On December 29, 2021, according to the Observer Network, the sales staff of the suspected ideal car released in its WeChat circle of friends that the first owner of the three electric life free warranty rights will be cancelled in February 2022, but will still enjoy a lifetime warranty before January 31. After inquiring about the ideal car APP, it was found that the owner's rights column was indeed displayed as a vehicle warranty of 5 years or 100,000 kilometers, and a warranty of 8 years or 120,000 kilometers of the three-electric system.
In response to this incident, ideal auto public relations personnel responded that the lifetime warranty is only a time-limited promotion policy. The vehicle warranty of the ideal car is always 5 years and 100,000 kilometers, and the warranty of the three-electric system is 120,000 kilometers for 8 years, without change. As for the old car owners who have already obtained the lifetime warranty benefit, they are not affected. For the authenticity of the above-mentioned ideal car sales spread in the circle of friends, the other party did not respond.
It was learned through an ideal car store that similar to the news revealed in the circle of friends before, users who booked cars in the store before February next year can receive a lifetime warranty, but not through the official APP car purchase channel, but by the store sales to sign an agreement with the user. According to media reports, at the end of 2020, there are also some sales of ideal cars that say that the lifetime warranty will be canceled, and the immediate order can still get the news of the right.
In fact, for new energy vehicles, the lifelong warranty of the three-electric system is still relatively important, after all, the battery will age and decay over time, and the price of replacing the power battery is indeed not cheap. Some old car owners believe that as the first batch of subscribers, what they value is a time-limited lifetime free warranty. However, after the end of the first batch of bookings, there are still a considerable number of subsequent booking users who receive lifetime warranty rights, which is a damage to the interests of old car owners.
But this is not the first time that Ideal Has adjusted the relevant warranty terms. In March last year, Ideal Auto launched the first owner's lifetime warranty purchase program on its APP, which can be purchased by users from the time the vehicle is ordered and before the new car is delivered. However, in June this year, Ideal Auto cancelled the purchase plan of the first owner's lifetime warranty of the whole vehicle, and changed it to a three-electric system + extended range system lifetime warranty, which was also protested by many ideal car owners, but did not affect the sales of ideal cars.
Official data shows that Ideal Cars delivered a total of 13,458 Ideal ONE units in November, an increase of 190.24% year-on-year and nearly 100% month-on-month. From January to November this year, the delivery volume of the ideal ONE was 76,404 units. Since delivery, the cumulative delivery volume of Ideal ONE has reached 110001 units.
Shen Yanan, co-founder and president of Ideal Auto, said that the Ideal ONE is the first time that a Chinese brand luxury model with a starting price of more than 300,000 yuan has achieved a single month delivery of more than 10,000 yuan, becoming the preferred product for China's luxury medium and large SUV and home users.
Earlier this month, Shen Yanan revealed that by the end of this year, Ideal Auto plans to build 200 retail centers nationwide, reaching 400 in 2022. Recently, the official release of the news, as of December 26, the ideal car retail center has covered 100 cities.
Zhang Xiang, an analyst in the automotive industry, commented: Canceling the lifetime warranty of the first car owner is actually a reflection of confidence in their own products, and believes that this will not affect sales. And the first car owner, in fact, only for a group of car owners, the impact is not large. Replaced by a vehicle warranty of 5 years or 100,000 kilometers, three electric system warranty of 8 years or 120,000 kilometers, in fact, such a warranty is enough, and compared with the vast majority of products on the market, the warranty is also advantageous.
Usually the people who buy the ideal ONE, the financial situation is also good, and they may consider changing the car for three or five years, and such a warranty policy is enough for them. With the improvement of brand awareness and the increase of market share, ideal car reduces the conditions for some services, and it is normal to create more revenue in this sector.
At present, new energy has entered a stage of accelerated development and has become a major trend, and the subsidy decline has already begun. The United States has stopped issuing subsidies for new range-extender technology vehicles, and Shanghai has also made it clear that from 2023, it will stop issuing free licenses for plug-in hybrid vehicles, and extended-range electric vehicles are included. This means that in 2022, the ideal launch of a range extender SUV will face no subsidies, or some areas can not be played, which will also have a great impact on delivery.
According to the Ideal Auto prospectus, Ideal Auto is developing the X platform and plans to launch its first product on the X platform in 2022. In addition to range-extending technology, Ideal Is also developing pure electric vehicle platforms that can meet high-power charging – Whale and Shark. Starting in 2023, Ideal Cars plans to launch two new high-power all-electric models. Ideal Auto said that its future new car price range will be concentrated between 200,000 yuan (about $31,000) and 500,000 yuan (about $76,000). At the same time, starting in 2022, all new models of Ideal Will be equipped as standard with the necessary hardware compatible with the self-developed future L4 autonomous driving.
As of the close of trading on 29 December 2021, Ideal Auto was priced at HK$116.200 per share (Hong Kong stock) and had a total market capitalization of HK$240 billion. The target price of China Merchants Securities, which had the first buy rating of Ideal Auto, was HK$234, which means that the total market value of Ideal Auto still has a lot of room to rise.
Zhang Xiang, an analyst in the automotive industry, said that the development of Ideal Automobile is still very good, and its competitiveness in its market segment is very strong, and sales are also growing steadily. Ideal Automobile's debt situation is also the lowest compared with Weilai Automobile and Xiaopeng Automobile, and the current financial situation and company structure of Ideal Automobile are very healthy. In addition, he is also ready to launch a pure electric model.