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Producer: Electric Planet News
Author: Carp
The ideal year of 2023 is a year of soaring sales.
Hurricane means that the ideal monthly delivery volume in 2023 will exceed 10,000, with more than 20,000 units delivered in March, more than 30,000 in June, and more than 50,000 in December.
But hurricane is not a one-family thing, and the general trend of the industry is also helpful. In the past year and even now, the most rapid growth is not in gasoline or pure electric vehicles, but in hybrid models, which were once regarded as "transitional products".
According to the sales list of new forces updated by Ideal weekly, more than two-thirds of the top 10 brands have hybrid seats, and Ideal is one of them.
is also a new force "Royal Three", compared with NIO and Xiaopeng, the ideal 2023 seems to be calmer and smoother, the CEO is more active, and there is no shortage of famous scenes of cars and people. So what did Ideal do this year?
The original product Ideal ONE gradually withdrew from the field of vision, and the L series sold more than 100,000 units each, and the MEGA was about to come out.
In addition to product iteration, Ideal has successively released the "dual-energy strategy", held a home technology day, a smart software conference, and began to deploy supercharging stations.
Sales volume is undoubtedly an ideal "winning ticket", and there are many controversies about ideals in the field of public opinion, and the answer to the end of the topic is often sales, which has also become a source of morale for the party that appreciates the ideal car. But what about the sales volume? What is the effect of the intelligent and electric energy that Ideal began to fully develop last year?
In today's article, let's talk about the ideal "hurricane" and "start".
1. 319,800
Whether sales are soaring or not, the car is one of the basic plates.
The L7 is the only all-new model released by Ideal in 2023, which was officially launched on February 8, and compared with the One more thing status revealed at the end of September 2022, there is one more entry-level Air version, with three versions starting at 319,800 yuan, becoming the family's head of volume.
From a product point of view, the styling, interior, and power system of the Ideal L7 are basically the same as those of the L9 and L8 models, with the differences in size, seat layout, and intelligent configuration.
This kind of product system can increase the adaptation rate of parts between various models, which is jokingly called "nesting doll trick", and Li Xiang himself also followed "self-blackening".
Is the "matryoshka" opportunistic or the correct solution of the system? The industry has mixed evaluations, and it is foreseeable that before 2025, the ideal model planning will continue this model.
The significance of the new L7 includes the layout of price segments and the differentiation of demand. The L9 is a six-seat flagship with more than 400,000 yuan, and the L7 has sunk a step down, while compared with the L8, the L7 also falls in the 300,000 to 400,000 range.
Ideals always seem to have no shortage of stories, and so does L7. This project, which was almost axed by Li Xiang at the beginning, became the fastest model in the L series to achieve cumulative sales of 100,000 units, and achieved daily sales of 1,000 units on June 18.
Traditional car companies generally publish annual sales, and later the "second generation" followed the new forces to roll up monthly sales, and the sales statistics cycle in 2023 will roll to "week".
2. 5081 vehicles
It is of course ideal for car companies to turn weekly sales into an "unwritten formula" of the car rim.
On March 29, 2023, Li Auto released the first list of new power brands with a "week" as the unit. In the past, the sales statistics of new power car companies were based on months, and this list is also considered to be "rolling up to a new height".
Ideal ranked first on the list of new forces with a score of 5,081 units in a single week, opening a gap of more than 2,000 units with Nezha, which ranked second at that time. However, the list quickly caused controversy, including how to define a new power brand, how to define a luxury brand, and Ideal did not respond to these controversies head-on, but a new "new energy brand" list was added later.
In the market, the weekly sales volume has been out of the whole series, for example, the words are different, such as new forces, luxury brands, joint venture brands, more than XX million models, etc.; or the statistical objects are different, such as the infrastructure list, the progress of the city list, and even the measurement method, there is also a "few melons and a few dates" algorithm.
You can say that this is a kind of "manifestation in front of people", or you can say that this is a kind of marketing, but the weekly sales are indeed remembered, and more car companies follow up and release.
From March last year to the present, after the doubts, controversies, and ridicule have subsided, this list has become a relatively credible data reference source, and every Tuesday there are people waiting for weekly sales updates, and some people even urge them to update, and gradually like to hear about it.
Of course, it is not only the sales list that is ideally updated and iterated, but also the intelligent electric technology.
3. 3.0
One of the directions of iteration is the "Kaicheng Pilot" of the fanatical competition in the new energy vehicle circle in 2023.
April 18 is one of the key nodes of Li Auto's 2023 when it unveiled its "dual-energy strategy" during the Shanghai Auto Show. The meaning of "dual energy" is not two energy routes, but a declaration that the ideal will further develop "intelligence" and "electric energy".
The dual-energy strategy was released, and the strategic direction is still "volume". The intelligent volume refers to the fact that the ideal software capability was in the 2.0 stage at that time, and the official commitment was that AD MAX 3.0 city navigation assistance would be pushed in the second quarter of 2023, and 100 cities would be launched by the end of the year, and AD MAX 3.0 would be completely free and standard at the factory.
The iterative direction of Intelligent Driving 3.0 is from high-speed to urban, from graphed to non-graphic, and three neural network large model algorithms are accessed: static BEV network, dynamic BEV network, and Occupancy network. At that time, Ideal claimed to have "China's longest autonomous driving training mileage: 400 million+ kilometers".
In June, Ideal launched a test drive of the mapless city NOA and commuter NOA in the Wangjing section of Beijing, and pushed the city NOA function to "early bird" users in Beijing and Shanghai, marking the start of the internal test of Zhijia 3.0.
The "Smart Driving 3.0" campaign at the Shanghai Auto Show is quite emotional, and the 100 cities are particularly avant-garde plans in the ranks of smart driving in mid-April 2023, but compared with the progress of the follow-up early bird program, it has caused a wave of heated discussions.
In August last year, the official explained that at the Shanghai Auto Show, it was clearly stated that the full push (city NOA 100 city) was Q2 2024. But these are all prequels, and Ideal pushed the official version of NOA for 100 cities in December, which will be discussed later.
The ideal intelligent strategic gain is all models equipped with AD MAX, covering the L series, and the planning of the electric energy strategy is more like "the three armies have not moved, and the grain and grass go first".
Fourth, 4C
The reason for the early start is that the ideal is about to step into the river of pure electricity.
Judging by the official caliber, this preparation seems to have been around for a long time. Liu Zhimin, head of the power battery of Li Auto, said that Li Auto has been developing high-voltage fast-charging battery technology since 2018, with two years of reserve and three years of development.
At the press conference of the Shanghai Auto Show, Ideal officially launched the 800V high-voltage pure electric solution, announcing the parallel development of "extended range electric" and "high-voltage pure electric", and the number of ideal extended range users at that time had reached 320,000.
The ideal goal is to build 300+ supercharging stations by the end of 2023, with a national high-speed mileage coverage rate of 40%, and 3000+ by 2025, with a coverage rate of 90%.
The supercharging stations that will be deployed in 2023 will adopt a 1+3 layout, that is, 1 4C charging pile with 3 2C charging piles, with a total cabinet power of 640kW and a design width of 3 meters for each parking space.
In addition to planning, Ideal also released the charging station product itself - 4C super charging station, the weight of the supercharging pile is 2.35 kg, the maximum power is 480kW, the energy replenishment efficiency is 10 minutes of charging, the range is 400km, and the peak charging power of the 2C charging pile is 250kW, and the weight of the gun is 3.3kg.
Subsequently, Ideal will also layout/upgrade 2+2 supercharging stations, that is, dual 4C charging piles + dual 2C charging piles, but the total power of the cabinet is still 640kW, which means that when the four cars are charged together, even if the 4C charging pile is used, the full power cannot be eaten.
Supercharging piles are under construction, and cars that support overcharging are urgently waiting to be listed, and Ideal has released the latest product matrix planning: 1 super flagship + 5 extended-range electric models + 5 high-voltage pure electric models.
High-voltage pure electric vehicles have not yet landed, relying on the three L series cars on sale, Ideal has obtained abundant hematopoietic capacity in 2023.
5. 405 million yuan
The hematopoietic capacity is reflected in the performance of each quarter. A key metric is that in the first quarter of 2023, Li Auto achieved positive operating profit for the first time.
According to the financial report data, in Q1 2023, Li Auto's revenue will be 18.787 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 96.5%, of which vehicle sales revenue will be 18.327 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 96.9%.
In the same period, the ideal single-quarter operating profit turned into a profit, with a specific figure of 405 million yuan, as a reference, the ideal operating loss in Q1 2022 was 413 million yuan, and the operating loss in Q4 2022 was 133 million yuan.
The positive operating profit means that the business and strategy of the enterprise in a certain stage have been verified by the market, and for the ideal, it is the stability of new car sales, and the product positioning of range extension + large space is recognized and selected.
Other indicators also released positive signals, such as a single-quarter net profit of 934 million yuan, gross profit of 3.83 billion yuan, gross profit margin of 20.4%, operating cash flow of 7.78 billion yuan, and free cash flow of 6.7 billion yuan.
Q1 got off to a good start, and the momentum continued. According to the three quarterly financial reports that have been released in 2023, Ideal has achieved profitability in each quarter, with an operating profit of 1.63 billion yuan in Q2 and 2.34 billion yuan in Q3, and as of September 30, 2023, Ideal holds cash and cash equivalents of 88.52 billion yuan.
For the whole year of 2023, Li Auto has set a revenue target of 100 billion yuan, with a total revenue of 82.12 billion yuan in the first three quarters, 17.88 billion yuan short of the target.
6. 400,000 vehicles
The growth figures on the earnings report are on the road to vehicles and infrastructure.
On June 17, Ideal held a Family Technology Day, and that night, the 400,000th vehicle of Ideal Auto rolled off the assembly line at Changzhou Intelligent Manufacturing Base. What is the concept of the 400,000th unit? Officially, this is more than the total sales of all SUV products of any BBA brand in the Chinese market.
This is the first time that Ideal has held a science and technology day, and in addition to cars, technology is also the protagonist. At the meeting, the ideal 4C supercharging station was upgraded to 5C, and the high-speed deployment plan remained unchanged, which was still 300 in 2023 and 3000 in 2025.
From 4C to 5C, the evolution point is mainly charging efficiency - 400 kilometers of battery life in 9 minutes and 30 seconds, and 500 kilometers of energy in 12 minutes. Regarding the meaning of 5C, Ideal said that the maximum 5C charge rate of Kirin batteries is utilized.
5C For speed, the charging robot focuses on experience, compared with the few minutes saved by eliminating the need to get on and off the car and plugging and unplugging the charging gun, the efficiency may be more hands-free.
This tech day, which is defined by family, is regarded as the ideal AI Day. The official release of Mind GPT, which claims to be a completely self-developed cognitive model, has launched a series of AI functions based on this, including but not limited to interactive interface, task master, and multi-modal visibility.
This Family Technology Day is more like a "succession" of the dual-energy strategy conference in April and the intelligent software conference in December, such as the new progress of intelligent driving 3.0.
Ideal released a demo video of the commuter NOA, which caused a lot of buzz and the focus was not on the mainstream urban navigation capabilities, but on the test time of 15:08 and the friendly road conditions.
Another example is that the all-electric model finally has a name, an all-electric MPV called MEGA, which was originally scheduled to be released at the end of 2023.
7. Within 600,000
"Jumping off buildings", high-speed rail, low wind resistance, real car promotion Reuters...... MEGA has a relatively dense and hot spread rhythm in the early stage, and has become a key player in the pure electric MPV war at the end of the year.
Li Xiang once said, "The L series is our Mac, and pure electric is our iPhone", and the first "ideal iPhone" based on the Giant Whale platform is MEGA.
MEGA has been unveiled at the Guangzhou Auto Show, and the official website shows that the pre-sale price is less than 600,000 yuan, and the booth is very popular, and the number of bookings has exceeded 10,000 in 102 minutes after the press conference.
The application information has been released one after another, and many parameters and specifications of the MEGA are no secret: length, width and height 5350/1965/1850mm, wheelbase 3300mm, drag coefficient 0.215, front and rear dual motors 155kW/245kW, 102.7kWh Kirin battery, CLTC range 710km......
However, MEGA released the 2023 pigeons, which were originally scheduled to be released in December 2023, in stores in January, and delivered in February, but the latest release was delayed to March 2024.
It is rumored that the delay in the release of MEGA may be due to the need to adjust the interior, and some netizens have joked that the MEGA interior is "L9 Ultra", but the official did not explain the specific reason. After the debut of the actual car for a while, some people encountered camouflage cars again on the road, and it is not clear whether the appearance of the new car will be changed.
The latest news of MEGA is an ideal response to Tesla's "sarcasm", and the official invited the media to conduct a long test in Hainan, where MEGA and Model X competed against the three-electric level, and finally MEGA beat Model X by 10% of the remaining power.
This long-term test has gained popularity, and once again attracted doubts, including the location of the long-term test, the display of energy consumption, and the sub-zero mileage. Subsequently, Xpeng X9 also seized the aftermath of this wave of discussion and went to Hainan for a long test, but there was no horizontal evaluation.
With less than a month to go before the official launch of MEGA, the suspense about the interior and pricing will soon be revealed.
VIII. 5.0
While MEGA is still holding on to the lute in 2023, the ideal city NOA has landed.
On December 10, 2023, Li Auto held a smart car software conference and released the OTA 5.0 system, which is different from the intelligent driving 3.0 in the dual-energy strategy, this time intelligent driving, intelligent space and intelligent range extension have ushered in the 3.0 era.
AD Max 3.0 will be pushed in the same month, and AD Pro 3.0 refactored in BEV mode will be pushed in June 2024.
With the OTA 5.0 upgrade and AD Max 3.0's urban NOA, all-scenario intelligent driving has been introduced, covering all highways, all urban ring roads, and urban roads in 110 cities across the country. However, there is no official announcement on the road coverage in these 110 cities.
This upgrade also leaves the question of whether the LCC, which is officially claimed to be available worldwide, will still work in the right-hand drive market?
This push is 10 more cities than the original "100 Cities Project", and all the twists and turns and controversies about early birds, closed beta, official version, and "gaffes" have come to an end for the time being.
Smart Space SS3.0 was launched this month, introducing the beta version of Mind GPT, which has the ability to understand, generate, memorize and reason, and the ideal student's hearing sense and execution ability have evolved, and a new browser function has been added to the car.
The scope of this upgrade also includes a range extender system, ideally which would increase the all-electric range of the L-Series models by 15%-20% in winter.
OTA 5.0 is regarded as the "most powerful OTA in history" of Ideal, and Ideal has held three smart technology-related press conferences in the past year, which is in line with the characteristics of the era of Big Volume 2023 and Year 2023.
But to put it bluntly, 2023 is 2023, and no matter how many labels there are, for the car companies that remain on the battlefield, it is just time for time, and challenges after challenges.
9. 50,353 vehicles
In the last month of last year, Li Auto delivered 50,353 vehicles in a single month, an increase of 137.15% year-on-year and 22.72% month-on-month.
In the Internet era, data is king, and sales data is also data, with a monthly sales volume of 50,000 units, whether it is for those who stick to fuel, compete for hybrids, or only do pure electric, they are quite rare. Such an achievement is a confidence.
Going back to the hurricane mentioned at the beginning, if you look at the data of 10,000 and 10,000 step by step, you may not think it is unexpected, but 50,353 units are close to the ideal cumulative sales of 52,584 units in Q1 last year.
The ideal monthly sales target was achieved, and the annual sales volume was also exceeded. In 2023, Ideal delivered a total of 376,000 new vehicles and achieved its annual sales target of 300,000 units.
The reasons behind high sales are also worth figuring, such as ideal performance, including product definition, quality control, capacity ramp-up, organizational efficiency, etc.
The end of the year is like a wake-up call, everyone is impulsing, the subsidy rights and interests have their own ideas, and in the final battle, the ideal is still outstanding in the dazzling results.
However, the new forces also have the anxiety of selling the crown, such as AITO, which is approaching step by step, in the second week of the first month of 2024, the ideal weekly sales of Wenjie are 6,800 units, and finally the monthly sales of 32,923 units exceed the ideal 31,165 units.
Another example is the ideal "crossing the river into the forest", before the pure electric market has been ambushed from all sides.
10. 800,000
There are mountains outside the mountains, and in addition to the extended range, there is another ideal for the ideal.
On the first day of 2024, the new forces are rolling, volume sales, volume new cars, volume rights, in short, in the loud shout, I don't know who is reining in fatigue.
Regarding the past year, Li Xiang said with emotion: "In 2023, in addition to gratitude, I am still grateful. Then, he used 2023 as a foreshadowing to set the flag for 2024: 800,000, 100,000, 30,000, 2,000.
Although Li Xiangfa's string of numbers does not have a unit, you can set the answers first and then solve the problem, and the goals that have been achieved 376000, 50000, 20000, and 300 correspond to the annual delivery volume in 2023, the delivery volume in December 2023, the monthly delivery volume of the ideal L7 single model, and the deployment progress of the supercharging station in 2023.
It can be guessed that the meaning of these figures is: the annual sales target for 2024 is 800,000 units, the sales target for December 2024 is 100,000 units, the monthly delivery of the ideal L7 single model is 30,000 units, and the supercharging station is completed 2,000 units.
The annual target of 800,000 units in 2024 means an annual growth rate of 112.77%, which means that in addition to L7/L8/L9, counting MEGA, counting the new L6 and other models in the extended range series, it will ideally take one year to exceed the cumulative delivery volume from 2019 to 2023 and five years.
However, the already stressed pure electric market will only be more difficult and dangerous, no matter what brand the ideal is, MPV, SUV, sedan, coupe, station wagon, even pure electric sports car, there is a high probability that you can find a benchmark on the market, and there is even no shortage of strong competitors.
Moreover, Weilai, Xiaopeng, and Zeekr, which often appear in the top ten of the weekly sales list, including Zhiji, are all cutting-edge brands in the industry, but they are not new in the pure electric market, and the angle of consumer comparison is rich enough.
In fact, all of this ultimately points to a question: why should consumers buy the ideal pure electric vehicle? Taking the MEGA as an example, why don't users choose other pure electric MPVs, why not choose the L series and choose the MEGA?
This is the question to be answered by the 2024 starting ideal.
Write at the end
There are many romantic sayings, and 2024 means a new journey, the growth of new forces has entered a new stage, and the competitive landscape has opened a new prelude.
But the competition is cruel, and the industry will not care about the opinions of a car company or a brand, the sales volume that has been held in the hand, and the car running on the road is proof that there is no need to explain much.
Regarding ideals, controversies and clamor do exist, and the advantages and disadvantages are noisy, and even "people are divided into groups" and an alternative "class" is arguing. However, the delivery data is even more obvious, in terms of sales, the ideal can indeed be called the "top student" in the ranks of new cars.
Doubts are questioned, cheers are cheered, only they know whether their pockets are deep or shallow, the manufacturer's mentality and technology are virtual or real, and onlookers can't tell whether it's true or false. For example, in 2023, Ideal will also start to build a new brand flagship store, pure electric vehicles are still poised to launch, and new channels have been laid one after another.
Returning to the soaring sales, if the success of the ideal range extension series is behind the resonance of the product and the needs of the Chinese people and the evolution process of the technological innovation stage, then can the ideal of entering the pure electric market replicate its achievements on the range extension route?
Will the ideal experience the reefs and pitfalls that pure electric vehicle companies such as NIO, Xpeng, and Zeekr have stepped on? Can it be avoided? 2024 is a difficult year, and the anxiety of pure electric vehicles is even worse.
When the ideal starts another ideal, can it play the pure electric "rhapsody" song in the embattled market?
The 2024 progress bar is still long, so check back at the end of the year.
(ENDS)