In the past 2021, the ideal car should be the most moist among the "Wei Xiaoli". Although it still lags behind Xiaopeng's 98,155 units and Weilai's 91,429 vehicles in terms of annual sales of 90491, Ideal Auto has dominated the sales champion of the new energy SUV market with the Ideal ONE car, and even once only one step away from profitability.
However, behind the brilliant ideal car in 2021, there is a hidden crisis, although the ideal car with only one car on sale can be concentrated on promotion, but it is obviously inferior to Weilai and Xiaopeng Automobile, which are gradually improving the product system. Fortunately, Ideal Cars is also aware of this problem and is stepping up the launch of new cars. A few days ago, some media exposed some information about ideal's second product X01.
It is understood that the ideal new car is a full-size SUV model, and the ideal ONE is also a range-extending route, the standard version price is expected to fall around 398,000 yuan, and the top premium version price is expected to exceed 450,000 yuan. According to the product plan, the ideal X01 will be officially unveiled during the Beijing Auto Show in April this year at the earliest, no later than June, and will be delivered in the second half of the year.
Compared with Weilai and Xiaopeng continuing to run wild in the pure electric market, especially in the context of the gradual clarification of the pure electric route, why is Ideal Auto still stubbornly insisting on developing range extender models? And can the new X01 of The Ideal once again replicate the glory of the Ideal ONE? I believe that many people want to know the answer, so let's analyze it carefully.
The ideal X01 for all-round upgrades
Before analyzing why the ideal car is still working on the range-extending route, let's take a look at the new model of the ideal X01. In fact, although the ideal X01 is the same as the ideal ONE, the ideal X01 is an all-round upgrade than the ideal ONE. The early ideal car took the extender route more or less because of time, cost and other reasons forced to choose helplessly, but since it has become a fact, the ideal still invested a lot of money in the range extender technology. In the previous prospectus, Ideal Auto clearly stated that 10% of the net proceeds from the IPO will be used for the development of the range extender platform, which shows the importance of the range extension route in the ideal car.
According to the information currently disclosed, the ideal X01 is positioned as a full-size SUV model, which is very close to the BMW X7 and Mercedes-Benz GLS. The exterior interior part, the ideal X01 does not disclose much information at present, but I believe that it should continue to be improved within the framework of the ideal car family design language.
Image courtesy of Jeremy
The power part, the ideal X01 has changed a lot. According to the information currently revealed, the ideal X01 will be equipped with a four-cylinder engine authorized by BMW as a range extender. It is understood that with the 44.5kWh power battery and the 65L fuel tank, the ideal X01's WLTC has a pure electric endurance of 155km and a total cruising range of more than 800km.
As for the intelligent hardware, the ideal X01 is worthy of a big book, it is equipped with including AP controller horizon J3 + J5 chip and SP controller customized Orin-X chip, the installation of 1 128-line lidar, 1 DMS, 5 millimeter wave radar, 12 ultrasonic radar and 12 8M cameras. It can be said that compared with the ideal ONE, the ideal X01 has been upgraded in an all-round way, and its current hardware level even surpasses the previous Xiaopeng G9. If its final pricing is really as predicted by the media, it is likely to become another blockbuster model in this segment.
Can the Ideal X01 replicate the brilliance of the Ideal ONE?
According to the information currently exposed, the ideal X01 is undoubtedly a new car with excellent product strength, so does it have the opportunity to replicate the brilliant results of the ideal ONE? For the ideal car to launch the X01, of course, it is hoped that way, but from the current market point of view, it is difficult.
How to say it? Although the ideal X01 has excellent product strength, it is obviously more difficult to break through again in a very competitive market than the ideal ONE. In 2018, when the ideal ONE was born, the domestic new energy market was still in a barbaric growth stage, whether it was battery technology or the corresponding supporting facilities were not perfect, and the endurance anxiety coiled in the heart of every pure electric car owner, resulting in the pure electric model at that time also won the title of "electric father", which showed how undesirable the electric vehicle was at that time.
Unlike the more or less range anxiety of pure trams, the ideal ONE that seems to have conservatively adopted a range extender route is a good cut to the consumer's pain point. Compared with pure trams, it not only has no endurance anxiety, but also the level of intelligence is not bad, and compared to fuel vehicles, the ideal ONE has an experience that is not inferior to smart pure trams. It was based on these characteristics that made the ideal ONE stand out in the market at that time. In addition, the large space and high cost performance are also important reasons why the ideal ONE can continue to sell well in recent years.
However, with the passage of time, especially in the context of the increased range route being recognized by the state as one of the new energy routes, the ideal X01 is obviously facing greater competition. For example, the newly established Niu Chuangxin Energy began to imitate the growth route of the ideal car, and released the Gemini twin platform that is compatible with both range extender hybrid and pure electric technology, mainly promoting dual-mode mid-to-high-end SUV models.
In addition, like the high-end new energy brand Lantu incubated by Dongfeng Group, it is also parallel to the two modes of extender and pure electric route, and Lantu Free, which has launched two power modes.
Not only that, after the range-extending route was identified as the wind direction of new energy development, many traditional brands that like to seek future action are also accelerating the development of range-extended electric vehicles, such as Geely's new modular hybrid platform Lei Shenzhiqing Hi· X includes the extender route. Although it has not yet made efforts in the medium and large SUV market, in time, it is difficult to say that Geely Automobile will not launch the corresponding model.
It is worth mentioning that with the development of battery technology and the gradual improvement of corresponding supporting facilities in recent years, consumer recognition of pure trams has also risen significantly, and the "electric daddy" statement has gradually withdrawn from the historical stage, which is also an important factor in why pure electric vehicles have concentrated in these two years. It can be said that after several years of development, the domestic new energy market has already undergone earth-shaking changes, if you continue to adhere to the previous ideal ONE play, ideal X01 is difficult to copy the brilliant results of the ideal ONE. Of course, for this question, I believe that Li Xiang should also have considered, as for how to adjust, I think Li Xiang, who has his own unique views on Internet marketing, should be able to give an answer soon.
The future of the ideal car is in pure electric
Since the brilliant difficulty of the ideal X01 to copy the ideal ONE has increased greatly, especially the new car-making forces such as Xiaopeng and Weilai have made efforts to make pure electric routes, why should the ideal car still adhere to the range increase route? I think there are two main considerations for the ideal car.
First, the ideal ONE already mentioned earlier has demonstrated the feasibility of a purely electric route for extending ranges. Although the ideal car is not the inventor of the range extender technology, it is the car company that carries forward the route. Although the newly launched X01 is difficult to replicate the same results as the ideal ONE, as the most well-known new car-making force on the market, if the ideal X01 is launched on the market, the monthly sales can exceed 3,000 units, I believe that the ideal has been satisfied. Not only that, with the extended range route being identified as one of the main routes of new energy in the future, at least until 2035, the range extender pure electric still has a relatively large market prospect. In addition, some of the funds raised by Ideal Motors in the IPO were used to develop range extender electric technology, and if it abandons the proven route now, it is obviously a pity that Ideal Car has spent a lot of money on the range extender platform. If there is no accident, in the next time, as long as the range-extended route is not abandoned by the policy, then the ideal car will continue to launch new models on the current range-extended platform.
The second point is that with the development of technology, the boundaries between the current extended-range electric and pure electric technology routes have long been blurred, especially in autonomous driving technology. In fact, I have always stressed that "automatic driving is not a patent for pure trams", it can exist on fuel vehicles, but because countries have long had a consensus to develop new energy in the future, so we have not seen large-scale L2 or more automatic technology appear on fuel vehicles. However, this does not mean that there is none, for example, the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class was approved by the German Federal Motor Vehicle Administration (KBA) as the world's first model to officially launch the L3 level test.
On the X01, we can see that it is equipped with an AP controller Horizon J3+J5 chip and an SP controller customized Orin-X chip, and installs a 128-line lidar, a DMS, 5 millimeter wave radar, 12 ultrasonic radars and 12 8M cameras. Such a hardware level has surpassed Xiaopeng Automobile's previous newly launched G9, Weilai ET7, ET5 and other models, which shows that the ideal car has long been prepared in intelligent driving technology and is not limited by the range increase route.
In fact, although the ideal car is still working on the range-extending route on the surface, it has not given up its investment in the field of pure electricity. In its disclosed prospectus, Ideal Automobile clearly stated that between 2021 and 2030, it will choose two parallel routes, not only to continue to develop an extended-range electric platform with urban pure electricity and long-distance power generation as the user value; but also to develop a 400-kilowatt ultra-fast charging high-voltage pure electric platform that can supplement the 300-500 km endurance in ten minutes. Not only that, according to the plan, from 2023, Ideal Car will enrich the product matrix based on the high-voltage pure electric platform Whale and Shark in research and development, at the speed of launching at least two pure electric SUVs per year. It is worth mentioning that these planned models will be equipped with the hardware equipment required for L4 autonomous driving as standard. From the hardware prediction that the ideal X01 can achieve L4 level, it is likely to accumulate intelligent driving technology for the electric models launched in the future. It can be said that the ideal X01 is not only a full-size SUV model with a range extender, it is also the link between the ideal car and the field of pure electricity.
Summary: For the ideal car, launching a full-size range extender SUV model obviously has its own considerations, after all, it is a wise choice to continue to launch new models on a route that has been proven to be feasible. It's just that in the context of many car companies have made efforts to make pure electric vehicles, it is difficult for outsiders to understand the operation of the ideal car. Of course, since the establishment of the ideal car, the criticism it has received is not bad this time. And from the current technical route, if the ideal car wants to evolve to pure electricity, there is no technical difficulty. As for why the ideal car did not quickly turn to the direction of pure electricity, I think it is just that the time has not yet come.