BEIJING, China, Sept. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Li Auto Inc. (“Li Auto” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: LI), an innovator in China’s new energy vehicle market, today announced a three-way strategic cooperation with NVIDIA Corporation (“NVIDIA”), the world’s leading artificial intelligence computing company, and NVIDIA’s Chinese partner, Huizhou Desay SV Automotive (“Desay SV”).
Through this strategic cooperation, Li Auto will be the first OEM equipping its vehicles, the full-size extended-range premium smart SUV to be launched in 2022, with the powerful NVIDIA Orin SoC chipset.
The NVIDIA Orin SoC was released in 2019 and is scheduled to be in production in 2022. Orin uses a 7-nanometer production process to achieve a computing power of 200 TOPS, 7 times that of the previous generation, the Xavier SoC. Even with the significant improvement in computing performance, Orin’s baseline power consumption is just 45 watts, relatively equivalent to the low power consumption of the previous generation SoC. In addition, Li Auto will provide end users with upgradeable solutions, ranging from L2+ autonomous driving with a single Orin chip and 200 TOPS in computing power, to L4 with dual Orin chips and 400 TOPS in computing power. In the future, the use of discrete GPU can further increase the computing power up to 2000 TOPS theoretically, which provides sufficient hardware capabilities for L5 autonomous driving.
As leading automotive electronics products suppliers, Desay SV will build on the powerful Orin SoC, and provide an autonomous driving domain controller with excellent performance. On this foundation, Li Auto will develop all autonomous driving program design and algorithms, aiming to become the first new energy vehicle company to independently develop L4 autonomous driving systems in China.
Kai Wang, chief technology officer of Li Auto, said, “We look forward to cooperating with NVIDIA and Desay SV, leveraging our respective strengths to provide users with a safer and more convenient autonomous driving experience. As one of the emerging powers in China’s new energy vehicle market, Li Auto plans to further increase its research and development investment in autonomous driving, while building the Company’s vehicles on a solid hardware base by adopting NVIDIA’s next generation SoC for autonomous driving – Orin. The in-depth cooperation with NVIDIA and Desay SV will also help us accelerate our development in the field of autonomous driving.”
Rishi Dhall, vice president of automotive business development of NVIDIA, said, “Our next generation of autonomous driving SoC, Orin, has achieved significant improvement both in its computing power and energy efficiency. Through close cooperation with companies such as Li Auto and Desay SV, we aim to bring all new AI-based autonomous driving functions to the new energy vehicles in China and around the world.”
Dapeng Gao, chief executive officer of Desay SV commented, “As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, we are collaborating with the industry’s best partners in order to participate in the evolution of autonomous driving and providing smart mobility solutions for our customers. We are excited to once again cooperate with NVIDIA and work with Li Auto. As we develop an autonomous driving system based on Orin’s superior computing power, we will be able to bring an innovative driving experience to Li Auto’s next generation vehicles, assisting Li Auto to develop smart vehicles and promoting intelligent technologies for the automotive industry.”
Benefitting from the powerful computing performance and extensibility of NVIDIA Orin SoC, in addition to the advanced autonomous driving domain controller developed by Desay SV, Li Auto plans to achieve the full range of autonomous driving in its next generation of vehicles.
About Li Auto Inc.
Li Auto Inc. is an innovator in China’s new energy vehicle market. The Company designs, develops, manufactures, and sells premium smart electric SUVs. Through innovative products, technology, and business model, the Company provides customers with safe, convenient, and cost-effective mobility solutions. Li Auto is the first to successfully commercialize extended-range electric vehicles in China. The Company started volume production of its first model, Li ONE, in November 2019. With Li ONE, the Company leverages its in-house technology to create value for its customers, focusing on range extension, smart technology, and autonomous driving solutions. Beyond Li ONE, the Company aims to expand its product line by developing new vehicles to target a broader consumer base.
