New Wheels for my Hybrid Electric Li Auto L9 SUV

[ev_wheels]

So, I live in China and bought a domestically made 6-seat, full-size SUV called an L9 by a company called Li Auto (or just translated as Lixiang from Chinese). If you're interested, there are some videos about it on YouTube. The L9 gets an EV badge here because it's got a 43kWh battery capacity, netting about 150km range, but it's got a 65L gas tank which powers a gas generator/engine that supplies the eletrcitiy to the electric motors in place of the battery when you either run out of juice or when you set it to hybrid mode and the truck coordinates that. My family and I have been driving it for about 4 months now, taken a couple road trips, and also use it as my daily driver. It's got about 980kms of real range to it, so whatever magic combo they're swinging is working fantastic. It ticks all the boxes and is a stand-out rig so far. I still own a 2013 BMW X3 and a 2020 Porsche Cayenne e-Hybrid, so I've got some decent comparisons to face it off against. It's holding it's own and is way, way more ergonomic and functional that the Cayenne, while having similar low-end jump up to about 100km/h. Above 130km/h, the Porsche eats it, but that's not why I bought it.

The main drivers for the pick were 3-fold:
(1) I've got 3 kids and someone usually tags along, so the minimum seating requirement was 6. Say goodbye to most SUVs.
(2) I wanted to get something with electric motors, because man, you can't argue with that instant torque. Looks like only the Escalade Hybrid is left, but that's a lot more coin here due to import duties.
(3) There's a preferential policy about Shanghai license plates for EVs. Which meant I needed to tie this all up before the policy ended on hybrids in December past.

The L9 is placed to compete against the BMW X7 and Mercedes GLS 450, so it's also that big in pretty much every dimension.

Stock, it comes with 265/45R21 tires on 21" wheels on all 4. I recently went to a garage for the fitting check and up front, she can take 295/35R23 and in the rear I may end up having to go for the same, but if possible, I'll be going to 315/35R23.

So for the wheels themselves, I hope I can get some help with some ideas for what would look good. That's the whole point of the thread, but as a car guy, I thought I'd patch in some of the backstory because it's cool family SUV so far.

I want to get some wheels with a bit of "look" to them, but I also plan to put a BBK in there, so I want it to be a bit more open so that the BBK is visible.

I'll post some pics of the truck and the rims I'm liking so far, to get the ball rolling~

Edited by ev_wheels on Friday 24th March 18:20

[ev_wheels]

[Krikkit]

ev_wheels said:

Stock, it comes with 245/45R21 tires on 21" wheels on all 4. I recently went to a garage for the fitting check and up front, she can take 295/35R23 and in the rear I may end up having to go for the same, but if possible, I'll be going to 315/35R23.

Bloody hell.

[ev_wheels]

It is a big rig, man. Length-wise, it's just about 6" shorter than a Navigator and height wise about 4-5" shorter or something? I'm 6ft tall and it's the same height when I set the air suspension to regular/middle. It's about 1-2" higher than that when I raise it to high.

But yeah, the whole wheel thing is hilarious. My brother just got a Kia EV6 GT and that comes with like 20s? I remember back when 19s were a big deal, now stock wheels come in 20 and up...

But I love the BMW X5 M look, with the fatties on rear. I can't put 335s like that on this, but with a little poke, I can put 315s.

[ev_wheels]

It's got the "hidden" cross bars on it like the Teslas do. The downside of not an Escalade ESV/Navigator L is that the trunk is not that awesome when seat 5&6 are folded up, so I'll be putting a roof box on this sucker for any longer trips. The Thule Vector L is the one I want, but I know I'm going to have to get the Motion XT XXL to get the cargo space I want.

[ev_wheels]

So far, I'm also leaning to the bronze'ish colour rims for to go with the gun metal grey paint.

I'm liking these Rotiform ones I found, but in bronze:




And before, I tried MS Painting these few:


I also like the Mercedes looking one, it's by like a German company that makes them for Teslas called The New Aero.

[ev_wheels]

EmailAddress said:

Thanks. Yeah, I was trying to stay away from the cliche bronze rims for a bit, but when I went to that garage the other day, there was a gun metal grey 911 there with bronze rims and they just looked so good. I talked to the garage salesman for a while and he said something like that bronze or metallic colour goes really well with this paint job.

The giant Nissan GTR style rims are interesting, I've seen then on some Touregs too. Thanks for the idea and the mock up.

[ev_wheels]

Hilarious, right?

Yeah, I'm looking at the Porsche Cayenne style ones, 420-440mm disks up front. But I'm not super in love with the shape of their gigantic calipers...

The garage guy was showing me his previous generation Li Auto ONE SUV and was saying that the rear brakes are a little troublesome to swap because they've got the integrated/electronic parking brake in them. He said he changed out his front and rears, but later he put the stock rears back in because the new ones kept being finicky from day 1.

Personally, I've been looking at Alcon RC6s so far, but I think they only take up to a 400mm rotor. Oh, and they cost a f-ton...

[Lee630i]

Interesting beast, how's the performance in a car that size? Not that it really matters but thought I would ask.

[ev_wheels]

I also really like the deep lip on these 2-piece wheels.


There are A LOT of CNC shops here, so it's a lot more accessible to get custom rims. Not cheap, but at least in the realm of a price I can stomach.

The side of the L9 is even/flat front->rear, so to get bigger tires on the rear we already checked at the garage whether there was space to change the offset and push the wheel inward. Which there is, about 3/4" worth.

So, I'm going to get more concave rims in the rear and still concave, but flatter ones up front like these Vossens:

[ev_wheels]

Lee630i said:

Interesting beast, how's the performance in a car that size? Not that it really matters but thought I would ask.

I'm still new to the EV scene, so I didn't know what to expect. The L9 is heavy, at 5550lbs, but it's got about 450hp and 450lbft of torque. And all the power is always coming from the electric motors, 1 front and 1 rear, AWD, so it's got that instant EV torque.

In the beginning, I was disappointed and thought it was overall kind of slow. But what I didn't completely catch was that the soundproofing is only slightly worse than my boss's Maybach and it's throwing down the low-end torque with an electric motor, so there's less noise than the other gas vehicles I drive too. And it's not like the Cayenne e-Hybrid either, or like traditional hybrids, where when you tromp on it, the gas engine kicks in. The electric motors are just being fed either by the batteries or by the gas generator in the L9, so it's electric motor all the time, only 1 way.

So, what I found out was that the L9 can haul ass. It's the fastest luxury yacht I usually run into anywhere, up to about 90km/h. Above that, I found the gas powered vehicles are faster. But getting there, it does all the stuff I want on a regular basis. The thing just floats along, eating everyone.