Ideal MEGA encountered a parody controversy, and Li Xiang, who had been silent for several days, decided to start a counterattack.
On March 11th, Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Automobile, posted on his social media that "after careful consideration, we have decided to launch a counterattack, using light to counter darkness.".
Li Xiang said that everyone should be quite clear about what happened in the past ten days. Numerous users and friends worry about us, speak up for us, and continue to help and support us no matter how difficult it may be. I am deeply grateful, this is also the core driving force for our growth. We are already using legal means to deal with the organized illegal and criminal activities in the incident.
He also mentioned that although he was in darkness, he still chose light. "If I choose to compromise with the darkness, or even join it, then I and the people around me will become the ones we dislike, and our society will become increasingly dark. After careful consideration, we have decided to start counterattacking with light. We hope that more people can work together to create and convey beautiful designs, unique creativity, and happy times, so that more beautiful images can appear in our lives."
A reporter from Dahe Finance Cube found that Li Xiang, who was previously happy to express himself on Weibo, has been suspended on his official Weibo account for over a week. His last post was on March 2nd, designing a platform for MEGA's design.
The controversy surrounding this incident originated from the official launch of Ideal MEGA on March 1st. Due to its unique design, it sparked heated discussions among netizens, who referred to it as resembling a "hearse" or "coffin car". Many photos and videos of MEGA's parody have gained popularity on various platforms.
At the same time, the significant increase in order cancellations for this car has also become a hot topic of discussion. However, currently, the official data related to Ideal MEGA has not been released. On February 29th, Li Xiang revealed on Weibo that "the current number of small orders of 5000 yuan for Ideal MEGA has far exceeded the performance of the same period for Ideal L9 in 2022, far exceeding".
In fact, before the official launch of the ideal MEGA that Li Xiang had high hopes for, its unique exterior design had already attracted attention.
In 2023, the official released some pictures of the Ideal MEGA, featuring a water droplet shaped front end and a sloping roof. Many netizens joked that the overall design of the car was quite similar to that of a high-speed rail, so the Ideal official gave MEGA the nickname "highway high-speed rail".
Li Xiang introduced at the press conference that the design of the droplet shaped front end allows the ideal MEGA to have a drag coefficient of 0.215, which is the lowest drag coefficient MPV in the world. In addition, the drag coefficient directly affects endurance and energy consumption, which is also crucial for an ideal MEGA that adopts pure electric power.
What Li Xiang did not expect was that MEGA's appearance once again sparked public opinion after its official launch.
In the competition for new energy vehicles in 2023, Ideal Automobile delivered a total of 376000 vehicles throughout the year, making it the Chinese new energy vehicle company with the highest delivery volume. It is worth mentioning that Ideal Automobile was the first company among the three earliest new car making forces to make a profit, and also the third company in the world to make a profit in new energy vehicles (the other two being BYD and Tesla).
However, Ideal, which once led the sales charts of new forces, has sensed a crisis. In the monthly sales list of new car making forces in January this year, Wenjie (33000 vehicles) surpassed Ideal (31000 vehicles) for the first time to become the first; The delivery volume of Wenjie in February exceeded the ideal by a slight margin.
Therefore, under the appearance controversy, whether MEGA's goals can be successfully achieved is crucial for this year's ideal development.
Previously at the press conference, Li Xiang called out the goal of Ideal MEGA becoming the top selling company with a sales volume of over 500000 yuan.
Ideal executives have also expressed confidence in achieving this goal. Li Xinyang, the product manager of Ideal Automotive MEGA, once said that the market size of over 500000 yuan today is about 600000 vehicles, but the penetration rate of new energy is very low. In this price range, most users hope to buy a comfortable large car that everyone can ride in. Liu Jie, Vice President of Ideal Automotive Business, further revealed that the goal of Ideal MEGA this year is to challenge monthly sales of 8000 units.
However, it is believed that the appearance controversy this time will have a certain negative impact on the sales of Ideal MEGA.