Li Auto's biggest SUV yet, the i9, arrives September 16 with a lounge-style family cabin

Li Auto has confirmed its i9 — the largest SUV it has ever built — will make its official debut at an evening event in Beijing on September 16, with display cars reaching stores from September 11. The model becomes the fourth battery-electric offering in the lineup, joining the Mega MPV and the i8 and i6 SUVs.

Founder and CEO Li Xiang previewed the cabin on Weibo, where zero-gravity seats swivel so occupants can sit face to face, an arrangement he described as unlike anything on the market. The i9 Home follows the Mega as the second model with a Home version: while he once likened the Mega Home to a suburban villa for big families, the i9 Home is framed as a luxury city-center apartment that trades raw space for efficiency, views and comfort. Such a car has never existed, he argued, but the world "really needs" one.

July regulatory filings describe a six-seater measuring 5,225 mm long with a 3,168 mm wheelbase, well clear of the i8's 5,085 mm and 3,050 mm. A dual-motor all-wheel-drive system delivers a combined 400 kW, split 150 kW at the front and 250 kW at the rear. Early deliveries will carry CATL's 5C ternary lithium packs before the model switches entirely to Li Auto's in-house battery design — packs developed and built by the company itself, with cells produced by manufacturing partners.

The debut comes as sales momentum returns: August deliveries rose 32 percent year-on-year to 37,679 units, snapping a three-month stretch of annual declines, though the 261,619 vehicles moved in the first eight months still trail last year's pace. With the second-quarter vehicle margin down to 9.4 percent, management is betting that the i9 and its battery-electric siblings can lift both sales mix and profitability in the second half.