Li Auto Chairman Li Xiang said the company will shift back to a “start-up management model” from the fourth quarter of this year as it braces for the challenges posed by new technologies and a new era in the auto and AI industries.

Speaking on the company’s third-quarter earnings call, Li said the strategy reset is intended to raise organizational agility and strengthen Li Auto’s ability to compete amid rapid changes in intelligent mobility and robotics.

Li Auto reported third-quarter revenue of 27.4 billion yuan, while its cash reserves reached 98.9 billion yuan, according to company filings. Full-year research and development spending is expected to hit 12 billion yuan, with more than 6 billion yuan allocated to AI-related investments.

Li said that over the next decade the company’s products will evolve beyond electric vehicles or smart devices, shifting toward embodied intelligent robots — a direction increasingly pursued across the global automotive and tech sectors.