By Miranda Li

Li Auto, one of the Chinese EV star startups, has established its IC design subsidiary Sichuan Ideal Smart Technology (四川理想智动科技) recently. 

Tianyancha, a Chinese corporate registration information platform, shows that the company was registered on April 29 with its legal representative George Li.

It has a registered capital of RMB 100 million ($14.94 million), with its main business scope in IC design and services, automobile parts and accessories manufacturing, sales of electrical accessories for new energy vehicles(NEV), and sales of NEVs, according to Tianyancha.

Source: Li Auto

Li Auto was founded by Li Xiang in Beijing in 2015 and was listed on Nasdaq in 2020. The company has worked on its needs for IC in the past. As early as 2017, it invested in Deepwater Opto-Electronics Technologies, a photoelectric sensor technology and LiDAR developer. It also set up a joint venture with San'an optoelectronics in research and development of EV motor controller SiC chips and modules, according to a JW Insights report in late April.

It is reported that Li Auto delivered 4167 vehicles of Li ONE in April 2022, a halved sales compared with 11,034 autos in March.

Li Auto admitted that some of its suppliers in Shanghai, Kunshan, and other Jiangsu Province could not supply parts, and some even completely shut down their production because of the epidemic lockdown in the Shanghai and Yangtze River Delta region. They affected Li Auto's output, resulting in some new car delivery delays for some users in April.