Catalyzes the reduction of saturated but not unsaturated C16 or C18 fatty acyl-CoA to fatty alcohols. A lower activity can be observed with shorter fatty acyl-CoA substrates. It may play a role in the production of ether lipids/plasmalogens and wax monoesters which synthesis requires fatty alcohols as substrates. a long-chain fatty acyl-CoA + 2 H(+) + 2 NADPH = a long-chain primary fatty alcohol + CoA + 2 NADP(+) 2 H(+) + hexadecanoyl-CoA + 2 NADPH = CoA + hexadecan-1-ol + 2 NADP(+) 2 H(+) + 2 NADPH + octadecanoyl-CoA = CoA + 2 NADP(+) + octadecan-1-ol Belongs to the fatty acyl-CoA reductase family.