(Yicai) Nov. 3 -- Chinese electric vehicle startup Li Auto will recall more than 11,400 Li Mega units, or nearly half of all it has delivered, due to insufficient coolant corrosion protection, about 10 days after one of its multi-purpose vehicles burned to its frame on the roads of Shanghai.

Starting Nov. 7, Li Auto will recall 11,411 Li Mega vehicles produced between Feb. 18 and Dec. 27 last year, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced on its website on Oct. 31.

A Li Mega suddenly caught fire under its chassis while moving slowly at an intersection in Shanghai late on Oct. 23, with the entire car engulfed in a massive fireball within 10 seconds.

The vehicles' cooling aluminum plates of the power battery pack and front motor controller may experience corrosion and leakage because of the insufficient corrosion protection in the coolant, the market supervisor said, adding that this can cause a short circuit in the battery, potentially leading to a fire.

Regarding concerns that occupants had only 10 seconds to escape, Li Auto said that its cloud-based early warning system had received an alert about four hours before the fire. The vehicle's owner was contacted, but because there had been no precedent for a non-collision fire, the company was unable to take immediate emergency measures, missing the best window for intervention.

The 2024 Li Mega model launched on March 1 last year with a starting price of CNY559,800 (USD78,650). It is Li Auto's first pure electric MPV, equipped with a Qilin battery that was co-developed by Contemporary Amperex Technology and the carmaker, which uses ternary lithium materials with cells produced by the battery giant.

Shares of Li Auto's [HKG: 2015] rose 1.1 percent to HKD80.60 (USD10.37) each as of 11.35 a.m. in Hong Kong today. However, the stock plunged 8.3 percent between Oct. 23 and Oct. 31 to hit an over one-year low of HKD79.75.

Editor: Martin Kadiev