The site is 1.13 million square meters, larger than Tesla's Giga Shanghai, and will set the stage for Li Auto to achieve sales of 1.6 million vehicles by 2025.

(Image credit: Li Auto)

Li Auto, which has previously said it aims to sell 1.6 million vehicles by 2025, has bought a large plot of land that appears to be preparing for an aggressive capacity expansion.

A subsidiary of Li Auto has bought a 1.13 million square meter plot of land in the southwestern Chinese city for 430 million yuan ($67.6 million), according to information released by the Chongqing Public Resources Trading Center.

The deal was made on January 27, 2022, and the buyer, Chongqing Chezhiyu Automotive Industry Co, can use the land for 50 years.

Chezhiyu was established on December 9, 2021, with a registered capital of RMB 160 million and is 100 percent owned by Li Auto.

It is worth noting that all land in China is state-owned and buyers can only get the right to use it for a certain number of years, 70 years for residential land and 50 years for commercial land.

The site is even larger than Tesla's Shanghai factory, which is 860,000 square meters and had a capacity of 450,000 units last year. Giga Shanghai is expected to top 1 million units a year in the next few years, Cailian said earlier this month, citing people familiar with the matter.

Li Auto is targeting sales of 1.6 million units by 2025, but its current plant has capacity for just 100,000 units.

The company currently has a plant in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, with an annual capacity of 100,000 units. It delivered 90,491 vehicles for the full year in 2021, near the top end of its capacity.

Li Auto officially started construction of its manufacturing site in Beijing's Shunyi District on October 16 last year and plans to start production by the end of 2023, achieving an annual production capacity of 100,000 pure-play electric vehicles when it reaches production.

There were signs of Li Auto's latest move previously.

As CnEVPost reported, Li Auto signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the Chongqing municipal government on December 15, vowing to increase investment in the city.

Chongqing Mayor Tang Liangzhi met with Li Auto founder, chairman and CEO Li Xiang and witnessed the signing of the agreement.

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