)

好的，感谢JoJo的提问。我这边有两个问题。首先第一个是刚刚理想总这边也提到了，有更多的增程混动的玩家加入，竞争会有所加剧。往明年看的话，我们的L系列也逐步发布满两年时间。在整个混动产品方面，我们预计会做哪些提升和迭代，尤其是在技术方面，可能有哪些粗略的方向是我们可以进一步提升的。

So my first question, as Mr. Li Xiang has just mentioned, we have more and more new players to compete with us in the EREV sector. If looking into our L series has already been released for nearly two years, if there are some factors that we can upgrade our products, what aspects do we think can be greatly improved?

Xiang Li (Chairman and CEO)

你好，我是理想。我觉得汽车的竞争是包含了技术、产品、供应链、销售、服务等在内的综合经营能力的竞争。其实增程只是技术中比较重要的一项，但绝对不是全部。L系列未来一两年还都处于青壮年的一个阶段。而且消费者购买理想汽车以后，我们还持续地更新功能和升级体验，持续地提升产品的价值。软件、硬件、体验的产品融合能力，我们应该是行业表现最好的。往未来三到五年看，我认为最大的变量来自于人工智能，包含基于真正的人工智能的智能驾驶和基于人工智能的智能助手。它将给消费者带来和今天完全不同的体验，也是真正的质变的开始。最后我还想提醒大家，提一个小点。2024年至今为止，全球市场最受消费者认可的新车是理想L6。这是销售端实打实的结果。从发布至今六个月，理想L6累计交付已经超过了13.9万台，而且产能明显满足不了订单的需求。工厂还需要在25年春节期间实现扩产，才可以更多地满足更多的消费者的需求。

The competition in the automotive industry encompasses technology, product, supply chain, sales, and service. It's a holistic competition. EREV technology is only a pretty important one among all technologies, but it's definitely not the whole picture. For the Li L Series, in the next few years, it's still considered, if you were to make an analogy to a human being, it's still in its youth stage.

After consumers buy our Li Auto vehicles, we will continue to improve our features and experience through OTAs, which improves the value of products that they receive. Software, hardware, and user experience and products, this integrated experience, Li Auto is still the leader in the industry. If we look at the next three to five years, I think the biggest variable is going to be artificial intelligence, which includes AI-powered autonomous driving and AI-powered smart assistant.

It will create a completely different experience for our users. That I consider is the beginning of real step change. One thing I want to remind everyone of is, since the beginning of 2024, the most popular and well-received automotive product in the entire world is Li L6. That's hard results that we've seen in our stores. From launch to today, in a matter of only six months, Li L6 has delivered over 139,000 units. Demand is still over supply, which requires us to expand our production facility during Spring Festival in 2025.

Jing Chang (Equity Research Analyst)

好的，谢谢。我的第二个问题是关于海外市场。我们现在内部是否有一个更激进的战略？如果是的话，这个调整是基于什么样的一个考虑？能否再介绍一下目前是否有一些粗略的规划，包括是否有一些重点的市场进入渠道的一些打法，以及说可能看2025年海外市场会否成为一个比较重要的销量增长的增量？

So my second question is about overseas market. Do we have a more aggressive strategy to going overseas? If yes, what considerations we shall base on? Can you give us a brief plan, including which markets we should focus on and how to develop the product dealership? If we look into 2025, whether the overseas market will be a key driver for our sales growth?

Yanxun Zou (SVP)

Okay. This is James. I will answer your question. Absolutely, the overseas market is very important to us. Our overseas strategy is different from other automakers. As of now, we have established the servicing networks in several countries and regions, such as Kazakhstan in Central Asia.

These servicing stores also helped us expand our market share in the overseas market. Regarding the choice of the overseas region, the Middle East and Central Asia will be our first target regions. Building on this, we will continuously explore and evaluate other markets with high growth potential to expand our global footprint. However, we are not considering entering Western Europe and North America for the time being. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Ming-Hsun Lee with Bank of America Securities.

Ming-Hsun Lee (Managing Director and the Head of Greater China Auto & Industrials Research)

各位领导，你们好。谢谢给我提问的机会。我这边有两个问题。首先我的第一个问题是，就在前几天，理想汽车正式对所有AD Max用户全量推送这个端到端。想了解一下目前从用户体验的角度，端到端的NOA跟以前有什么最大的进步？另外，今年就是三个季度以来的话，这个AD Max的版本的销量有没有显著的占比的变化？我翻译一下第一个问题。

So in October 2024, Li Auto officially OTA the end-to-end latest AD Max functions. How does the user experience improve and the feedback so far? And year to date, do you see significant sales mix change for your AD Max version? 谢谢。

Donghui Ma (President)

L6 is also continuously increasing.

Since we launched what we call End-to-End VLM autonomous driving functionality, we view autonomous driving no longer as a feature with City NOA and Highway NOA, but more as a capability, the ability to offer supervised autonomous driving. That marks the change from rule-based algorithms to real AI model-driven algorithms. For users, the values are pretty significant. I'll give a few examples.

First of all, MPI, what we call miles per intervention, have increased very steadily as we increase the amount of model parameters and training data. The increase actually fits very perfectly into Scaling Law, which means companies with high-quality training data will have a significant competitive advantage in this industry in the future. Second example I want to give is MPA, which is miles per accident, have also been increasing steadily.

My estimate is that with this current end-to-end version, the MPI is going to be 35 times compared to human drivers. Lastly, as we increase the big model capability, our active safety features like AEB and AES have also been improving very significantly. The number of severe accidents have dropped dramatically. In terms of sales take rate, AD Max take rate has steadily increased, not only for cars priced over 300,000, but also for Li L6, we have seen a very dramatic increase in AD Max take rate.

Ming-Hsun Lee (Managing Director and the Head of Greater China Auto & Industrials Research)

好的，谢谢马总。我这边的第二个问题是关于我们的充电站。因为刚才理想总有提到，我们现在已经有1,000个充电站。想请问一下明年的话，有预期到年底的时候的充电站大概能达到多少个？另外，目前的话大概有多少是自建，多少是第三方？也想了解一下明年相关的这一块的资本支出。最后就是也想多问一下，我们现在充电站的使用率大概是怎么样？因为目前我们纯电车MEGA的保有量其实还比较小。想请问是不是很多的充电站都是很多其他品牌来用？所以说，其实在我们毛利上来看，其实我们充电站的增加其实并没有对我们毛利率有带来什么样的负面的影响。我翻译一下我的问题。

So what's our plan for the charging station by the end of next year? And what is your current breakdown for your own building charging station and also the charging station run by the third party? And right now, what is the utilization, especially since you have so many charging stations, but the BEV MEGA total population is still not high? Does this mean that many other brands use your charging stations? So your charging station did not impact your gross margin?

Yanxun Zou (SVP)

Okay. This is James. I will take your question. Overall, we plan to establish the industry's largest OEM charging network and have an absolute lead. Before our new BEV models come to market, we expect to have more charging stations than Tesla in key cities for sales. By the time our new BEV model launches, we target to have more than 2,000 charging stations in operation, which will scale up to 4,000 by the end of 2025 next year.

Our supercharging station network now covers nine national highways, a total of over 54,000 kilometers, with a coverage ratio of 63% of national highway trunk lines. By the end of 2025, we will build more than 1,200 supercharging stations along highways, covering 90% of national highways. In addition to highway and urban coverage, we will also selectively cover medium and long-distance self-driving routes to meet the needs of our users for family travel.

For instance, our Mount Everest supercharging station commenced operation in October this year, and we expect to achieve end-to-end coverage to the National Highway 318 in April next year. Also, regarding the cooperative supercharging station in the city, so far we have already built more than 500, and we are expecting by end of next year we will also have this cooperative supercharging station in the city more than 3,000. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Yuqian Ding with HSBC.

Yuqian Ding (Head of China Autos Research)

感谢管理层。第一个问题想请教，目前20万以上的价格区间的品牌集中度是不是和我们之前和管理层年初时候探讨的方向类似？行业整合的过程中应该如何应对全品类品牌的高端车型的侧面打击，以及一些其他科技背景的新势力品牌？

The first question is about the consolidation for the pricing category above 200K. We discussed that at the beginning of the year. Is the industry consolidation shaping the way as management expected? How do we take the competition coming from the mass market brand's high-end model and tech brand's auto lineup?

Donghui Ma (President)

我是理想。我觉得就在我们还没有推出纯电SUV整个系列产品线的前提下，我们在20万以上NEV的市占率每个季度都在提升。三季度已经到了17%点几。我觉得长久以来，不管任何一个品牌进入市场，我觉得大家都会面临同一个最根本的挑战。我们提供的每一款产品能否在所在的价格区间为用户提供领先的产品价值，这是一切的核心。我们长期而言还是非常有信心，通过我们的增程和纯电的产品线在一起，能够持续获得更多的市场份额。我们长期的目标是能够在20万以上NEV里拿下25%以上的市场份额。

Today, even before we launched our pure electric SUVs, we have been increasing our market share very steadily every quarter, and it has reached 17.3% in Q3. For the longest time, no matter who enters the market, the fundamental challenge is the same for everyone.

Can we offer products that provide the most value for our target users in their respective price range? That's the key to everything. Our long-term goal is still to, through our BEV and EREV products together, capture over 25% of market share in the NEV market over RMB 200,000. Thank you.

Yuqian Ding (Head of China Autos Research)

谢谢蒋总。第二个问题想请教，我们在中大型尺寸的家庭用的大的SUV MPV的区间，看到新增车型的供给逐渐增加。我们是否会觉得家庭用户的边界可能已被部分触达？

The second question is on the segment and boundary. We noticed there's more model supply among the mid to large-sized family utility SUV and MPV. Will the company management see the boundary limit for the current segment, or will family user market separate to a certain extent, which are the other segment that a company would identify promising?

Donghui Ma (President)

我觉得我们对于整个家庭市场的挖掘才刚刚开始，尤其是整个人工智能对于自动驾驶以及座舱体验在产生改变以后，家庭的空间的可想象和创造力会变得更强。我觉得这个其实还是还不急于去开拓更多的市场，应该把这个市场去做得更好。我觉得另外一方面，从纯电的角度来看，其实很多人说是不是30万以上的纯电产品会很难卖，但是事实是30万以上的纯电的产品，如果想找到像L7、L8、L9这样的具备产品力的，你仔细想想市场反而是没有的。所以很多时候我们说无论是从人工智能的角度，还是从增程以外的纯电的角度，我觉得这种中大型的SUV，还有更多的市场可以挖掘，然后不急着去，我们不能拿这个金饭碗去要饭。

My view is that we've only started to scratch the surface in terms of family users' market, especially if you take into account the power of AI, the changes that will be powered by AI in terms of autonomous driving and smart cockpit experience. There's going to be so much room for imagination for family users. In this regard, we're not in a rush to explore new markets.

The other opportunity is in pure electric or BEV markets. If you look at the market of BEV products over RMB 300,000, there's no product that offers the equivalent or comparable product value to L7, L8, and L9. So there's simply no good supply, and we believe that's another big opportunity for us. Whether it's AI or BEV market, we think there's a big opportunity in terms of large SUVs for family users.

This is something we will continue to explore before we look at other potential markets or niche markets. An analogy would be we actually have a golden bull in our hands, and we shouldn't be begging with the golden bull.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Fei Zhong Gao with CITIC Securities.

Fei Zhong Gao (Chief Compliance Officer)

谢谢管理层接受我的提问。我这边有两个问题。第一个是关于自动驾驶的，公司是否可以介绍一下自动驾驶的进展以及未来规划的一个节奏？如果说往未来看的话，就是从中长期的一个维度往未来看，自动驾驶的技术迭代是否会放缓？如果说放缓的话，会不会导致各家公司的一个技术差异的一个缩小？下面的话就是我来翻译一下。

First question is about self-driving. So could you give us some introduction about progress and plans in the field of self-driving? And I'm wondering that will the speed of self-driving iterations slow down in the long term, and will it then potentially lead to a narrowing difference between companies' technology? Thank you.

Donghui Ma (President)

你好，我是马东辉。我来回答这个问题。现在的话，我们是以监督智能驾驶的方向，来开展技术研发以及产品的迭代，打造真正的车位到车位，全场景没有断点的一个产品体验。同时，我们觉得在智能驾驶方面的话，人机交互也是需要进行产品和技术创新。目前我们已经开始进行内测用户了，通过之后的话也会陆续推送给全量的用户。面向长期的话，我们同时也启动了L4级别的自动驾驶的预研，在当前的技术路线基础之上，我们会研究能力更强的车端VIA模型，以及云端的世界模型相结合的强化学习体系。另外的话，我们也会持续加大在智能驾驶基建方面的一些投入，保持在训练算力的领先，以及智能训练与乘数的这样一个领先。关于各家公司智驾能力，我们不认为差距会缩小，因为从长期来看，自动驾驶它对于车端的算力、云端的算力，以及训练数据的资源，这个需求投入是非常大的，以及大模型算法的能力要求会越来越高，反而我们会认为这种差距会越来越大。

Our current direction is to iterate on supervised autonomous driving and provide parking-to-parking autonomous driving experience and completely seamless user experience. In the meantime, we are innovating in terms of human-vehicle interaction when it comes to supervised autonomous driving. We are currently running through some internal tests, and we will be releasing these to all of our users in the near term.

Looking at the long term, we've also already launched primary research on L4 autonomous driving, and it builds on top of our current end-to-end VLA model. We are looking into reinforcement learning systems that combine VLA models on the car side and a world model on the cloud side. In the meantime, we will continue to invest in infrastructure and to sustain our leadership in computing power as well as autonomous driving mileage.

Finally, in terms of autonomous driving capability and the gap between different players, I don't think it will narrow, but in fact, I think it will widen over time. The reason for that is because, first of all, the requirement for car side and cloud side computing power, requirement for training data, and resource investment continues to be very large and has trended to increase. There's also a higher requirement on the algorithm capabilities for autonomous driving. So overall, I think the gap will widen.

Fei Zhong Gao (Chief Compliance Officer)

谢谢管理层。我的第二个问题是关于未来的一个降本怎么去看。我们能够看到其实伴随着销量的提升，咱们往未来的降本的空间这一块，就是说都会有哪些因素的一个贡献，包括采购、技术或者是折旧这些方面。

So my second question is about the future cost reduction. As we know that with our increasing sales, how do we look for future cost reduction, including procurement, technology, depreciation, and other aspects? Thanks.

Donghui Ma (President)

还是由我来回答这个问题。关于降本经济增效，我们会从端到端、全链条来寻找这样一个机会，包含刚才您说的技术创新，也包含采购巨量、减少质量的一些浪费，提高我们和合作伙伴的产能利用率，甚至包含更加高效的物流配送方式，其实都是需要非常精细化的一个运营。稍微展开一下，就是说首先我们认为技术创新对于降成本是非常重要的，比如说征程，包含电驱动整个系统的集成化，以及中央控制单元集成化。不仅是说可以提高产品力，还可以降低我们，还可以提升我们成本的一个竞争力。在供应端的话，我们已经搭建了联合创新的平台，让我们的合作伙伴更早介入，一起去找到更好的设计方案和工艺方案，寻找降成本的机会。在合作伙伴的合作方面，我们始终是主张双赢的理念，这样的话是有利于产业的长期的发展。另一方面，我们是通过平台化、零部件的平台化，打造爆款产品，以及在合作份额方面的话，我们更加的聚焦巨量，提升产能利用率，带来成本的一个优化的机会。同时，我们也始终在利用数字化和智能化，应用在我们自己的工厂，以及合作伙伴赋能给他们，减少在制造过程当中成本的一个浪费，提高制造设备的一个开通率来优化成本。谢谢。

First, overall, we will look at the full value chain end-to-end to find opportunities to increase efficiency and lower cost, which includes technology innovation, economies of scale in procurement, and reducing quality-related waste. It also includes working with our partners to increase their capacity utilization, more efficient logistics. All these require very detailed and very skillful operations. To give an example in terms of technology innovation, it is key to driving lower cost over the long term.

For example, with our EREV system and our electric drive system, if we could integrate them and integrate the central control unit, it will not only make our products more competitive, but also make our costs more competitive. On the supplier end, we are building a joint innovation platform with the suppliers so that our suppliers can get involved much earlier. We can work together to find better solutions in terms of designs and processes to find opportunities for lowering cost.

Also, in working with suppliers, our value has always been a win-win philosophy because only this is beneficial to the long-term development of the industry. On the other hand, we will design our parts so that they share the same platform, and we enlarge the volume of each product, which we call hit products. In terms of supplier strategy, our strategy has been to concentrate the volume on a smaller number of suppliers, increase their capacity utilization, and drive costs down over the long term.

Lastly, we will continue to leverage digitization, smart technologies on our factories, as well as to empower our partners to reduce waste in the manufacturing process, increase running rate or online rate of the equipment to drive down costs over the long term. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

As we are reaching the end of our conference call now, I'd like to turn the call back over to the company for closing remarks. Ms. Janet Zhang, please go ahead.

Janet Zhang (Investor Relations Director)

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact Li Auto's Investor Relations team through the contact information provided at our website. This concludes this conference call. You may now disconnect your line. Thank you.