The "ideal" car for families

90,491 units! This is the 2021 report card handed over by Ideal Cars. "In the context of chip shortage, with a high-end SUV priced at more than 300,000 yuan, the sales volume exceeded 10,000 for two consecutive months, which not only highlighted the strength of our product strength, but also achieved a new breakthrough in the Chinese brand and high-quality industrial development." Ideal Auto founder, chairman and CEO Li Xiang said.

The significant increase in the delivery of the ideal car is inseparable from its corporate positioning and product characteristics. Ideal ONE adopts an extended-range electric system to realize the world's first new electric mode of urban electricity consumption and long-distance power generation. Under comprehensive working conditions, the ideal ONE's three-in-one motor can provide 188 km of NEDC pure electric mileage, which is enough to ensure the pure electric driving of daily urban commuting; with the range extender, the ideal ONE's NEDC comprehensive mileage can reach 1080 kilometers, which makes the ideal ONE have a differentiated advantage from pure electric vehicles - no mileage pain points, effectively solving the mileage anxiety of family users.

In terms of intelligence, the ideal ONE also reflects the development model led by the needs of home users. Fan Haoyu, vice president of Ideal Automotive Products, told such a story: "When it was only a few months before the release of Ideal ONE, Li wanted to find me and do 'full car voice', but considering the shortage of manpower at that time, I objected. Users don't care about our manpower problems, they just ask: 'Why isn't there voice control in the back row?' Li Xiang finally persuaded Fan Haoyu, and the ideal ONE became the first and so far the only mass-produced model equipped with the four-zone voice of the whole vehicle.

Paying attention to the feelings of drivers and all passengers is an important underlying logic in the design of family cars, which also explains many of the "non-mainstream designs" and special features of the ideal ONE. For example, the main promotion of 6-seat version of the SUV, the upgrade of two-row electric seats and so on. "The biggest advantage of the 6-seater is that there is a passage in the middle of the second row, and the people sitting in the last row can easily get on and off the car, and the ideal ONE also designs the second row of seats to be electric, which is convenient for adjusting the front and rear space." Lee wanted to say.

Behind the hot sales of products, it not only reflects the company's ability to grasp the future trend and product definition, but also highlights the strength of technological innovation and leadership. According to the third quarter of 2021 financial report released by Ideal Automobile, the research and development expenses in the third quarter of 2021 were 888.5 million yuan, an increase of 165.6% from 334.5 million yuan in the third quarter of 2020, and an increase of 36.0% from 653.4 million yuan in the second quarter of 2021.

Since the product's inception, there has been much debate about the ideal product and technology strategy. Why only do one car, one configuration? "Rather than launching new models quickly, we prefer to increase sales of one model." Shen Yanan, co-founder and president of Ideal Auto, said frankly. As a new car-making force, it was initially unable to have sufficient resources to develop a variety of models like traditional car companies. Under the demand of survival first, the ideal car can only focus on doing a good job in products. After weighing it up, Lee wanted to lead the team to focus all its resources on the extender SUV to have the success of today's ideal ONE.

At the beginning of 2021, Ideal Auto released the "2025 Strategy", hoping to gain 20% of the market share of China's new energy vehicles in 2025, with sales of 1.6 million vehicles, becoming The first intelligent electric vehicle enterprise in China. However, to realize this lofty ideal, it is not enough to rely on one model alone. Li xiang told reporters that Ideal Auto will launch a series of new models, including a new extended range SUV and pure electric SUV, but the ideal target user population will not change, it is still a family user with children. (Economic Daily reporter Yang Zhongyang)