Li Auto L2E15M

Li Auto's 1.5 turbocharged four — a range extender — in the L7 and L9.

⚑ It never drives the wheels. It turns a generator and nothing else: there is no gearbox behind it, no driveshaft, and no mechanical connection to the road at all. Every complaint about acceleration, shifting or drivability on one of these cars belongs to the electric drive system, and diagnosing them at the engine is looking in the wrong half of the car.

What that changes about the engine is the duty cycle. It runs at the speeds and loads the control strategy chooses rather than the ones a driver would, which is gentler in some ways and much more repetitive in others.

Everything about the high-voltage system applies here and applies hard. These are large battery packs, and the precautions a purely combustion car does not need are mandatory on this one.

It is very new and there is no long-term record.