Chinese electric-car makers this week sharpened their assault on the high end of the SUV market, rolling out models that trade on size, compute and ambitious new chassis technologies as much as battery chemistry. Xpeng unveiled official images and technical details of its GX (codename G01), positioning it as a full‑size, six‑seat flagship built on the company’s SEPA 3.0 “physical AI” architecture. Li Auto published images and pricing for its new L9 Livis — a successor that foregrounds a full line‑control chassis and 800‑volt active suspension — while smaller players such as Avita and Leapmotor tweaked body styles and performance trims to cover niche demand and defend volume.
Xpeng’s GX signals the company’s most explicit push into the flagship SUV bracket. The car will be offered as both a pure battery electric and a range‑extended hybrid; dimensions are genuinely large (5,265 mm long with a 3,115 mm wheelbase) and the cabin is exclusively six seats. Powertrains range from a single‑motor pure‑electric unit to dual‑motor setups delivering as much as 585 hp (pure EV) or 503 hp in the 1.5‑litre range‑extender variant, which pairs a 63.3 kWh LFP pack with a 1.5T generator to yield 320 km of pure‑electric range in the Chinese CLTC cycle. Xpeng also says the GX will support an 800‑volt architecture, 5C ultra‑fast charging and foundational hardware for steer‑by‑wire and rear‑wheel steering; it has been sighted on L4 autonomous test runs and is rumoured to include up to four high‑end AI chips with compute approaching 3,000 TOPS.
Li Auto’s new L9 Livis is the clearest statement yet that line‑control — the replacement of traditional hydraulic and mechanical systems with electrical and software control — is moving from R&D to showroom. Priced at RMB 559,800, the Livis pairs a full suite of drive‑by‑wire features (steer‑by‑wire, four‑wheel steering, and an all‑electric mechanical braking system) with an 800V active suspension Li Auto says can lift individual wheels and respond in milliseconds to reduce pitch and roll. Its brains are two in‑house Mach100 chips produced on a 5 nm node, delivering an advertised 2,560 TOPS of effective compute, and the package includes a 360‑degree lidar layout; Li has not yet published mechanical power figures, signalling the company’s present emphasis on experience and control rather than headline acceleration times.
Smaller players are reacting with niche plays. Avita’s 06T reimagines its compact model as a wagon and will be among the first to integrate Huawei’s new lidar under a strategic cooperation framework; it is likely to be available in pure EV and possibly range‑extended variants. Leapmotor’s Lafa5 Ultra appears in ministry filing documents with a modest rear‑motor power bump to 245 hp and a host of sporty exterior upgrades rather than dramatic mechanical rework, underscoring a common pattern: many makers now create halo or special editions to maintain interest without incurring large development costs.
These product moves matter because they expose the most pressurised battleground in China’s EV market: the premium large‑SUV segment. That bracket already hosts Li Auto, AITO/Seres, Zeekr, IM and others, and spans a huge price range. Manufacturers are escalating the technology arms race — faster charging protocols, 800V electrical architectures, drive‑by‑wire chassis, lidar and multi‑thousand‑TOPS compute — to justify premium pricing and to differentiate in an increasingly crowded field. But the arithmetic is unforgiving: sophisticated hardware raises bill‑of‑materials and after‑sales complexity, while many buyers still reward tangible, human‑perceivable advantages in comfort, packaging and reliability rather than abstract compute numbers.
Execution risk is now the defining variable. Delivering steer‑by‑wire systems, EMB brakes and high‑performance compute in consumer volumes requires suppliers, software stability and regulatory validation. Autonomy‑oriented claims invite closer safety and certification scrutiny, and the differing battery chemistries on offer — LFP versus ternary NMC packs — will continue to shape range, cost and thermal management trade‑offs. In short, the latest releases show China’s EV industry moving from scale and cost competition to a complex contest over experience, software and system integration; who wins will be the firms that translate technical specs into repeatable, safe and convincing customer value.