Text/Lu Shiming
Edit/Gale
After the listing of the three car brothers, Ideal became the only company with spontaneous combustion of cars.
In early March, an ideal ONE new energy vehicle caught fire and spontaneously combusted in the parking lot. From the pictures, the ideal ONE fire is located inside the front cabin, burning very fast, and it is accompanied by thick smoke. Because the fire was too urgent, the whole vehicle was quickly burned into an empty shell and skeleton.
Even after March 15, the ideal has not yet announced the results of spontaneous combustion. It is worth noting that this is already the second ideal car fire incident spread on the Internet this year.
Among all the new energy new force car companies, the ideal car can be said to be a unique existence, and only one model can be mixed in the industry. Especially in the past one or two years, the harvest at the data level is good, whether it is sales ranking or financial report, it is remarkable. But the ideal of fame is not as glamorous as it seems.
Due to the frequent occurrence of product quality problems, ideal in the new forces such as Weilai and Xiaopeng, the competitiveness of products has declined significantly.
The only one with continuous product quality problems not only deterred consumers, but also triggered a chain reaction. For example, at the capital level, the stock price fell seriously, shareholders withdrew their investment and left the market; for example, in terms of talents, the technology bulls left; there are partners, technology research and development and other issues, this series of troubles make the ideal goal from "becoming An Apple" to how to survive.
Soaring forward and winning the data
For the new car-making forces, the monthly sales ranking can be said to be an extremely critical data.
As of March 2, a number of new car-making forces have released February delivery data. Judging from the published data, the ideal car delivery volume is the highest, with a delivery result of 8414 units, winning the first place in February, an increase of 265.8% year-on-year.
But the "good news" does not stop there, and recently Ideal has also taken the lead in releasing the 2021 Q4 and full-year financial reports.
According to the financial report, the revenue of ideal automobile last year was 27.01 billion yuan, an increase of 185.6% year-on-year. Among them, the total revenue in the fourth quarter was 10.62 billion yuan, an increase of 156.1% year-on-year and 36.6% from the previous quarter, and the revenue in the fourth quarter accounted for nearly 40% of the annual revenue, which was also the first quarterly revenue of Ideal Automobile to exceed 10 billion.
Since the establishment of Ideal Auto, this is the first time to achieve quarterly profitability at the operational level and the second time to achieve quarterly profitability at the company level.
【Source: Snowball】
The high revenue in the single quarter is inseparable from the support of the automobile business, and the sales revenue of ideal automobile vehicles is 26.13 billion yuan, an increase of 181.5% year-on-year; among them, the sales revenue of ideal automobile vehicles in the fourth quarter is 10.38 billion yuan, an increase of 155.7% year-on-year. In addition, the ideal ONE of 2021 has also increased its price by 10,000 yuan while upgrading the hardware configuration, which has significantly improved the gross profit margin of the ideal car. Compared to the gross profit margin of 16.4% in 2020, the vehicle gross margin of Ideal Motors last year was 20.6%.
Rising gross margins and rising sales have enabled Ideal to achieve its first quarterly profit. But in fact, in addition to gross profit margin and sales volume, there are other reasons why the ideal financial report in 2021 is "beautiful".
The ideal main business is to build and sell cars, but there are also many secondary businesses, such as the sale of new energy points, as well as value-added services such as charging piles and PLUS members. The revenue of businesses such as charging piles and PLUS members is completely negligible, but it should be noted that there is almost no cost in selling new energy vehicle credits.
In September 2021, Ideal sold all the more than 70,000 new energy credits accumulated in its hands, which correspond to all the cars produced in 2020, and this transaction brought 200 million yuan in revenue to Ideal, and basically converted into profits.
After the glossy sales rankings and financial data, other data ideals have not fallen. According to its official figures, Ideal is in a period of rapid expansion throughout 2021.
In terms of the number of employees, from 4181 at the end of 2020 to 11901, it has successfully ranked among enterprises with more than 10,000 employees. In terms of the number of stores, it has also expanded from 52 at the end of 2020 to 206, directly covering 102 cities across the country.
It can be said that the ideal is a "winner" in many aspects of the data. One thing is certain, though, that the current ideal is still not fully profitable. And the brilliance of the surface cannot hide a lot of bad things behind it.
Trouble kept coming, and capital was lost
Beautiful data does not mean smooth sailing, on the contrary, the ideal car has not started smoothly this year, and negative news has been pushed into the hot search one after another.
On February 11, an ideal ONE owner challenged a net red ramp in Hunan province, "Chengfo Slope", which not only failed to reach the top, but also caused damage to the vehicle's rear axle differential.
Although Ideal Automobile subsequently sent a vehicle to challenge "Cheng fo Po" for the second time and successfully passed, and said that it would optimize the differential protection logic and successfully resolve the crisis public relations, but the wound was scarred, and this incident would inevitably cause some impact.
As the saying goes, disasters are not alone, and just when the heat of the "Chengfopo" incident has not faded, the ideal has two spontaneous combustion incidents in succession. In response to the two spontaneous combustion incidents, Ideal Automobile only responded that it was "under investigation", and there has been no detailed official response so far.
As the only model, the ideal ONE laid a market for the ideal, but with the changes in the market, a single model has become a drawback.
In terms of policy, the first is that Shanghai municipality has clarified that from January 1, 2023, consumers will no longer issue special license quotas for consumers who purchase or transfer plug-in hybrid vehicles. Once more first- and second-tier cities closely follow this policy, it will be a great blow to the ideal ONE.
Secondly, now that the domestic charging network is developing rapidly, the state is also vigorously supporting the development of the new energy industry, and more and more car companies have clearly announced the time to stop selling fuel vehicles, and it is certainly not feasible to only develop a range extender route in the future.
Therefore, the most urgent problem in the ideal car at present is to launch a new car, but according to the planning of the ideal car, the L9 model launched this year still uses a range extender model. This means that the ideal car, which is limited by policy restrictions, must survive 2022, and it is possible to launch a pure electric model in 2023, and truly compete with new forces such as Xiaopeng and Weilai.
At the same time, at the technical level, compared with Weilai and Xiaopeng, the ideal layout of research and development is the latest. The ideal ONE's driver assistance performance has not become a core selling point, mainly relying on third-party suppliers. Xiaopeng and Nio have attached great importance to assisted driving from the beginning.
Ideal did not start to increase self-research investment until after the IPO in the second half of 2020 and recruited a large number of people. In September 2020, Former Visteon Global Chief Architect Wang Kai joined Ideal as CTO, which is regarded as a sign of the acceleration of ideal autonomous driving research and development.
But what is unexpected is that at this critical moment when it is necessary to increase research and development and develop new technologies and launch new models, Wang Kai, chief technology officer of Ideal Auto, left for personal reasons, which is also the highest level executive left since the establishment of Ideal Auto. This event will undoubtedly cast a shadow on the development of the ideal car.
At this point, the trouble of the ideal is not over, in terms of foreign investment, the ideal has also encountered the risk of cooperation, falling into judicial enforcement, and being frozen by the court and judicial enforcement.
According to tianyancha information, in February this year, Beijing Orange Electric Travel Technology Co., Ltd., which was jointly invested by Beijing Xiaoju Intelligent Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. (accounting for 51% of the shares) and Beijing Chehejia Information Technology Co., Ltd. (accounting for 49% of the shares, the main body of Ideal Automobile Company), was judged by the Chaoyang District Court to be the executor due to a contract dispute with the partner, and the execution target was 13.8596 million yuan.
It is understood that Beijing Xiao orange intelligent is a company jointly funded by ideal automobile and Didi Chuxing after reaching a strategic cooperation to customize the production of intelligent electric vehicles for shared travel scenarios. Unfortunately, the car has not yet been seen, and the supplier fell out first.
Product quality problems are continuous, single models, unfavorable market environment, CTO departures, and suppliers turn face... A series of troubles eventually manifested themselves at the level of capital.
The latest news shows that Bank of America has now chosen to liquidate the ideal car. In China, Hillhouse Capital, led by the Chinese version of Buffett Zhang Lei, also chose to liquidate and withdraw from the market, no longer holding any equity in Ideal Auto.
The departure of high-quality capital is a bad signal.
Don't talk about ideals, just talk about living
The market environment of the ideal car was one of the most important reasons why it was able to enter the first echelon of new forces with one model.
Since the proposal of the new four modernizations of new energy vehicles, the state has given great help in terms of policies, which has provided development space for the emergence and growth of a large number of new power brands.
In this context, Ideal Auto launched the Ideal ONE at the end of 2019, and this "range extender" car meets the needs of some people.
First of all, two or three years ago, the battery capacity problem and charging problem of electric vehicles were still an "unknown", and mileage anxiety and charging anxiety greatly plagued consumers, especially in restricted cities. The ideal ONE and the cruising range of 1000km are green cars, which successfully solves many pain points of some consumers.
Secondly, the positioning of the ideal ONE is very accurate, in its price range, the 7-seat SUV basically has no model to choose from, and even if there is, it is basically a fuel vehicle, and it is difficult to solve the problem of traffic restrictions. In theory, MPV is the optimal solution of 7 blocks, but many people are difficult to accept the shape of the MPV, then the ideal ONE with SUV appearance and internal MPV stands out.
At that time, the market environment made the ideal "win in the present", but today, the ideal car may not be so lucky, and its replaceability has become more and more obvious.
In the past two years, with other types of hybrid vehicles, namely parallel hybrid systems and hybrid hybrid manufacturers, such as BYD, Toyota, Honda and other brands continue to promote technological upgrades and accelerate product updates, the disadvantages of high energy consumption and low efficiency of the extended range power system have become more and more prominent. At the same time, such as Beijing, Shanghai and other places, hybrid models no longer enjoy the relevant policies of new energy vehicles.
Industry insiders also generally believe that the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity for power systems is a "bad solution", and range-extender electric technology is an outdated technology with little potential for development.
In terms of the next product planning, the ideal official said: "All are products that focus on family cars." The new model L9 is scheduled to be released in the second quarter and delivered in the third quarter of this year, and two ultra-fast charging pure models with high-voltage platforms will be launched in 2023. ”
In fact, the main "family card" will face more brutal competition for the ideal car, and it is difficult to form a clearer and more differentiated brand image. Take the new model L9 to be released as an example, it is a full-size SUV, the price is expected to be 400,000 range, which will undoubtedly form a direct competition with some high-end brands.
At the level of pure electricity, there are not many players on the large and medium-sized SUV track at present, taking Weilai as an example, there is no advantage in price compared with joint venture fuel vehicles. And Weilai's power exchange network, the ideal can not be repeated at all, on the one hand, the transformation of pure electricity requires high costs, on the other hand, the power exchange network is also a very heavy asset.
It is not difficult to see that with the ideal of "winning in the present" with an extender, the road in front of us is getting narrower and narrower. Of course, if there is enough capital, it is not impossible to walk from the canoe bridge to Yangguan Road. However, the trouble-ridden ideal car has fallen fiercely in the capital market, and it can be said that it is extremely difficult to get up again, and "lack of money" will be the main theme of the ideal for a long time.
At the ideal 2021 earnings report meeting, ideal founder Li Xiang said, "After ten years, look at your own capabilities, and hope to be able to achieve the same level as Apple."
The ideal is very full, the reality is very bone. Nowadays, the competition in the new energy track is becoming more and more fierce, and the camp reshuffle is staged at any time. Even if expanding competitive advantage is the ideal today's top priority, it can face quality, capital, layout... The ideal of losing everywhere, the next question to think about is how to "survive", not how to "become an apple".