Li Auto Grants 35 Million Stock Options to Three Executives, Tied to Company's Market Cap

On June 16, 2024, Li Auto Inc. announced that on June 15, 2026, it had granted a total of 35 million share options under its 2020 Share Option Plan to two directors—Li Tie and Ma Donghui—and senior management member Xie Yan. These options correspond to 17.5 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs), equivalent to 35 million Class A ordinary shares, representing approximately 1.62% of the company’s total issued shares. Specifically, Li Tie, Ma Donghui, and Xie Yan were granted 10 million, 15 million, and 10 million options, respectively. On the same day, the company also granted 5.5572 million Restricted Share Units (RSUs) under its 2019 plan to director Ma Donghui and 99 employees, representing an equal number of Class A ordinary shares, or about 0.26% of the total issued shares. Of these, Ma Donghui received 1.5 million RSUs, while the remaining employees collectively received 4.0572 million RSUs. Based on the closing price of Class A ordinary shares on the grant date—HK$56.85 per share—the total value of the underlying shares for the share options amounts to approximately HK$19.90 billion. Combined with the RSUs, the aggregate value of both awards is approximately HK$23.06 billion. Ma Donghui’s personal equity awards are valued at approximately HK$9.38 billion. The exercise price for these share options is set at US$14.38 per ADS (approximately RMB 97.22), requiring a total payment of roughly US$251.65 million if fully exercised. The options do not vest automatically over time; instead, vesting is tied to the company’s Hong Kong-listed market capitalization: 20% becomes exercisable once the market cap reaches HK$200 billion, with an additional 20% unlocked for every subsequent HK$200 billion increase, until full exercisability is achieved upon reaching a market cap of HK$1 trillion. As of the close of trading on June 16, 2024, Li Auto’s share price stood at HK$56.00 per share, giving the company a market capitalization of approximately HK$114.8 billion. The announcement stated that this adjustment aims to more closely align the long-term incentives of core management with shareholder interests and the company’s long-term performance, shifting from a fixed-time vesting model to a performance-based incentive structure. Public records show that Li Tie has served as CFO of Li Auto since July 2016 and led the company’s Series A financing and U.S. IPO. Ma Donghui joined the company in September 2015 and currently serves as Executive Director and President. Xie Yan has been Chief Technology Officer (CTO) since 2022, having previously held positions at Huawei, Alibaba, and Intel. Since the beginning of 2024, several mid- to senior-level executives have left Li Auto to launch their own ventures, including Chen Wei (former head of foundational models), Lang Xianpeng (former head of intelligent driving), and Qin Dong (former head of SoC in the chip division). Some of these former executives have founded companies in the field of embodied intelligence, such as ZhiJian Power, WuJie Power, and XieYue Intelligence.