Ideal layoffs, "fast and accurate"

虎嗅APP

2024-05-17 20:15Posted on the official account of Beijing Tiger Sniff APP

Produced by丨Tiger Sniff Automobile Group

Author丨Xiao Man

Header picture丨Visual China

"People are upset, even if I haven't been laid off, I don't think I'm fine!" Regarding the layoffs, an employee of the R&D post of Li Auto said to Tiger Sniff Auto.

On May 16, some media reported that Li Auto is undergoing a new round of personnel optimization within Li Auto, accounting for more than 18%, and according to the scale of Li Auto's existing nearly 36,000 employees, if the layoff ratio is true, Li Auto will lay off nearly 6,500 employees.

According to the author's understanding, after the news of the layoffs appeared, some departments within Li Auto that had not yet announced the results of the layoffs were panicked. "The work plan has been suspended, waiting for news." said the above-mentioned employee.

Regarding the news of layoffs, the author asked Li Auto for verification, but the other party did not respond.

Not only Li Auto, but also Tesla, Guangqi Honda and other car companies have recently carried out large-scale layoffs.

The new energy vehicle market is getting closer and closer to the knockout stage.

Counting the foreign aid team, the number of layoffs may exceed 10,000

This is a company-wide and multi-departmental personnel optimization action, but a closer look at the ideal knife did not hurt the bones.

In fact, as early as April this year, the news of the layoffs of Ideal was spread in the circle, but it was not until May that the "knife" began, reportedly to avoid affecting the release of Ideal L6.

As for the 18% layoff rate reported by the media, most of the ideal internal employees are not clear about the basis of this ratio, and some employees think that "this is more like a tentative number", because there are still some departments whose layoff list and number are not disclosed.

What is known is that the optimization was swift, with N+1 compensation in place, and "several friends have already been sent away," said one Ideal internal employee.

Previously, sources pointed out that the HR department would cut 70% and the R&D post by 40%. Since the news fermented, Ideal has not responded, but it is certain that the HR department and sales and service department are the hardest hit areas of Li Auto's internal layoffs, and this is actually the business department that exceeds the current business needs after Ideal's rapid expansion last year.

The author asked insiders to confirm that the HR department is indeed making layoffs, which is something that is known internally. According to 21 Financial Report, the HR department has been reduced from 200+ people to 50 people; The sales and service team has nearly 1,000 people, and plans to optimize more than 400 employees.

It is reported that after the rising orders last year, the ideal rapidly expanded the internal team, increased the number of recruits and demand, and the sales network was also rolled out simultaneously. However, since the beginning of this year, the sales growth of Li Auto has ceased, and the recruitment of personnel and the laying of the sales network have been able to meet the current business needs, so it is not difficult to understand that these departments have become the primary target of optimization.

There are still doubts about the 40% reduction in R&D posts. "Some departments have already left, but the list of some departments has not yet been announced, and we are also passively waiting for the results of the layoffs." An internal employee engaged in R&D mentioned.

However, it can be confirmed that Li Auto is shrinking the size of the intelligent driving team, which was originally planned to be expanded to 3,000 people, but now it will be reduced to less than 1,000 people. Judging from the size of the existing 1,015-person intelligent driving team, even if it is reduced, it will not hurt the muscles and bones.

A person familiar with the matter told the author that the layoffs in R&D positions may be related to the aggressive recruitment of Li Auto last year, when Li Auto received a lot of people from Baidu's intelligent driving team and recruited many fresh graduates at a high price.

"Li Auto's salary in school recruitment last year was too high, especially for algorithm positions, and the salary inversion phenomenon was serious, and I couldn't get this money even if I was higher than them." An employee of the algorithm post of Li Auto said. According to the 2023 recruitment information of Li Auto on the Internet, the annual salary of an intelligent driving algorithm engineer can be 546k.

Caption: The 2023 Li Auto Algorithm Engineer Recruitment Information is spread on the Internet

From the perspective of business layout, intelligent driving is indeed one of the key businesses promoted by Li Auto last year, and it has proposed the "City NOA Plan to Land in 100 Cities by the End of the Year", but from the perspective of subsequent progress, the plan has not been implemented on a large scale as expected.

Interestingly, during the Chengdu Auto Show in August last year, the "City NOA" of the Ideal Landing Hundred Cities Plan was changed to "Commuting NOA", and then the tone was changed to "All-scene Intelligent Driving NOA", and what kind of intelligent driving ability landed became confusing.

Even if the ticket has been repeatedly skipped, intelligent driving is still one of the key businesses to be promoted this year, especially when the second half of intelligent driving is coming, although the progress is a little slow, there must be enough soldiers to catch up with the progress of intelligent driving.

Caption: A picture posted on a social media platform by an employee who claims to be an employee of the Ideal Foreign Support Team

In addition to internal optimization, Li Auto's foreign aid team is also the focus of this layoff. It is reported that Li Auto's foreign aid team has about 2-30,000 people, covering testing, sales and other teams.

"If you count the foreign aid team, the number of layoffs should be more than 10,000." Ideal internal staff said to the author.

Ideal and there is a hard battle to fight

On the surface, the layoffs are a correction of the contradiction between the rapid expansion and business development in the past, but in essence, the structural adjustment and layoffs reflect Li Auto's prediction of the next business development.

The life of the ideal car is getting worse and worse.

Since the beginning of this year, Li Auto has released the ideal MEGA and ideal L6 twice, and from the perspective of sales performance, the pressure on ideal is not small.

According to the data of the Passenger Car Association, the main sales force of Li Auto from January to April 2024 is still the Li L7 and L9, with the share of these two models accounting for nearly 70% of the overall brand, and the share of the new model MEGA launched in mid-March is only 4.1%.

On April 18, Li Auto's only extended-range hybrid model this year, the L6, was launched, with orders exceeding 10,000 in 72 hours, and the cumulative orders in the first sales period exceeded 41,000 units, and the current number of locked orders is 34,000 units.

As the lowest starting price of the Ideal L Series, this seemingly impressive report card is actually not as good as the other L-series models when they were launched. According to the data, the Ideal L9 received more than 30,000 orders within 72 hours of its launch; The Ideal L8 received more than 50,000 orders within 96 hours of its launch; The Ideal L7 has more than 30,000 orders within 48 hours of its launch.

Zou Liangjun, senior vice president of sales and service of Li Auto, once explained how Ideal will achieve 800,000 annual sales in 2024, saying that the sales target of Ideal L6 is 30,000 per month.

Although the Ideal L6 has not yet ushered in a full monthly delivery, the market environment facing its L6 is not without its grimness. After the release of the Ideal L6, Tesla announced price cuts for all models, and the price of the Model Y dropped to 249,900 yuan; The starting price of the new M5 is the same as that of the L6, at 249,800 yuan.

Li Auto has reorganized its sales target, adjusting its aggressive annual sales target of 800,000 units at the beginning of the year to 560,000 to 640,000 units. Excluding the delivery performance of the first four months, Li Auto will need to sell at least 56,000 units per month in the next eight months to meet the sales target, and the highest monthly delivery volume in the first four months of this year is only 30,000 units.

Ideally, there are still cards in the hand that have not been played. According to the established plan, Li Auto will also release three M-series pure electric products in the second half of this year.

Caption: Spy photos of the ideal M series pure electric models were circulated on the Internet

Judging from Reuters spy photos, the M series pure electric models seem to continue the design style of MEGA in terms of exterior design, considering the negative impact of the MEGA appearance controversy on sales at the beginning of this year and the sales performance after the release of MEGA, Li Auto wants to achieve a breakthrough in the field of pure electric vehicles, and the pressure is not small.

It is reported that the pure electric product team located in Shanghai will also usher in a contraction, and some employees of the team have gone to the headquarters of Shunyi Li Auto in Beijing to discuss the follow-up pure electric product planning adjustment.

For Li Auto, there is a tough battle to fight this year.

View original image 198K