- Li Auto president Ma Donghui took on the role of head of smart car strategy, thus freeing up CEO Li Xiang to focus on AI, according to local media.
- Li previously said Li Auto’s vision was to become a leading global AI company by 2030.
Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) has reportedly made recent changes to its management responsibilities, with its founder, chairman, and CEO Li Xiang shifting his focus to artificial intelligence (AI), as the company aims to become a leading global AI company by 2030.
The carmaker made these changes just after the 2025 Chinese New Year holiday break, with president Ma Donghui taking on the role of head of smart car strategy, responsible for planning and execution related to the automotive business, local media outlet 21jingji reported today, citing multiple sources.
Ma succeeded Li as head of the “production, supply and sales joint committee”, of which Li is still a member, and will participate in decisions related to the auto business, the report said, citing a source close to Li Auto’s management.
The core logic of the restructuring is that Li Auto’s decision makers believe the automotive business is already relatively mature, and its battery electric vehicle (BEV) products have basically taken shape, so Li needs to free up his energy to focus on AI, another person familiar with the matter said.
Li Auto set up a “production, supply and sales joint committee” at the end of 2022, when the company was facing stiff competition from Huawei-backed Aito, the report noted.
The automaker upgraded to a matrix organization at that time, and the joint committee was one of the results of that upgrade.
Li sees cars as the biggest AI application in the physical world, but the company can’t stop at building cars in its AI quest, the report noted.
About 2 years ago, Li said in an internal letter dated January 28, 2023, that Li Auto’s vision was to be the world’s leading AI company by 2030.
Smart EVs with autonomous driving capabilities will be the first AI robots, he said at the time.
In late December last year, Li said at an AI Talk series event that cars would evolve from industrial-era vehicles to AI-era space robots.
Li positioned Li Auto as an AI company at the time, saying the company’s goal was not the intelligence of cars, but to use cars as a vehicle for AI and to push AI to benefit every family.
Li Auto launched its standalone Lixiang Tongxue App on December 27 last year, and the AI chatbot was originally one of its vehicle cockpit features.
Earlier today, some bloggers shared screenshots on Weibo showing the Lixiang Tongxue App adding DeepSeek R1 and V3 AI models for better experience.
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