Anyone who has read martial arts novels knows that in a wonderful fight plot, whenever the character moves out of the way and is described by the author with the word "old move", the character will soon show defeat, and even take the box lunch.
There is also a saying in the art of war that victory is indispensable, which means that the same trick cannot be used twice. Of course, this is not absolute, and the ideal does not believe in this evil.
Will the upcoming Ideal L9 let the Ideal car fall into the old trap of moving? After all, ideal car's first trick ideal ONE is successful.
At present, Ideal ONE is creating, and even constantly refreshing, the sales record of domestic medium and large cars.
This is Li Xiang's success as an excellent product manager: the big six-seat design is just in line with the need, the extender avoids the battery life anxiety and the embarrassment of filling, and the 300,000-level pricing face is there.
Therefore, the success of the ideal ONE is the success of positioning, not the success of technology, and now the ideal L9 that inherits this methodology is also waving.
Dump the old tricks
The ideal L9 is a fait accompli before it becomes popular.
On March 3, Ideal Auto official micro released, its full-size SUV officially named L9. At this point, the long-rumored ideal X01 has finally settled.
Next, we are like watching a serial drama, waiting for the ideal car to release the vehicle information little by little until the Beijing Auto Show in April completes the finale.
The practice of preheating this set of products is completely familiar to Li Xiang's professional origin.
On March 9, the first episode of the official L9 spoiler came.
Ideal Auto describes the L9's "top intelligent performance" in three long paragraphs, including three-dimensional spatial interaction, super computing platform, and shocking 5-screen interaction.
Since the new forces entered the game of car building, this kind of unconscious scientific and technological vocabulary has gradually replaced the promotion of engine parameters and transmission performance.
Ideal Car not only conforms to the trend, but also takes it as the core content of the plot of the first episode, which shows its confidence in the intelligence of the new car.
However, there are two reasons why we are reluctant to return to the official content of the ideal car and make a one-way crammed output of the L9's smart cockpit:
On the one hand, the product logic has not changed.
The positioning of the ideal L9 compared to the ideal ONE family "Daddy" car has not changed, the range extender technical route has not changed, the SUV category has not changed, and the selling point of the product with six seats and large space has not changed.
On the other hand, although it is cloaked in intelligence, it is not brilliant enough.
In the process of enhancing the intelligence of L9, the ideal car uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip, super-size HUD, 3K HD resolution central control screen, 3DToF sensor and so on.
These or popular, or high-cold technology accessories do not jump out of the ideal habitual stacking style, certainly much stronger than the ideal ONE, but once put in the industry to see, that is, the standard level.
You know, intelligence has never been the strength of the ideal car. So, the L9 is almost an oversized cup that can be seen as the ideal ONE.
Live
The "key" of the ideal car is well-known in the industry, which is what I personally admire Li most, and every penny must be used on the blade.
At the end of February, Ideal Auto announced its 2021 annual financial report, with a net loss of 322 million yuan last year, compared with a net loss of 152 million yuan in the same period last year.
Although the loss is intensifying, it has not lost the bright spot, and the gross profit margin of new cars will reach 20.6% in 2021, compared with 16.4% in 2020.
In addition, for the whole of last year, ideal automobile's operating cash flow reached 8.34 billion yuan, an increase of 165.6% from 3.14 billion yuan in 2020.
In the earnings conference call, Li would like to emphasize: In the near future, the ideal car will not expand overseas, do not build mobile phones, and insist on making products, applications, technologies and systems thorough in the field of intelligent electric vehicles.
We cannot arbitrarily evaluate the right and wrong of the ideal car development strategy.
Although in terms of product intelligence, it is temporarily lagging behind Xiaopeng, although it is not as good as Weilai in the creation of brand and service atmosphere. But at least better than the loser's Byton car, at least for now the goal of supporting the ideal to continue along this road is ambitious.
Ten years later, I will look at my own ability and hope to be able to achieve the same level as Apple.
The ideal L9 was launched in such a context. "9" stands supreme in Chinese culture, and "L" is most likely the new product matrix code of the ideal car.
Either way, the Ideal L9 jumps to the full-size SUV segment with a wheelbase of 3100mm.
That is, under the condition of maintaining low operating investment, Ideal Automobile has created a flagship product.
However, spending small money and doing big things in the heavy capital industry of automobile manufacturing is simply a jitter, and it is easy to be repulsed if it is not played well.
Although the development of China's auto market has always been beautiful, it is not feasible in the market segment of full-size SUVs.
The million-level Beijing BJ90 and the 500-800,000-level Red Flag E-HS9 have become the only two representatives of independence, and they only represent "I" who have come, and the sales volume cannot be talked about.
This level must be a comprehensive contest of product + brand. For example, Mercedes-Benz GLS, BMW X7 and so on. Under the premise that the ideal L9 product is not salty or light, the time has come to prove the value of the ideal brand.
If the price of the ideal L9 really jumped to 500,000 levels, it just jumped out of the exquisite comfort pricing area of 300,000 levels before the ideal ONE.
Considering the existence of the ideal ONE, the ideal L9 also had to jump out, otherwise it would be fratricidal.
What's more, from 2023, many places across the country will cancel the preferential treatment policy of green cards on range extended vehicles.
For example, Shanghai has been clarified, and Shanghai is also the main sales city of the top 4 ideal ONE.
What is the ideal L9 win rate?
We don't know, but one thing is certain, that is, with the launch of the Ideal L9, the era of the big single product of the Ideal car is over.
Buffett said that when you play poker, if you play for half an hour and still don't know who the rookie is, then you are a rookie.
In the same way, if you start out thinking you're a master, you're probably a rookie.
The time dividend has been eaten by the new car-making forces, and the expansion of the product matrix has inevitably made them more and more like traditional car companies.
At this point, the hand may have just begun, and the previous hand was just practice.