Say goodbye to the strategy of large single products, and ideally accelerate the expansion of product lineage. Jumping out of the comfort zone of extended range and stepping into the unfamiliar field of pure electric vehicles, Ideal will also face more competitors and users' range anxiety. At the same time, it will cost more to lay out the energy supply system and build pure electric vehicles, and the resulting financial pressure will be greater than before.
The ideal new round of car-building test is about to begin.
Text |Wei Bing.
Edit |Li Huanhuan.
Operations |Potato.
The "pure electric version of the L6" will be mass-produced and launched in 2025
Ideal, which is expanding its annual sales target, is accelerating the expansion of its product lineup.
Recently, Auto has exclusively learned from a number of people familiar with the matter that Ideal will launch a pure electric SUV M6 (internal code W04), which is expected to be mass-produced and delivered in March 2025. According to people familiar with the matter, the positioning of the Ideal M6 is a pure electric 5-seat luxury SUV, which is benchmarked against Tesla Model Y, Wenjie M5, Xpeng G6 and other models.
At the just-concluded spring press conference, Ideal released the much-talked-about pure electric MPV MEGA and the 2024 L7 8 9. At present, there are four models on sale. In the second quarter, Ideal will release the Ideal L6, a large 5-seater SUV, and in the second half of the year, three more pure electric SUV models will be released.
Judging from the information disclosed by the above sources, the ideal will be compared with the range extension plate L series 6 7 8 9 four models, respectively, the launch of the corresponding pure electric models, it is speculated that the three pure electric models to be launched in the second half of the year may be M7 8 9, corresponding to L7 8 9, M6 corresponds to L6.
2024 Ideal L Series. Figure Li Auto official.
Liu Jie, vice president of business of Li Auto, revealed some information about L6 after the spring press conference, making it clear that L6 will focus on the market of 250,000 to 300,000 yuan. Liu Jie said that the core target group of L6 is a small family of three, a small family with children who are about two or three years old or ready to usher in a new life.
After research, Ideal found that these target users were "very interesting", and Liu Jie said that their requirements for the model were "both small and large": they wanted the car to be small and flexible to drive, but they also wanted to have a large space to sit in. "That's the first thing L6 has to do, it's going to be easy to drive, and it's going to be big enough for a family of three. In addition, Ideal will also empower all the intelligent driving and intelligent space equipped with L9, L8 and L7 to Ideal L6.
2024 Ideal L7. Figure Li Auto official.
The L6 will undoubtedly undertake more of the "ambition" of the ideal annual sales of "800,000 units". Liu Jie also expressed his expectations for L6, "In the entire ** range of 200,000-300,000 yuan, we hope that the monthly market share can reach about 10% by the end of this year." ”
Correspondingly, the M6 will also shoulder the ideal volume task, according to people familiar with the matter, the ideal is also confident in the sales of the M6, and the delivery target for the first year of listing is 200,000 units.
For a long time in the future, Ideal will adopt two technical routes: extended range and pure electric. Among them, the pure electric series models will apply the 800V high-voltage platform, mainly for regional users with relatively developed economies. The range extender series models have a wider audience.
In response to the above information, each person auto asked the ideal side for verification, and the relevant staff said, "This is subject to the official news, if it is to be launched, we will definitely have a warm-up in advance."
Don't do cars, "dead" home users
After the two series of L and M products are in place, Ideal will make up for the shortcomings of pure electric vehicles and seize a larger market share. However, despite the new direction of the technical route, Ideal is still obsessed with the SUV track and has no intention of entering the sedan market.
Those who are familiar with the ideal know that the ideal car has only one purpose, that is, to serve family users. According to official data, the proportion of Li Auto family users is as high as 95%. The "factory meritorious service" ideal ONE is known as the daddy god car, and the subsequent L7 8 9 is also aimed at family users. Among them, the L9 is a family six-seat flagship SUV, the L8 is a family six-seat luxury SUV, and the L7 is a family five-seat flagship SUV. The general direction is aimed at family users, and then more subdivided products are launched according to different family volumes, which is the underlying logic of ideal car manufacturing.
2024 Ideal L8. Figure Li Auto official.
The reason for the launch of an MPV, Li Xiang, CEO of Li Auto, explained at the spring press conference that it "wants to meet the advanced needs of larger family users for space".
Ideal research found that the first demand of family users for vehicles is space, but it is difficult for sedans to have more space in this regard. Therefore, in order to serve family users well, the ideal does not hesitate to give up half of the country - the car track. Liu Jie confirmed to everyone that he would not make cars in the future. However, the ideal official did not give a specific time limit, at least, it will not change until the SUV track reaches the extreme.
Li Xiang at the 2024 Ideal Spring Conference. Figure Li Auto official.
Focusing on home users, the ideal has its own reasons. After the spring press conference, Liu Jie said in an interview with each auto and others that if the penetration rate of new energy exceeds 50% this year, in the market of more than 200,000, the mainstream choice will change from fuel vehicles to new energy, and the market will be more concentrated on the head. And in this market, the main consumers are home users.
Based on the above judgment, Li Xiang believes that by the end of this year, 70% of the market share in the new energy market of more than 200,000 will be eaten by the top three car companies. Liu Jie further gave a list of the top 3, there will be Ideal and Huawei, as for the third, it is expected to be an independent brand.
In fact, the ideal idea of car building can also be seen from its original name, at the beginning of its birth, the ideal name is "car and home". "Our mission is to 'create mobile homes, create happy homes'. ”
Step into pure electric and step out of your comfort zone
With the official launch of MEGA, Ideal has opened a dual-track strategy, that is, to take two technical paths of range extension and pure electric.
In the past, Ideal has been focusing on the field of range extension, and in the early stage when the charging and swapping facilities are still immature, the range extender technology solves the range anxiety of users. After stepping into the field of pure electric vehicles, Ideal will face the competition with pure electric brands, and will also face the range anxiety of users.
In fact, Ideal began to conduct pre-research on pure electric vehicle technology as early as 2017. A person close to Ideal told Auto that although the pure electric MPV D1 Plus cooperated with Didi failed to achieve mass production, since 2019, Ideal has started the research and development of 4C fast charging technology, and has been making reserves of pure electric technology. Therefore, the sudden change seen by the outside world has actually been dormant internally for many years.
In order to solve the user's range anxiety, the ideal investment in the 5C supercharging pile, where "C" refers to the unit of charging rate, that is, the speed of charging, a few C is equivalent to a fraction of an hour to fully charge the battery, 5C is to fully charge the battery in a fifth of an hour (that is, 12 minutes). The MEGA model with a 5C battery in the car can be charged in 12 minutes and have a range of 500 kilometers using a supercharging pile.
Li Auto 5C Super Charging Station. Figure Li Auto official.
With the blessing of technology, the supporting facilities also have to keep up. Ideal is speeding up the construction of self-operated supercharging stations. At present, in high-speed scenarios, Ideal has built more than 300 supercharging stations. Li Xiang plans to invest 6 billion yuan in the future to build more than 5,000 directly-operated 5C supercharging stations, covering 95% of the country's high-speed and important national highways. In addition, in urban areas, charging stations using the franchise model will also be implemented on a large scale in 2024.
Ideal Auto City Supercharging Station. Figure Li Auto official.
By the end of 2023, there are still 1036 on the ideal account700 million yuan in cash, for ideals, 6 billion investment pressure is not big.
According to the ideal financial report, in the fourth quarter of 2023, the revenue of bicycles will fall by 1In the case of 350,000 yuan, the gross profit margin of the automobile business was 21 compared with the third quarter2% pulls up 15 percentage points (22.)7%), which is dependent on the cost reduction brought by the scale effect. Liu Jie emphasized that sticking to 20% of gross profit is the bottom line of business operation.
However, after the launch of the cheaper L6 in the second quarter, the bicycle will further decline, and the cost of pure electric models will be higher than that of extended range models, and the ideal gross profit margin will also be tested.
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