After NIO publicly opposed and refused to join the weekly sales list released by Ideal Auto, Ideal Auto did not stop this fixed practice of "posting reports" every Tuesday.
On July 30th, Ideal Auto released its sales data for the 30th week of 2024. Ideal Auto's weekly sales data from July 22nd to 28th was 12800 units, surpassing Wenjie and ranking first in sales among new energy brands. NIO remains on the list, ranking third with a weekly sales volume of 5400 vehicles.
This move has once again sparked dissatisfaction among NIO executives. Ma Lin, Assistant Vice President of Brand and Communication at NIO, posted multiple messages on social media expressing his rejection of the weekly sales ranking released by Ideal Auto, believing that rolling the weekly ranking is a low-level internal competition.
Yang Xueliang, Senior Vice President of Geely Holding Group, shared a post expressing opposition to the weekly list. Jike, a new force brand under Geely, is a regular on the Ideal Auto weekly chart. Its sales last week were 3300 units, ranking sixth behind Xiaomi's 3900 units.
Sales volume is one of the most important indicators for measuring the performance of a car company, even more crucial than revenue data. It is customary for car companies to publicly and transparently release monthly sales data, but new forces have raised the sales competition to a weekly basis.
Ma Lin believes that every month, each enterprise publishes the audited delivery volume, which can basically reflect the operating situation of the automobile company. This monthly figure is more effective for users to understand the market situation and help consumers make decisions. However, weekly rankings can interfere with the normal operation of enterprises.
Huawei and Ideal are currently selling well in the extended range field. NIO and Tesla are selling well in the pure electric field. However, putting products of different prices, categories, and with or without fuel tanks on the same list cannot reflect the objective situation of the market. Making a list must be reasonable and comparable to each other
As of press time, Ideal Auto has not issued a public response to the public opinion dispute.
This is the second time in a short period of time that NIO executives have publicly opposed the release of Ideal Auto's weekly sales ranking. Last weekend, NIO CEO Qin Lihong strongly stated in an interview with Interface News and other media that NIO has never authorized any other organization to release weekly rankings with NIO's name, and this number has never been recognized. If you are another company, why use my brand to post weekly rankings
NIO CEO Li Bin further added, "If we achieve first place, we will definitely never release weekly rankings
Since the release of weekly sales data in April last year, Ideal Auto's move has sparked controversy several times. Founder Li Xiang posted in May 2023 that Ideal Auto had to suspend the release of weekly data due to complaints and reports from peers regarding the release of weekly insurance coverage. After a week of suspension, ideally resume the release of weekly sales data, with the difference being that the data source is no longer labeled.
The senior management of Xiaopeng Motors has also publicly debated with Ideal Motors, and both sides have differences in the authenticity of the numbers. In July 2023, Huang Honglin, General Manager of Product Marketing at Xiaopeng Motors, quoted the weekly sales data list released by Ideal Motors and said, "Please pay attention to official information, roadside agencies are indeed not very reliable." Liu Yilin, Senior Director of Autonomous Driving Products at Xiaopeng Motors at the time, bluntly stated, "There is no need to publicize sales every day or every week to hype up
Interface News learned from relevant sources that the weekly sales list of Ideal Automobile is based on the insurance coverage statistics from the China Automotive Center, rather than sales or delivery volume. Ideal Auto also noted in the weekly report that "the sales volume referred to in this article is different from the statistical caliber of the delivery volume data released on the 1st of each month".
On March 26th of this year, Ideal Auto once again suspended the release of weekly sales data until seven weeks later when it resumed. During this period, Ideal Auto's first pure electric car MEGA failed to be launched, and the sales position of the new force brand, which remained in first place, was surpassed by the industry. At that time, Li Xiang posted internally that there was an issue of excessive focus on sales, which would lower expectations and desires for sales and return to healthy growth.
Interface News published a commentary article in July last year stating that sales rankings reflect the past, but do not necessarily predict the future. This is essentially a manifestation of competition rather than competition itself, and excessive focus on rankings reflects comparative thinking in business behavior.
Compared to first principles, comparative thinking emphasizes horizontal reference and benchmarking, resulting in only minor iterative development and difficulty in creating disruption and innovation like the former. Even with comparative thinking, car companies should focus more on exploring technologies and models that can truly drive industry progress.