It seems that the smoke of 2022 has not yet cleared, and a new war has begun.
On February 8, Li Auto took the lead in showing the first new car in 2023, the Li L7, with a price range of 319,800-379,800 yuan. As previously rumored, Ideal launched a new Air version, minus some comfort configurations while further lowering the price in an attempt to expand the audience territory.
With the launch of the new car, Ideal has stepped out of the comfort zone of a six-seat smart SUV and entered the big five-seat SUV market. If we say that the past phased achievements come from ideal and accurate product positioning, and preemptively occupy a relatively blank segment. Then, the ideal L7 will become a touchstone to test whether the ideal can create another explosive product.
In this new battlefield, the ideal L7 will face off with Tesla Model Y, NIO ES7, Audi Q5L, Xpeng G9, Volkswagen Touran, Honda Guandao and other players, although some models do not completely coincide with its positioning, such as Model Y, but this hot-selling model price and brand power are better, and the rest of the players also have their own fans. Whether the ideal L7 can continue the myth of the ideal explosion is difficult to say.
Text | Shinno
Editor | Li Huanhuan
Operations |
Apple-flavored "matryoshka doll"
After 8 p.m. on February 8, Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Auto, appeared in the center of the screen, wearing a familiar dark blue shirt and jeans.
This is the first new car launch event of Li Auto in 2023. Said to be a "new car", the protagonist ideal L7 completed its debut as early as September 30, 2022.
▲ Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Auto, attended the new car launch conference. Figure / Official
The ideal L8, originally scheduled to be released in November 2022, stepped on the heel of Xpeng G9's pricing "rollover" and met with users two months in advance; The ideal L7, which is planned to be launched in the first quarter of 2023, became the "One more thing" Easter egg of the L8 conference, and in just ten minutes, the appearance, size and main configuration parameters were at a glance, and the pre-sale prices of the two versions were also announced.
Starting from L8 and L9, Ideal models are divided into high-end and low-end versions, named Max version and Pro version respectively. The same is true for the L7, the Max version costs 379,800 yuan, and the Pro version is 40,000 yuan cheaper, 339,800 yuan.
▲ Ideal L7 price. Picture / official
About a month ago, news spread on the Internet: the ideal L7 will also launch an Air version without air suspension and lower configuration, which is 20,000 yuan cheaper on the basis of Pro. At the press conference on February 8, the rumors were confirmed one by one, and there were fewer surprises.
Xiao Shuai is an ideal ONE owner, and he is also a "fruit fan" who chases Apple's new products for mobile phones every year. In his opinion, the ideal L7 conference "Apple taste is too rushed", not only borrowing the naming rules of the iPhone on the product SKU, but even the setting of the background screen and the style of the transition, it is difficult not to be reminiscent of the Apple conference - this time, Li Xiang did not talk from beginning to end like several previous conferences, but handed over the content of product selling points, intelligent driving, interior and exterior design and other sections to different responsible persons for introduction - a few months ago, Apple CEO Cook also did this.
Even, the car and the car are compared together, it is like an apple-style "nesting doll", "Apple can distinguish the model by looking at the number of cameras, but the ideal L9, L8, L7 just look at the front face, almost exactly the same", the difference is only in the length of the body behind.
In an interview with Late Auto, Li Xiang believes that the L series "clearly defines its own design language", and the star ring lamp running through the head and tail will become one of the ideal symbols. When he explained the concept of doing so on Weibo, he also posted Apple's example: the ideal L9, L8, L7 and L6 to be released in the future correspond to the iPhone 15 Ultra, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 respectively. More graphically, they are 180 square meters of three-bedroom, 120-square-meter three-bedroom, 120-square-meter two-bedroom and 90-square-meter two-bedroom.
He also categorically predicted that if Apple personally built the car, the front of their car would look exactly the same "100%". "People always say that there is a problem with matryoshka dolls, but the most successful companies in the world are matryoshka dolls (routes)", similar products in addition to Apple's mobile phones, Braun's razors and Dyson's vacuum cleaners, as well as Volkswagen's models.
From L9 to L8, the outside world has learned the power of "matryoshka dolls". Although Ideal claims that L8 is a new generation of upgraded Ideal ONE, onlookers feel that L8 is more like a low-end version of L9, which was also born on a new platform, whether it is product positioning, interior and exterior design and software and hardware configuration, it is not a route with Ideal ONE.
This can also understand why the news that L8 is about to be released and ONE is facing discontinuation, many owners who have just bought the ideal ONE are out of anger, they laugh at themselves as "the last leek", "I thought ONE was the beginning, but I didn't expect it to end here".
With these background foreshadowings, the vast majority of users are not surprised that L7 insists on taking the "matryoshka doll" route, and the ideal has given up keeping it mysterious.
Since entering 2023, a small number of users have been officially invited to participate in the "private appreciation meeting" of the ideal L7, and later car evaluation big Vs on major platforms and technology bloggers who focus on intelligent driving have also been invited to Shenzhen, Huizhou and Beijing to test drive new cars. While both the video and images were required to be released after the conference, details have spread to help the L7 complete its pre-launch warm-up.
Before seeing the actual car, many users were watching.
The day before the conference, each person Auto came to a retail center in Beijing of Li Auto, a sales introduction in the store said that from the end of September last year to now, he has received more than 20 Li L7 pre-orders, because this ideal did not open "Dading", each user only paid 1,000 yuan as "Xiaoding", enjoy 5,000 yuan car purchase fund and priority test drive and other rights, later dissatisfied can be refunded. More users who enter the store to inquire want to wait until they see the real car and experience it before making plans.
Another salesman said that from the night of the conference to the next morning, he sold 10 ideal L7s, of which the Pro-version users are most, most of them place orders for the cost performance, while users who like the rear seat TV and fancy the subsequent upgrade of the assisted driving function will add money to the Max version.
The next "explosive product"?
Before 2022, ideal cars will send players to fight in the new energy battlefield, and there is only one ideal ONE.
Whether it is an extended range route or a six-seat design, it is a niche and alternative choice in the market, but it is such a car that was not optimistic at the beginning, from its launch in 2019 to now sold 200,000 units, becoming a recognized explosive product in the industry, while also supporting the ideal through the dangerous 0 to 1 stage.
However, the "single explosive product route" cannot go longer, and Li Xiang pays more attention to the "explosive product solution of the product portfolio" and grabs more market share in a larger price range.
The product matrix of ideal car planning, the price range is indeed getting wider. Full-size 6-seat SUV ideal L9, positioned at 400,000 to 500,000 yuan; The medium and large 6-seat SUV Ideal L8 and the 5-seat SUV Ideal L7 dropped one gear, and the price fell at 300,000 to 400,000 yuan; The smaller ideal L6 and L5 come to one of the giant's most competitive price bands, 200,000 to 300,000 yuan.
But the target group has not changed since the beginning.
Soon after the launch of the ideal one, the precise positioning of the "daddy car" was established, and the ideal L series continued this tradition. The day after the release of L9, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, also secretly poked and said that this method of play will not last long in the medium and long term. Li Xiang disagreed, he judged that the family car market will continue to grow rapidly, and the ideal thing to do is to cling to home users.
"Refrigerator, color TV, large sofa" is the killer feature of the ideal L9, and every detail is set to highlight the comfort of the family car. The L7 is the ideal first five-seater version of the car, and although the exterior styling is a step towards sportiness and roundness, it is still a family car at heart, but from a two-child family to a family of three.
Although the general direction is "matryoshka doll", the ideal aspect has been emphasizing that the L7 is far from simply changing the ideal L8 six-seater to a five-seater, but has a completely independent design for the characteristics of the five-seater, and has been pondering how to make better use of the effective use of space in the car.
This time, "daddy" gave way, and the object that the ideal wanted to please the most became the "hostess". The "queen seat" located on the right side of the second row is regarded as one of the biggest selling points of L7 - after turning on this mode with one button, the right seat of the second row is automatically reclined back, the maximum inclination angle can reach 40 degrees, and the foot rest on the back of the front passenger seat is also slowly opened. The ideal car envisages a scenario in which the hostess sitting in the second row can lie down comfortably, close her eyes for a nap or watch the TV in the back to relax, and experience the same sense of dignity as a queen, so it is named "queen's seat".
▲ The "queen seat" of the ideal L7. Figure / Official
The second-row special seats are not ideal and unique, similar features can be seen on the Zhiji LS7, which is also a five-seat SUV, which further designs the second-row seats into "zero gravity mode", which allows passengers to lie down close to 180 degrees.
Under the condition of limited overall size, the trade-off is imperative, and the preservation of function requires sacrificing space, but the size of space directly determines the comfort of the riding experience. Later users discovered that the well-received refrigerator on the L9 was missing on the L8 and L7; The storage space under the center armrest box in the front row had to be sacrificed because of the air conditioning supercharger; The rear color TV can only be unlocked by the Max top-of-the-line version of the L8 and L7.
According to Li Xiang's thinking, to ensure that each car is competitive enough to become an "explosive product", as for how to achieve it, Zhang Xiao, the head of ideal automobile product planning, once revealed that it is to "provide product power with crushing strength at the same price and become the first choice in this price segment". This is actually consistent with the idea of independent brands versus joint venture brands in those years, providing leapfrog configurations and seizing customers.
Therefore, the ideal conference will always seize every moment when it can compare competing products, especially luxury brand fuel vehicles, and use data to "hang" products of the same level, and the smell of gunpowder overflows the screen.
Looking at the sales data of the past few months, this strategy has worked well.
In 2022, in China's large SUV market, the ideal L9 will be officially delivered in less than half a year, with a market share of 50.73%, and sales in 2022 will exceed the sum of all models of other brands such as Mercedes-Benz GLS and BMW X7. In the first full delivery month of the ideal L8, the delivery volume also exceeded 10,000 units, taking over the title of ideal ONE "medium and large SUV sales champion".
Staff at the Ideal Auto Blue Harbor Retail Center told everyone that the newly released Ideal L7 will start deliveries in March. Some insiders believe that the L7 is also a car with a bursting temperament, because compared with the ideal L9 and L8, the L7 is located in a larger five-seat SUV market.
But leaving the "comfort zone" of a six-seat smart SUV, the ideal still faces many challenges, and creating another explosive product is far from simple.
▲ Ideal L7 interior scene. Picture / official
More intense fighting
In the five-seat SUV field that the ideal L7 suddenly broke into, the first movers have already "killed the red eye".
There are not only new works by new forces such as Xpeng G9 and NIO ES7, but also luxury medium and large SUVs in the BBA camp, such as BMW X5L, Audi Q7 and Mercedes-Benz GLE. In addition, the strength of traditional fuel vehicle players such as Volkswagen Toon and Honda Guandao cannot be ignored.
Not to mention the two "king" level players in the new energy track, Tesla and BYD, both have a key layout in this segment, the former has Model Y whose price has dropped again and again, and the latter's Tang will sell nearly 150,000 vehicles in 2022. Although the product positioning does not completely coincide, the ideal L7 with a starting price of up to 319,800 yuan has no price advantage in front of them.
For the market performance in 2023, Shen Yanan, former president of Li Auto, previously gave guidance that was quite optimistic: with the stability of the supply chain, it is expected that the monthly delivery volume of Li L9 will be 8,000 to 11,000 units; the monthly delivery volume of Li L9 will be stable at 10,000 to 14,000 units. Although the delivery volume of L7 has not yet been determined, it is seen that the ideal has launched an impact on the monthly delivery of 30,000 vehicles. Li Xiang is even more convinced: we must prove that the success of the ideal ONE is not accidental, and the success of L9, L8 and L7 will become inevitable.
But from the perspective of the overall market, in 2023, the vast majority of players will usher in a more fierce fight.
In January, sales of new automakers declined collectively. In addition to the ideal delivery of 15141 vehicles, all other brands have not exceeded 10,000, once rushed to the top three zero, only delivered 1139 vehicles. NIO delivered 8,506 new vehicles, almost halving the previous December period; Xiaopeng is even less, only 5218 vehicles.
At the media conference held recently, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, frankly admitted that the first quarter of this year may be the most difficult and challenging period for the automotive industry and the new energy automobile industry. He Xiaopeng also issued a warning in an internal letter from all employees: the vast majority of current car companies will be out in this knockout race, and there is no way back.
An important factor that makes the market shudder is Tesla's "price reduction butcher knife" that constantly raises above its head. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Tesla CEO Musk did not hesitate to reduce prices in exchange for sales scale at the cost of declining gross margins, and Tesla's quarterly revenue also hit a new high. On January 6, 2023, Tesla repeated its old skills, and all domestic models were reduced in price - among them, the starting price of Model 3 was reduced to 229,900 yuan, and the starting price of Model Y was reduced to 259,900 yuan, both of which ushered in the lowest price in history.
This "strong medicine" quickly took effect. Data show that the number of domestic Tesla insured vehicles totaled 25,562 in January, of which nearly half (12,600) was insured in the first week after the price reduction.
There are more and more new forces in car manufacturing that cannot sit still. On February 2, NIO also followed up and issued "unprecedented" preferential policies for some 2022 ES8, ES6 and EC6 models, and the maximum discount range reached about 100,000 yuan.
Some people also asked Li if he wanted to follow the card, and his response was that he would stick to his sales range, and the ideal L7, which is currently the lowest priced, will not sell below 300,000. The reason for this is easy to understand, ideal in the third quarter of 2022 net loss of 1.65 billion yuan, the overall gross margin of 12.7%, the lowest since listing.
In the face of such a grim reality, Li Xiang put forward higher revenue requirements, and on the basis of more than 40 billion revenue in 2022, he challenged the scale of 100 billion revenue in 2023.
At the same time, NIO has also set a goal of breaking even in 2024, and Xpeng has announced that it will achieve positive operating profit in 2025. None of these goals is simple.
Intensive upgrading is one of the countermeasures of new forces to resist the harsh winter. Now, Ideal played the first product brand of this year, L7, and also announced that there will be a press conference at the end of the year, perhaps the first model of the high-voltage pure electric platform will be launched at that time. NIO will launch 5 new cars in the first half of this year, completing the conversion of the first and second generation platforms; Xpeng will also launch 5 new models in 2023, both new models and facelifted models.
The key to the next war is the scale of sales. In the long run, the data of gross margin is important, but once the product is scaled, it is only a matter of time before the profit grows. From this point of view, Wei Xiaoli who can speed up faster and take the lead in touching the annual delivery mark of 200,000 vehicles, who survives to the next round of competition has a greater hope.
(At the request of interviewees, Xiao Shuai is a pseudonym in the article)
The article is original by Auto, and infringement must be investigated.