Li Auto Mega 2026: price, steer-by-wire chassis and September 2 launch details
Li Auto founder Li Xiang says the redesigned Mega MPV will do to minivans what the iPhone did to phones, promising sharper handling from steer-by-wire and rear-wheel steering.
Li Auto is not selling its new Mega on specs alone: the company's founder has compared the upcoming update to the leap from Nokia to the first iPhone. Behind the bold framing is a concrete bet — turning the 5.36-meter electric MPV into a vehicle that handles almost like the smaller L6 and i6 crossovers.
Li Xiang considers traditional gasoline-powered minivans structurally limited: the engine takes up space up front, and the chassis layout forces a trade-off between passenger comfort and how the car behaves on the road. In the Mega, the company is leaning on the advantages of a purely electric platform.
The biggest changes are concentrated in the chassis. The car gets steer-by-wire, rear-wheel steering and an 800-volt active anti-roll system. According to Li Xiang, the combination should bring the Mega's maneuverability close to the more compact L6 and i6. The founder himself describes September 2 as a potential turning point for the MPV segment.
The technical side of the new Mega was already covered in detail after it appeared at the Chengdu auto show. The car gets four lidars instead of the previous setup, two proprietary Mach M100 chips with a combined 2,560 TOPS of computing power, and keeps the seven-seat 2+2+3 layout.
Dimensions come in at 5,355x1,965x1,850 mm, with a 3,300 mm wheelbase. The two electric motors produce a combined 413 kW, or roughly 562 hp. A 108 kWh CATL battery delivers a claimed 710 km of range on the Chinese CLTC cycle.
Still, the loud iPhone comparison has yet to be proven by the market. The current Mega is priced in China at 529,800–559,800 yuan — roughly $74,000–$78,000. Since the first Mega debuted, cumulative deliveries have reached 32,508 units, so the new hardware needs to solve not just the big MPV's maneuverability problem, but the far tougher task of restoring steady demand for the model.
That is exactly why the launch event set for September 2 matters more than another spec sheet. Most of the hardware is already known; now Li Auto has to reveal the final price and prove that the promised “revolution” is visible beyond the founder's own words.