Li Auto changes strategy, sales system readjusted

Author | Chai Xuchen

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

Li Auto's internal iteration is still ongoing.

Recently, Li Auto held an internal meeting to announce adjustments to the organizational structure of its sales and service system. The previous five major sales regions have been merged into a "Sales Department" directly managed by headquarters, which will have 23 regions nationwide, and the original retail head Han Xi has been reassigned to his original position. At the same time, to support the new structure, Li Auto has established two new first-level departments, marketing and sales service operations, within the sales service business segment, with resources coordinated by headquarters.

Li Auto confirmed to Wall Street Insight that the news of this round of sales service system adjustments is true.

The new adjustments mark the return of Li Auto's original "provincial head system." Ma Donghui explained internally that this is to allocate more resources to support frontline product sales personnel and build user operation capabilities centered around stores.

Li Auto's "quick adjustment" is aimed at correcting deviations; the "five major regions" system has been in place since March of this year and has been implemented for less than six months.

Looking back, five months ago, the original head of the sales and service group, Zou Liangjun, split the retail department into five major regions: "Southeast, Southwest, Northeast, Northwest, and Central," achieving decentralization of operational authority, with each region responsible for its own sales, profits, and NPS, while headquarters grasped the national market through the number of regions.

Li Auto originally intended to unleash frontline vitality according to local conditions, but after specific implementation, internal friction occurred, with stores now reducing operational costs, and regions competing against each other for resources and market share.

Therefore, just one month before the launch of the i8, an internal storm broke out at Li Auto: Zou Liangjun stepped down as head of the sales service group to become a company consultant, and Ma Donghui took full control of R&D, manufacturing supply, and the sales service system, consolidating the sales regions from 26 to 5 to concentrate efforts on the hard battle of the i series.

Sources close to Li Auto pointed out that there had been a gap between production, supply, and sales, but recent adjustments have achieved coordination from front-end strategy to back-end operations.

Fairly speaking, Li Auto indeed urgently needs new growth points to break the deadlock. After the "refrigerator, color TV, and big sofa" and range extender strategies were replicated by competitors, Li Auto has become a victim of "homogenization."

In June of this year, Li Auto's 14-month year-on-year growth trend was halted, with total sales in the first half of the year down 24%, overtaken by Hongmeng Zhixing. Under competition, Li Auto's advantages in the high-end market have been eroded. The overall market share of the L7/L8/L9 series has dropped from 32% in the same period last year to 26% now, with the entry-level L6 becoming the main sales model, accounting for over 40% of sales. As a result, Li Auto's net profit in the first quarter of this year fell by 81.7% quarter-on-quarter.

Entering 2025, Li Auto urgently needs to find new growth points in the pure electric market, and the i series and AI strategy must not fail. The market is also eager to see Li Auto restart its growth. Industry insiders believe that after this internal restructuring of the sales service system, returning to familiar management systems will make the organization clearer and the team more combat-ready On the eve of the finals, Li Auto is strategically making timely corrections. Li Auto clearly desires to regain its strengths in user value and operational efficiency, paving the way for this year's push in the pure electric segment.

In fact, not only is the organizational structure being "corrected," but more importantly, Li Auto has announced the abandonment of Huawei's PBC performance assessment, reverting to the OKR management model more suitable for the innovation exploration phase, transforming from reckless expansion to precise operations.

Industry insiders point out that PBC is a contractual management system driven by external rewards and punishments, aimed at fighting certainty. In contrast, OKR resembles a system of exploration and challenge, driven by employees' self-actualization, suitable for battling uncertainty.

This aligns well with Li Auto's current technology and AI-driven approach. Under the Li series, the AI integration of intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit has become a key differentiator. The commonality of these technologies is strong uncertainty: the supply chain and user acceptance are both changing, requiring high levels of collaboration.

From a "control-oriented organization" to an "evolutionary organization," Li Auto is moving from pixel-level learning to unbinding from the strong indicator-oriented PBC to rediscover itself, largely to free up its hands and feet to take on more challenging tasks in the AI arena, seeking new blue oceans in a rapidly changing market.

Whether this correction will allow Li Auto to find its own answers remains to be seen. However, Li Auto is adept at rapidly iterating for "self OTA" in a capricious market. Shortly after the launch of the i8 new car, Li Auto quickly adjusted vehicle configurations and prices based on market feedback. Soon, on August 13, Li Auto's stock price began to rebound.

For Li Auto, if this round of adjustments can rebuild competitiveness, there may be hope for significant sales in this year's key pure electric series, allowing Li Auto to secure its position in the endgame.

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