Li Auto joins hands with Changzhou to create CityDrive City

Author | Wang Xiaojuan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

The development of China's new energy market is in full swing, thanks to the support of major mainstream cities and internet-famous cities for car companies, such as Shenzhen for BYD, Beijing for Xiaomi, Changzhou for Li Auto, Hefei for Nio, etc.

Among them, the relationship between Changzhou and Li Auto appears to be closer and deeper.

After all, Li Auto's first self-built factory is located here, leading to a long supply chain and numerous first-tier suppliers; Li Auto also focuses more on extending the core culture of family users in Changzhou.

Recently, the "2024 Changzhou Cultural Tourism Festival and Li Auto Lifestyle Season" hosted by the Changzhou Municipal People's Government, the Changzhou Cultural, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau, and Li Auto opened, launching a series of distinctive CityDrive cultural tourism routes.

By organizing this event, Li Auto hopes to work together with Changzhou to create a CityDrive city, further amplifying the brand's dedication to family travel concept, and attracting more users.

This event, like many of Li Auto's previous activities, has invited many Li Auto users to explore the distinctive tourism culture of Changzhou and the Li Auto lifestyle, visit the Li Auto Changzhou smart manufacturing base, and experience the development of new quality productivity.

Incorporating educational elements into travel is also a common demand for many family users nowadays.

This time, Li Auto innovatively combines the visit to the new energy vehicle intelligent manufacturing with cultural tourism. In this way, Li Auto will have the opportunity to be seen by everyone traveling to Changzhou, and Changzhou will attract more families interested in Li Auto and new energy vehicles.

In this event, Li Auto students transformed into digital hosts, recommending popular attractions and travel route planning in Changzhou to the audience, and setting up interactive experience areas such as RV campsites, car movies, car graffiti, and intelligent parking.

These projects are also very popular among children in family settings, greatly enhancing the playability of the travel scene.

Li Auto has been connected with Changzhou for eight years, creating a legendary mutual journey.

In 2016, shortly after its establishment, Li Auto chose to establish its first manufacturing base in Changzhou.

Since its inception, Li Auto has insisted on the self-built factory and self-made route, adhered to end-to-end data closed-loop, and driven production through intelligent software and data with Li-MOS intelligent manufacturing operating system, Lianshan cloud warning system, digital twin system, etc., enabling the production line to have sustainable iterative capabilities.

Currently, the Li Auto Changzhou base has achieved an average of one car offline every 40 seconds, with an automation rate reaching the top level domestically. The welding workshop uses over 600 robots, achieving 100% welding automation; In the final assembly workshop, many steps such as panoramic sunroof and tailgate have also achieved automated installation.

In addition, digital twin technology digitizes the physical world manufacturing process, visualizes production processes, production line rhythms, process warnings, etc., creating a paperless, intelligent factory.

By 2023, Li Auto has become the first new force in China's automotive industry with an annual revenue exceeding 100 billion yuan. It has accumulated over 20 billion yuan in fixed asset investment in Jiangsu, with an annual production of about 340,000 vehicles, accounting for 32.5% of the province's total. It has also driven Jiangsu's new energy vehicle production to 1.047 million vehicles, accounting for 10.9% of the national share.

Over the course of 8 years, Li Auto has also grown to become the top new energy vehicle producer in Jiangsu, helping Changzhou build the "4-hour industrial circle of the Yangtze River Delta" for new energy vehicles, stepping into the "trillion-dollar city" in GDP with high quality.

Li Auto is also the new leader in the intelligent electric vehicle industry chain. The "Li Chain" plays a full traction role, attracting many supply chain companies from outside the province to establish a presence in Changzhou, Jiangsu, and promoting the localization strategy of supply manufacturing.

Currently, in Li Auto's supply system, there are 144 first-tier suppliers in Jiangsu, with 32 located in Changzhou. The localization level of the Li L series has reached nearly 60%, with 36 localized parts categories.

Li Auto's Chairman and CEO, Li Xiang, stated that Changzhou has an excellent business environment, large market space, and strong innovation vitality. Choosing Jiangsu and rooting in Changzhou is the best investment for Li Auto. Li Auto and Changzhou are working together to build an international smart manufacturing city, a hub in the Yangtze River Delta, making the "City of Li" a reality.

Li Auto stated that it will continue to upgrade its manufacturing base in Changzhou, reorganize its R&D, manufacturing, sales, and parts businesses to achieve group operation. Over the next three years, the number of R&D and management personnel in Jiangsu will gradually increase to 2,000, accelerate the construction of the Changzhou parts industrial park, guide the localized development of the "Li Chain" cluster, and build the company's ecological brand into a "Jiangsu brand."

In eight years, 900,000 Li Auto vehicles produced in Changzhou (expected to reach 1 million by the end of the year) have been continuously delivered to users across the country, witnessing Li Auto's gradual emergence as a leading brand in China's new energy sector. Li Auto, rooted in Changzhou's intelligent manufacturing industry chain, has helped the city's GDP surpass a trillion, with boundless vitality.

Changzhou, a city with true ideals. The story of Li Auto and Changzhou is a vivid stroke in the grand picture of China's new energy industry. The market and the world are also looking forward to them writing a more magnificent chapter together