The most powerful car company this year

100,000-word article: Ideal Car's Critical Moment

When it comes to the most prominent new energy vehicle company this year, Ideal Car cannot be ignored. In addition to surpassing the milestone of 300,000 annual sales, the flagship electric vehicle MEGA has attracted a lot of attention, and its founder, Li Xiang, has become the king of the car circle on Weibo.

As the last A-level auto show of the year and the home field of the GAC Group in previous years, this year's Guangzhou Auto Show has seen several "disruptors". Among them, the Ideal Car MEGA booth was surrounded by crowds and cameras, stealing the spotlight from many other brands, including BYD's Upward and Huawei's Wanjie.

After the press conferences at their respective booths, top figures in the automotive industry such as Duan Jianjun, President of Mercedes-Benz China, Yao Fei, Marketing Director of Buick, and He Xiaopeng, Chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, all came to the MEGA booth.

It is worth noting that Mercedes-Benz has always been known for its luxury MPVs, while Buick's GL8 has consistently topped the MPV sales charts. Last year, Buick even launched the luxury MPV "Century" model priced between 500,000 and 1.2 million yuan. On the same day, Xiaopeng Motors also unveiled its flagship MPV X9.

With its halo, the Ideal Car MEGA, not only has a captivating design, but also marks Ideal Car's first foray into the pure electric racing track and the first time it has raised the upper limit of its pricing system to 600,000 yuan.

This luxury racing track trial product received over 10,000 orders within less than 2 hours of opening for reservations at the auto show, surpassing the monthly sales volume of many new players. This also marks the official launch of Ideal Car's "dual-energy strategy".

This year is undoubtedly a critical juncture for Ideal Car. With the success of the L-series models, it has already stepped out of the circle of new car manufacturers and aims to achieve annual sales of over 300,000 units. Next year, it will continue to challenge the leading position in the luxury market.

However, despite such enviable achievements, Liu Jie, Vice President of Ideal Car, still believes that no company is absolutely leading and safe, and the next three years will be the most intense elimination race in the industry.

In fact, the market has always been concerned about where the ceiling is for Ideal Car, which is already far ahead in terms of sales volume. Although Liu Jie believes that 80% of consumers in the passenger car market are still family users, there is still room for imagination, and Ideal Car also intends to challenge the "family car" label.

Ideal Car, the "cargo king" of extended-range vehicles, is indeed facing at least three challenges: whether it can replicate its success in the pure electric racing track; before the penetration rate reaches the tipping point, Liu Jie believes that there must be higher sales targets to capture the minds of the general consumers; and finally, it must participate in the intelligent driving competition ignited by Tesla, Huawei, and Xiaopeng.

All of these will determine whether Ideal Car can truly secure a top position among car companies, and it also affects the current success of Ideal Car, whether it will continue or be short-lived.MEGA's popularity can be seen as a signal that Ideal is charging towards the finals. Liu Jie revealed that Ideal will launch three more high-pressure pure electric products next year, as well as the L6 model with increased mileage, which will have a higher sales volume.

After a strong start, how will Ideal strategize for the second half of the race? Will it completely "bid farewell" to the new forces and join the ranks of Tesla and BYD?

The following is a transcript of the conversation between Wall Street News and Liu Jie, Vice President of Ideal Automotive, and Li Xinyang, Product Manager of MEGA:

Q: What is the sales target for Ideal MEGA?

Liu Jie: We hope to achieve the first place in sales in the entire market of over 500,000 units, regardless of energy form or body type, with a monthly sales volume of nearly 60,000 units. We believe that the qualification standard for an excellent product with sales of over 500,000 units is a market share of over 10%, which is a passing line.

Q: The pricing of Xiaopeng X9 has also been announced. What are the pricing considerations for Ideal MEGA?

Liu Jie: We are targeting completely different users. The starting price of Xiaopeng X9 is 388,000 yuan, and I think their pricing range will be closer to the Senna and Gravitas.

MEGA, on the other hand, is a top-level MPV designed for large families. Among MEGA users, there will be many who were previously owners of Alphard and Vellfire, as well as owners of Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7 Series, BMW X5, and X7.

Such stories have happened before. A few years ago, when there was no Alphard, there were no MPV models in the million-level market. When Alphard was introduced, it created a new market, with users coming from luxury sedans and luxury mid-to-large-sized SUVs. This is the target market of MEGA, which is families with sales of over 500,000 units.

Q: Where will Ideal MEGA be produced, and what is the production capacity plan?

Liu Jie: MEGA's factory is separate from the L series. MEGA will be mass-produced at the Beijing base. The Beijing factory will have relatively sufficient production conditions by January and will officially start mass production in early February.

Q: There are reports that Ideal's sales target for next year is over 800,000 units, which would mean occupying a large market share of BBA. Does Ideal's market position mature when it reaches 800,000 units in annual sales?

Liu Jie: There is no precise target of 800,000 units. Ideal's goal next year is to challenge the first place in the luxury car market.

First of all, by next year, we predict that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the market of over 200,000 units will be close to 55%, corresponding to a total of about 4 million units. This year, Ideal's market share in this segment has already stabilized at over 15%. If next year's market size is 4 million units, we certainly do not want our market share to decrease.

Secondly, when the penetration rate of new energy vehicles reaches 55%, it means that this may be an important turning point. In the price range above 200,000 yuan, more than half of the users choose new energy brands. Looking at the innovation diffusion curve, we are entering the late majority stage from the early majority stage, which presents both opportunities and challenges.Because if you're not a leading brand, late-stage mainstream consumers may not even consider you. And by then, it won't just be a competition between new energy vehicles and traditional fuel vehicles. He will compare and judge all brands within the intended price range.

That's why we believe that we must have high goals next year. Only in this way, when the early mainstream consumers transition to the late-stage mainstream, can we ensure that we become the true first choice for the 200,000+ households we are targeting, regardless of whether they prefer new energy or traditional fuel brands.

Q: Everyone thinks that this year's ideal safety landing is achievable, but it still feels urgent based on what you just said?

Liu Jie: The years 2023-2025 should be the most critical elimination round for the entire industry, and there may even be a trend of continuous advancement. It is possible that by the end of next year, it will become clear which companies can stay on the playing field.

Recently, some latecomers have also been catching up quickly to seize the opportunity to enter the playing field. So the sense of urgency and crisis will always exist, and no company can be completely at ease, leading and safe.

Q: Which 5 or 10 companies do you think will be able to survive in the elimination round?

Liu Jie: It's hard to say who will be the top five or top three. We can only say that Ideal will do its best to stand out in this elimination round.

Originally, we thought that the penetration of electric vehicles and the penetration of intelligent features might be two separate elimination rounds. But now we are increasingly discovering that they may merge into one round, because the penetration of electric vehicles involves physical and chemical elements, while the penetration of intelligent features is about software, which can penetrate faster than battery technology and electric vehicle technology. So it is very likely that they will merge into one wave. This is actually a significant difference in the industry compared to a year ago.

Q: What progress and layout has Ideal made in the field of intelligent driving?

Liu Jie: In terms of intelligent driving, our full-scenario NOA (Navigate on Autopilot) internal testing has been steadily progressing. But we hope to make it available to more users in the end, including intelligent driving and intelligent space. This part will be announced at the MEGA event in December.

Q: In this situation, what preparations has Ideal made for this "decisive battle" next year?

Liu Jie: First, to become the preferred brand for households with an income of over 200,000, regardless of the form of energy.

Second, there are two very important strategic supports: First, next year, our extended-range product line will enter the 200,000-300,000 market with L6, covering the entire price range above 200,000. Then, we will accelerate the layout of high-voltage pure electric products. In the second half of next year, three additional high-voltage pure electric vehicles, in addition to MEGA, will be launched into the market. They will correspond to the flagship, 400,000-500,000, and 300,000-400,000 market segments. These are the two opportunities next year that will generate additional sales volume.

Q: What do you think of tech companies like Xiaomi entering the automotive market? Do you see a promising future for them?

Liu Jie: Huawei and Xiaomi are the strongest in the mobile phone industry, and no other tech company will be able to gain the same level of attention as them. And Xiaomi has also entered the market early, so if they haven't taken action today, they have missed the opportunity.Regarding the positioning of Xiaomi's first product, I think it is still important to benchmark against Tesla and Xiaopeng, and have direct competition with products like Model 3 and P7i. As mentioned earlier, the next three years will be an exciting elimination race for the entire industry.

Q: Ideal Car's sales in October exceeded 40,000 vehicles. What are the goals for the end of the year? What is the overall strategy for next year?

Liu Jie: In the fourth quarter as a whole, our total deliveries will reach 125,000 to 128,000 vehicles, which is basically the limit of our production capacity. Especially in December, we believe there will be even stronger demand.

On one hand, the traditional automobile market usually sees increased consumption in December, and the market for vehicles priced above 300,000 yuan may experience a small decline in purchase tax exemptions at the end of the year, which may lead to some pre-purchase demand from consumers.

Q: What is the target market for the new extended-range and pure electric models? How does Ideal Car interpret the brand's spiritual connotation?

Liu Jie: Regardless of the specific model, all of our products are targeted at family users and are based on Ideal Car's overall value judgment and product considerations for families.

Currently, nearly 80% of car buyers in China are family users, and the market for family users is large enough, with many unmet needs.

With the launch of more Ideal Car products, we have found that there are different types of family users. The L7 model is more suitable for families of three; the L8 model is more suitable for families with one or two children; and the L6 model is targeted at families of three, quasi-families of three, and newly married couples.

All of our products serve different types of families and also cater to different price segments of consumer demand.

Q: Will there be an extended-range version of the Ideal MEGA, or will there be an extended-range MPV in the future?

Li Xinyang: We carefully studied the possibility of an extended-range MPV, but found that after developing the extended-range system, there were significant differences in terms of space, visibility, and suspension compared to the MEGA model, and the user value was significantly lower.

Perhaps the extended-range solution would have been a good product in the market at that time, but we have focused on creating an extremely refined MEGA model. With the MEGA, you can see the potential of pure electric vehicles for large families, and we have also solved the most troublesome charging problem.

So we are determined to make the MEGA a pure electric vehicle. From its unique form to its extremely low energy consumption, everything is complete, and these issues cannot be solved with an extended-range architecture.

Q: How is Ideal Car planning the deployment of charging infrastructure?

Liu Jie: We started preparing for the construction of supercharging stations last year, and this year we have begun to implement them.

Currently, most users of our first pure electric product, the MEGA, have good home charging conditions. Therefore, we believe that rapid charging on highways, compared to charging in cities, is a more critical issue that needs to be addressed first. This will solve the intercity travel problem for the MEGA, a large MPV designed for family trips. Starting next year, we will also accelerate the construction of urban supercharging stations.By 2025, Ideal will have built over 3,000 supercharging stations, some of which will be located on highways. According to our calculations, with around 1,300 stations, we will be able to achieve coverage between national highways with a distance of 100 kilometers.

Q: There are many opinions about the appearance of MEGA from the outside. What is the internal feedback?

Liu Jie: For a large full-size MPV like MEGA, which is aimed at families with more than 500,000 households, we cannot let family members feel like they are sitting in or driving a utility or commercial vehicle. It should be the best car in the family. This sense of longing that it brings to the family is what we hope to convey through design.