On February 14, 2025, new pictures of the camouflaged much anticipated first fully electric SUV Li Auto codenamed W04 or also referred to as Li Auto i6 or M6 surfaced on Weibo.

These latest photos are particularly interesting as a Li Auto MEGA driving behind the Li Auto i6 makes comparing the two easy.

In all evidence, Li Auto has retained a lot of the design language of the MEGA, a pretty bold decision considering the lackluster sales, vis-a-vis Li Auto’s sales target.

In fact, the MEGA had been hit by an avalanche of critiques on social media since launch about its design, particularly the rear end resembling a coffin according to many.

Li Auto had originally planned to target 8,000 monthly unit sales with the MEGA according to the company’s SVP Zou Liangjun in an interview on January 12, 2024.

However, the MEGA achieved its best single month in sales in March 2024 with 3,370 units sold and has since plateaued at less than 1,000 MEGA per month.

Source: Li Auto

For an MPV priced at 529,800 CNY (c. 73,000 USD), this level of sales volume is still respectable, but remains disappointing for the company.

Hence, the decision to retain much of that “high-speed rail” design on its upcoming fully electric SUV lineup is quite controversial.

Before the fallout of the MEGA, Li Auto had strong ambitions for its Li Auto M6 BEV SUV, with deliveries anticipated to begin in March 2025 with a first year delivery target of 200,000 units.

The Li Auto M6 is the fully electric SUV sibling to the Li Auto L6, which is currently the industry’s best-selling EREV vehicle with 192,257 units sold in 2024.

Despite that the MEGA is a large MPV measuring 5.35 meters in length, the shape of the vehicle minimizes wind resistance to just 0.215 Cd, enabling 710 km of CLTC range with a 102.7 kWh battery pack.

Li Auto also features 5C charging, charging up to 500 kilometers range in just 12 minutes.

The smaller M6 SUV, positioned to compete directly with the Tesla Model Y, will likely feature similar or even superior range and drag coefficient given its smaller size.