LI AUTO-W, not becoming brothers with NIO and XPENG.

Li Auto, which was once underestimated, now likes to show off a champion attitude.

Since delivering more than 20,000 new cars in December last year, LI AUTO-W has left NIO-SW and XPENG-W behind, and the gap is getting wider.

In April of this year, LI AUTO-W delivered 25,681 vehicles, surpassing the sum of NIO-SW and XPENG-W. In the first quarter, LI AUTO-W achieved a net profit of 930 million yuan, becoming the most profitable new force in the domestic auto industry.

After LI AUTO-W's first-quarter financial report was released on May 10th, the company's stock price soared 13.9%, with a market value of 27.6 billion U.S. dollars, which is more than 5.1 billion U.S. dollars more than NIO-SW and XPENG-W combined.

LI AUTO-W is no longer a brother to NIO-SW and XPENG-W, and is trying to crush its opponents underfoot.

The most obvious move is that LI AUTO-W will announce its sales on a weekly basis. The previous industry practice was to announce on the 1st of each month, but LI AUTO-W couldn't wait until the 1st, so it announced it once a week, and even specially made a sales chart, putting itself in the top position.

But essentially, this is the same data. The first on the monthly list is usually also the first on the weekly list. LI AUTO-W split the same list into four parts, exposed it four times, and squeezed out all the traffic.

For example, on May 1st, the new forces of car-making announced their sales performance in April, and LI AUTO-W's data was also disclosed. Five days later, LI AUTO-W unexpectedly released the data for the last week of April again. In the eye-catching list, LI AUTO-W was unsurprisingly ranked first, and NIO-SW and XPENG-W were left behind again.

This feeling is like when you were in elementary school, and a classmate in your class got first place in an exam, and then he would "announce to the world" every few days, and also remind you in various ways: he is first, and you are last.

That's how LI AUTO-W is. You may not like it, but you can't do anything about it.

Three years ago, during the most difficult period for new car-making forces, the relationship between "Wei Xiaoli" was very harmonious. The photo of Li Bin, Li Xiang, and He Xiaopeng sitting on the sofa with their arms around each other was widely circulated, and the three brothers huddled together to get through the winter.

Now the situation has changed, and land grabbing, fighting, and internal competition have become new themes, and the positive competition between the three companies is increasing.

Do you remember when XPENG-W released its new car G9 in September last year, it was criticized for its confusing price configuration and many people cancelled their orders. As a result, LI AUTO-W suddenly announced the LI AUTO-W L8, which was originally planned to be released two months later, would be released one week later. L8 is also a mid-to-large SUV, with a high degree of price overlap with G9. Some people joked at the time: "XPENG-W was still in a daze after just releasing the G9 and didn't recover, so LI AUTO-W casually gave XPENG-W a shoulder throw. It's a bloodless victory, crazy killing, crazy killing."

LI AUTO-W, NIO-SW, and XPENG-W have opened up a gap, and there is a reason for it. In the past, we used to call these three companies "Wei Xiaoli", but now, this name may need to be changed.

"Li Wei Peng", the gap is getting bigger and bigger

The sales of LI AUTO-W, NIO-SW, and XPENG-W have diverged since the delivery of LI AUTO-W's L series models.

Last June, LI AUTO-W released its second mass-produced car, the L9, and officially delivered it in September. This car was preheated for nearly half a year and exceeded 10,000 deliveries in the first month. During this period, LI AUTO-W also released the L8 as a replacement for the LI AUTO-W ONE.

Since then, LI AUTO-W has entered the "nesting" mode and entered the forefront of the L series models. With L9+L8, two models each exceeding 10,000, the total sales can exceed 20,000, while other new car-making forces are still hovering around 10,000 monthly sales, and the gap has widened.

April of this year was the month with the biggest gap. LI AUTO-W, with a monthly sales of 25,000, is no longer in the same camp as NIO-SW and XPENG-W, which have a monthly sales of 6,000 to 7,000.

One thing that sets LI AUTO-W apart from other new forces is that it has fewer models, but each one sells well and there are no "zombie models". Unlike XPENG-W, which relies entirely on P7 and cannot sell P5 and G9. NIO-SW used to rely on ES6, and now relies on ET5. It was even "backstabbed" by the new ES6, and ES7 and ET7 are not selling well.

This year, LI AUTO-W relies on the three models of the L series, and the total sales volume each month is maintained at 25,000 to 30,000.

The market is optimistic about LI AUTO-W, not only because it sells a lot of cars. Nezha's cars also sell well, and it won the new force sales crown last year, but few people really compare Nezha with NIO-SW and XPENG-W. They are not in the same category.

LI AUTO-W is different. LI AUTO-W's cars are getting more and more expensive, approaching NIO-SW step by step. LI AUTO-W L9 starts at 459,800 yuan, and L8 can go up to 400,000 yuan. NIO-SW's best-selling ES6 is also in this price range.

Last year, NIO-SW's single-car income was 3.72 million yuan, and LI AUTO-W rose to 3.31 million yuan, even though L9 had only been on sale for 4 months. In the past, NIO-SW always thought of itself as a high-end brand, on par with BBA, and many people thought NIO-SW was expensive. Now NIO-SW really has competitors.

XPENG-W also wants to do this, selling more expensive cars, but unfortunately the market is not buying it. The XPENG-W G9, which was launched last year with a starting price of 310,000 yuan and a maximum price of 470,000 yuan, is now on par with the LI AUTO-W L9, but can only sell a few hundred units per month.

The ability required for a car company to sell cars with an average price of 150,000 yuan and an average price of 300,000 yuan is completely different. This is also one of the reasons why XPENG-W is in an awkward position now: the price cannot go up and the sales volume cannot keep up.

If we look at the company's operations, we will find that the gap is even greater.

NIO-SW lost 14.6 billion yuan last year, XPENG-W lost 9.1 billion yuan, and LI AUTO-W lost 2 billion yuan. NIO-SW's gross margin per vehicle is 13.7%, XPENG-W's is 9.4%, and LI AUTO-W's is 19.1%. Moreover, LI AUTO-W was profitable in the fourth quarter of last year.

In the first quarter of this year, LI AUTO-W's revenue increased by 96.5%, and it continued to maintain profitability, with a net profit of up to 930 million yuan in a single quarter. When will NIO-SW and XPENG-W become profitable is still uncertain.

Selling cars at a loss is a common practice for new car makers. Exchanging profits for market share can be seen as a strategic move. The problem is that NIO-SW and XPENG-W have lost money in exchange for hype, and their sales volume cannot go up, while LI AUTO-W has sold the most cars with the least amount of money.

Objectively speaking, LI AUTO-W is currently in the best state among the three new car makers. Whether it is the sales performance of new cars, the pace of competition, or the health of financial data, it is higher than NIO-SW and XPENG-W.

In the past four months of this year, LI AUTO-W's average monthly delivery volume was about 20,000, NIO-SW was close to 10,000, and XPENG-W was over 6,000. This gap will continue in the future.

In the long run, the peaceful coexistence between LI AUTO-W, NIO-SW, and XPENG-W will definitely be broken, because the ultimate goal of this industry is to highly concentrate market share to the top. To become a leader, you must squeeze out your opponents' share, and direct competition is inevitable.

Emotion lost to reality, technology cannot beat marketing

Many people have a strange view of Li Auto's rise, feeling both surprised and difficult to understand.

People who don't like LI AUTO-W think that LI AUTO-W is very good at marketing and calculation, so it is also called "stingy factory" in the industry.

For example, the recent high-profile LI AUTO-W marketing fee incident. Some people came out to criticize LI AUTO-W, saying that it was PUA media, on the one hand, spending a lot of money, on the other hand, saying that there was no budget. Some people have hinted that LI AUTO-W secretly put social media ads, disguised as natural traffic.

Putting aside these controversies, LI AUTO-W is indeed very skilled in marketing. When the LI AUTO-W L9 was launched last year, the continuous hype for several months, the statement "the best under 5 million" at the press conference, and the practice of bringing in Kuli Nan and BBA to trample on it, increased the topic of this car.

Li Xiang really understands the media and marketing. He founded Autohome and played with traffic very clearly. He is very clear about the nodes and highlights of mass communication. He criticized the industry on Weibo, exposed the black box of the industry, and attacked competitors, bringing LI AUTO-W a lot of free exposure opportunities.

But just knowing marketing is not enough to sell cars. Huawei's Yu Chengdong is also very good at marketing. He created many widely spread golden sentences, saving a lot of marketing expenses for the company. When the car was just launched, the momentum of Wenjie was very strong, and it soon accumulated more than 10,000 deliveries. However, it was soon returned to its original state, and the sales volume fell to the level of three or four thousand because the product power could not keep up.

LI AUTO-W's products have well received these traffic, and it is good at telling stories and packaging.

Some car companies always like to put a bunch of parameters when promoting their own products, such as how much zero to one hundred acceleration and how the body stiffness is.

LI AUTO-W is different. It gives you a concept when it comes up: this is a mobile home. Li Xiang made a vivid analogy: L9, L8, L7, and L6 are 180-square-meter three-bedroom, 120-square-meter three-bedroom, 120-square-meter two-bedroom, and 90-square-meter two-bedroom, respectively.

Then he said, my car has a large space, a good configuration, and a sofa (comfortable seat with massage), a color TV (three-screen, rear entertainment screen), and a refrigerator (L9 car has a refrigerator). All have games and singing K.

All the functional configurations of LI AUTO-W's cars revolve around this story. This story is straightforward enough and touching enough. It's like buying a house. Who would refuse to buy a larger area and better decoration with less money?

Wenjie also wants to learn from LI AUTO-W, but only learned a little bit. The night before the launch of Wenjie M7 last year, Yu Chengdong specifically went to the LI AUTO-W store to see L9. At the press conference the next day, Yu Chengdong, like Li Xiang, brought BBA out to trample on it, and multidimensionally demonstrated that M7 has a large space, and even created a new word-"bigger than big". This is a bit too hard.

LI AUTO-W has a very thorough understanding of the needs and psychology of Chinese consumers. It is extremely realistic, and even too shrewd.

The most extreme example is that one day a parent discovered that the kindergarten cooperated with Li Auto and took a group of children to visit the LI AUTO-W store. After returning home, his child couldn't forget the big screen. "Car-mounted large color TV, hitting your 'soft spot', selling cars from childhood." He told Shentu.

LI AUTO-W, NIO-SW, and XPENG-W have a big difference in their grasp of the market and technology. Taking how to solve the problem of range anxiety as an example, these three companies faced route choices at the beginning of their entrepreneurship. Result, the most sentimental NIO-SW chose the most difficult battery swap, the most technically savvy XPENG-W chose the high-voltage fast charging with not small technical difficulty, and the most realistic LI AUTO-W chose the simplest range extender.

Range extender is seen by many as a technology in the garbage dump, but LI AUTO-W has played it out, and LI AUTO-W has well balanced the experience of both city and long-distance travel by making a large battery (starting at 40 degrees). From a technical point of view, this is not an innovation, nor is it a threshold, but LI AUTO-W has packaged it very successfully.

In contrast, NIO-SW's continuous investment in battery swapping and XPENG-W's bet on intelligent driving are both of great long-term significance, but difficult to see short-term results.

Some peers are not happy about this. For example, Great Wall Motors, which always talks about technology, always wants to attack LI AUTO-W. Li Ruifeng of Great Wall publicly criticized LI AUTO-W last year as "cutting leeks with backward technology."

Perhaps XPENG-W is also dissatisfied. On June 21st last year, when LI AUTO-W L9 was listed, the next day, XPENG-W asked on social media: Which good product relies on accurate positioning and can obtain advantages or barriers in the medium or long term? Li Xiang commented a heart under this Weibo.

Sentimentality loses to reality, and technology cannot beat marketing. This is the footnote of the three companies going their separate ways.

Grassroots and elites have their own paths

Li Auto has a deep imprint of Li Xiang.

Li Xiang is from Shijiazhuang, born in the 1980s, and a grassroots entrepreneur. Among the founders of the 80s, Li Xiang should have the lowest education level-high school graduation. Wang Xing graduated from Tsinghua University, Li Bin from Peking University, Zhang Yiming from Nankai University, and XPENG-W from South China University of Technology.

Li Xiang's academic performance in high school was mediocre, and his teachers and relatives thought he would not have much future. But he showed extraordinary learning ability beyond ordinary people in things outside the classroom.

He made a website, which later became PaoPao Net, and made a lot of money. Later, he gave up the college entrance examination and focused on making websites to make money. His reason for giving up the college entrance examination was straightforward: "Because I go to college, I will eventually have to make money and find a job."

Many people know the story later. He founded Autohome and became the largest automotive media, and then founded Li Auto.

Li Xiang's starting point is not high. Li Bin's network accumulated from Peking University, and the money XPENG-W earned from selling UC, are all more than Li Xiang. But Li Xiang has a strong self-evolution ability, which makes him and his LI AUTO-W show a unique temperament.

The most powerful point of Li Auto is the deep insight into user needs and market opportunities, which is the precise positioning mentioned by XPENG-W.

During the entrepreneurial period of PaoPao Net, Li Xiang learned a lot of lessons, the most important of which was "users are always the most important." This sentence sounds very vague, but it is very effective when used well.

At that time, PaoPao Net was able to succeed because all websites did not update in the early morning, and everyone went online in the morning and could not see the latest information. So Li Xiang got up at 5 o'clock every morning to update, and word of mouth spread among netizens, and then his competitors were all killed by him. Before the appearance of Autohome, all car websites used official manufacturer pictures. A 15-inch wheel hub could be photoshopped into an 18-inch one. Users wanted to see real product pictures. Li Xiang took his team to the 4S store to take pictures of real cars and entered the top five in the industry within a year. Other car websites did not update on weekends, but Autohome insisted on updating even on weekends, attracting a large amount of traffic.

From these two experiences, we can see that Li Xiang worked very hard and used his ingenuity. He had a very calm and clear judgment of the market.

At Li Auto, whether it's the extra-large space, longer endurance, or sofa color TV and large refrigerator, the ideas are essentially the same.

In terms of spending money, Li Xiang is very clear-minded. He dares to spend money, but he won't waste it. None of his three previous entrepreneurial experiences relied on financing or inflated valuations to develop. The companies all had the ability to generate their own cash flow.

Li Xiang doesn't socialize much either. Many of the people around him grew up from the front line like him. When Li Xiang was doing PaoPao Net in Shijiazhuang, the local Industry and Commerce Bureau didn't even know what the Internet was and insisted that they were Internet cafes. It's hard to imagine that in such an environment, Li Xiang had the opportunity to socialize.

LI AUTO-W also made mistakes, and they were strategic mistakes. When LI AUTO-W was still called Chehejia, the first product, an SEV model, was discontinued due to policy reasons. Most companies would have gone bankrupt in this situation, but LI AUTO-W turned around and continued to make LI AUTO-W ONE, finally bouncing back.

Li Xiang said that he only had one chance to play his cards, and if he failed once, he would never have another chance. But in fact, he played his cards twice.

This is due to Li Xiang's ability to evolve and his awareness of himself. Li Xiang believes that among all the qualities that a founder needs to have, learning ability is the most important. And learning ability doesn't mean just learning from books. Every dimension needs to be learned. He studied the world's top companies, such as Apple, Huawei, Toyota, and General Motors, borrowed their strategies, organization, and culture, and then internalized them into his own.

The most obvious is the naming of the car models. LI AUTO-W's cars have Air, Pro, and Max versions, which tech-savvy people know are borrowed from Apple, simple and straightforward. Later, some car companies also used this method to name their new cars. XPENG-W G9 was originally differentiated by "G," "E," and "X" combined with the range, but after a failed launch, XPENG-W learned from LI AUTO-W and used Apple's approach.

Because they have been learning all along, in the past year, XPENG-W avoided the organizational pitfalls that NIO-SW fell into and the supply chain losses that LI AUTO-W avoided. Fundamentally, this is determined by the boss's ability and qualities.

Conclusion

After LI AUTO-W released its "best quarterly report in history" yesterday, many people began to compare LI AUTO-W with Tesla, believing that LI AUTO-W has raised the industry's level of competition again, putting more pressure on its competitors. This can be fully understood, because Li Xiang has always been known as the "Roll King".

When he was running PaoPao.com, Li Xiang would wake up at 5am every morning to update the website. His competitors called him crazy. When he was working at Autohome, he would write articles on the same day as attending a manufacturer's press conference. Almost the entire automotive industry and media saw him as a public enemy because he was so productive.

Now, it's the same with car manufacturing. In the first quarter of this year, the entire industry was engaged in a price war, and everyone was struggling because they couldn't sell cars and were losing money. However, LI AUTO-W sold more than 50,000 cars and made a net profit of more than 900 million yuan, which is a huge difference.

Today, the era of high-speed growth for startups is over, and the market needs entrepreneurs who can support themselves. Entrepreneurs with high education, big company experience, and connections are finding it increasingly difficult to succeed. On the other hand, entrepreneurs who come from humble backgrounds but are extremely intelligent are becoming more and more popular.

Now, the "Roll King" Li Xiang is going to start rolling NIO-SW, XPENG-W, and all the new car manufacturers.