On November 2nd, China Automotive Network reported that before Ideal Automobile, the top three German BBA companies had always held over 60% of the domestic luxury car market share. Chinese luxury brands have never been able to break through the BBA in terms of brand volume and sales, and a true Chinese luxury car brand has never been born in the history of China, until the emergence of the ideal car. The latest delivery data for October 2023 shows that the delivery volume of Ideal Cars has reached a historic high, breaking through 40000 units to reach 40422 units, a year-on-year increase of 302.1% and a month on month increase of 12.09%. As of October 31, 2023, Ideal Automobile has delivered a total of 284647 vehicles throughout the year. With the steady increase in production capacity, Ideal Automobile will challenge the goals of 45000 vehicles in November and 50000 vehicles in December, continuing to create miracles in the history of China's automotive industry.
Ideal delivery in October exceeding 40000 yuan, surpassing BBA and striving for first place next year
For the delivery volume in October, In early October, Li Xiang, the founder and CEO of Ideal Automobile, set up a challenge letter on his social media platform: "Due to the upgrade of the Changzhou factory production line starting at the end of September and the impact of the switch of new production qualifications corresponding to the certificate of conformity, I thought our insurance coverage had collapsed in the first week of October. Unexpectedly... this month, we could challenge the delivery volume of 40000 vehicles in advance, Ideal Automobile has officially become the first Chinese luxury brand to achieve this goal in the Chinese market, except for BBA.
At the same time, Ideal Automobile is also the luxury brand in China with the fastest year-on-year growth in cumulative annual sales. Since the journey, the ideal monthly delivery volume of cars has reached 10000 units, taking 23 months; It takes 13 months for the monthly delivery volume to reach 20000 vehicles; It takes 6 months for the monthly delivery volume to reach 30000 vehicles; It only took 4 months for the monthly delivery volume to reach 40000 vehicles. Since its official delivery at the end of 2019, Ideal Automobile has become the first Chinese new power car company to achieve 500000 vehicle deliveries in just 46 months.
Not only that, Ideal Automobile has surpassed BBA strongly, winning the SUV sales championship of over 300000 yuan for six consecutive months. Ideal cars only have three SUV models, L7 (family five seater flagship SUV), L8 (family six seater luxury SUV), and L9 (family six seater flagship SUV), surpassing the sum of all SUVs of any BBA brand in the Chinese market, breaking the pattern of BBA's luxury car market in China. In addition, in the field of luxury new energy vehicles in China, Ideal Car's monthly sales have surpassed Tesla and become the number one luxury brand in China.
It is worth noting that, in addition to the current three extended range SUVs, by 2025, Ideal Automobile plans to form a product layout of "1 super flagship model (Ideal MEGA)+5 extended range electric models+5 high-voltage pure electric models", targeting markets of over 200000, fully meeting the needs of household users. Ideal Automobile is confident to challenge the sales of Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Audi in China ahead of schedule in 2024, becoming the top selling luxury brand in the Chinese market.
Ideal speed leads the industry to "go public and increase quantity, and increase quantity leads to high quality"
The achievement of delivering over 40000 yuan per month is mainly attributed to the fact that Ideal Automobile truly achieves "release on the market, quantity on the market, and high quality on the market". Ideal manufacturing speed has also become an industry leader. It is reported that at present, the Changzhou manufacturing base of Ideal Automobile can produce an average of one car every 40 seconds, with 90 new cars offline from the production line every hour and a daily production volume of 1800 vehicles, supporting Ideal Automobile to become the first Chinese new power car company to achieve a cumulative delivery volume of 500000 vehicles. At the same time, the average automation rate of the production line has reached 78%, the automation rate of welding has reached 90%, and the automation rate of stamping, spot welding, self piercing riveting and other processes has reached 100%.
Half a year ago, Li Xiang revealed the mystery on his social media: "Manufacturing and products are a community of shared destiny! Ideal Automobile has decided to build its own factory (acquire production qualifications) from its first day of establishment Control the entire manufacturing process by oneself. Starting from 2020, we will build our own range extender factory and five in one powertrain factory. By 2023, a single base in Changzhou can generate revenue of over 100 billion yuan. It is precisely because of the continuous investment in manufacturing that both efficiency and quality are reflected in consistently leading sales at the same level and price point
Of course, behind this is inevitably the execution power that relies on the mission of the ideal manufacturing team. Ideal Automobile breaks the "wall" between departments through collaboration, achieving end-to-end connectivity throughout the entire chain of product, research and development, and manufacturing. Ideal cars are not limited to their own "tasks", but work closely with suppliers, regardless of party A or party B. Especially in critical moments, they complement each other and fight fires, with the sole goal of achieving the final delivery goal.
To ensure the quality of management throughout the entire process, Ideal Automobile has upgraded the company's management model from a "vertical functional organization" to a "matrix organization". According to Li Xiang's explanation, "A horizontal team plans, builds, and operates roads, while a vertical team builds, drives, and operates vehicles. High quality roads are combined with high-level fleets to continuously deliver the value created to consumers and achieve commercial success, creating a virtuous cycle
The fully upgraded organizational structure and business processes are also prepared for the expansion of Ideal Automobile from 1 to 10. In the first quarter of this year, Ideal Automobile synchronously launched the upgrade of the entire business system organizational process. The most significant change is that the allocation of resources for customer acquisition and conversion has shifted from the previous regional management method to refined provincial management, with direct management from the province to the stores, allowing them to operate independently. The most obvious benefit is that both the output of individual stores and the output of each product expert have significantly increased, and the conversion rate from leads to orders has also been significantly improved. Liu Jie, Vice President of Ideal Automobile Business, further elaborated that a good organizational process should allow employees to fully utilize their abilities while clarifying rules and maximizing efficiency. This is why Ideal Automobile regards organizational processes as products to create.
Liu Jie, Vice President of Ideal Automobile Business, also emphasized the importance of rhythm control. He believes that in the traditional automotive industry, the cycle from R&D to production, from new car release to consumer experience, to final delivery is often very long, which is not a good pace. Ideal cars enable consumers to experience the product on the second day after its release, and delivery can be achieved within about a month after the experience.
To support the rapid increase in sales, Ideal Automobile is also actively accelerating the expansion and upgrading of its integrated online and offline direct sales and service network. At the same time as opening a shopping mall in the shopping center, Ideal Automobile has increased the proportion of central stores in the car sales park to meet the purchasing habits and needs of different users. As of October 31, 2023, Ideal Automobile has 372 retail centers nationwide, covering 133 cities; 315 after-sales repair centers and authorized sheet metal spray centers covering 210 cities.
Building products based on the principles of security, value, and aspiration
In terms of product development logic, the ideal car starts from user needs and strives to create the most outstanding products based on the principles of safety, value, and aspiration. Moreover, there should be no obvious shortcomings in all three aspects.
Safety has always been the bottom line of ideal car manufacturing. The three models of the Ideal L-series on sale have all passed the China Insurance Research Institute's bilateral 25% frontal offset collision, and have received an excellent (G) rating with zero defect performance. Ideal Automobile has become the only luxury brand in China with a full range of models that have received the China Insurance Research Group's (China) Safety Excellence (G) rating. It is particularly noteworthy that in addition to conducting routine collision tests on the Ideal L7, Zhongbao Research also proactively requested a passenger side offset collision test on it. The results showed that the ideal L7 passenger side frontal 25% offset collision also received excellent evaluation, with a defect value of 0. The car carries real families, including our own, so we must create the highest level of safety and truly protect every family member during family travel, "Li Xiang once promised.
Secondly, the sense of value of cars varies among different user groups. The sense of value of an ideal car is built around the goal of the family, making value judgments and choices around family users, rather than relying on the presence of developers or engineers. In short, spending the same amount of money can earn consumers a more valuable product experience. As is well known, although every ideal car is equipped with electric four-wheel drive as standard, the ideal car does not turn its power into a performance monster that accelerates over 3 seconds per 100 kilometers, because this is not friendly to the target family users of the ideal car. The ideal car's 100 kilometer acceleration of over 5 seconds can actually bring better comfort for families traveling.
For the sense of longing for cars, an ideal car should meet users' expectations for beautiful scenes, while also meeting their perception of their own identity. Impressively, all L-series models of the Ideal Car are equipped with star ring lights with a head length of two meters and no breakpoints, and the Ideal Car also achieves a "floating feeling", bringing a unique sense of recognition and longing to the vehicle. For the star ring lamp, Ideal Automobile has invested over 200 million in research and development, carried out new mold opening, and created a dedicated production line.
Holding over 70 billion cash reserves, "smashing" into fields such as intelligent driving
Fast and high-quality vehicle delivery enables Ideal Automobile to take the lead in achieving profitability among a group of new car building forces. According to the 2023 semi annual report, Ideal Automobile's revenue in the first half of the year was 47.44 billion yuan, an increase of 159% year-on-year; The net profit was 3.24 billion yuan, with a gross profit margin of 21.2%. As of June 30, 2023, the cash reserves of Ideal Automobile have increased to an astonishing 73.77 billion yuan.
At a recent grand "Ideal Automobile Strategy Conference", Ideal Automobile reached an important consensus - "spending money". More than 70 billion in cash reserves will be invested in product improvement and upgrading, transforming into the core competitiveness of Ideal Automobile. The news also revealed that Li Xiang reflected on the full investment of Ideal Automobile in the field of intelligent driving at the meeting, which was six months later than that of his friends. To make up for the mistake, Ideal Cars will focus on the field of "intelligent driving" and ensure that Ideal Cars become a leader in the field of intelligent driving. In the future, Ideal Automobile plans to introduce talents including large-scale model design, vehicle hardware research and development, software algorithm development, testing, and operation. On October 10th, more than 50 intelligent driving related positions were officially opened for recruitment. Ideal cars are currently undergoing intense testing in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, where they do not rely on high-precision maps.
In another important "battlefield" pure electric field, in order to effectively solve the two major problems of slow charging speed and difficult long-distance charging, Ideal Automobile has created a 5C pure electric model based on its self-developed 800V high-voltage pure electric platform, which can achieve "charging for 12 minutes and a range of 500 kilometers". In terms of charging network layout, by the end of 2023, the number of ideal planned super charging stations will exceed 300, achieving full connectivity to 10 national high-speed trunk lines nationwide. By 2025, the planned number of super charging stations will exceed 3000, and the average distance between ideal super charging stations along the highway will be less than 100 kilometers.
According to the internal judgment of Ideal Automobile, 2023 to 2025 is the most important three-year war in the automotive industry. By 2025, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will reach 70%, and the ranking of the automotive industry will be determined. It is very necessary for Ideal Automobile to have a 30% share in the new energy market of over 200000 yuan and an annual sales volume of 1.6 million vehicles in 2025. Li Xiang also bluntly stated on his social media that the proportion of new energy vehicles in new car sales will reach over 80% by December 2025, and the five permanent member brands of new energy vehicles will be born. Therefore, it has always seemed that the ideal car always has a sense of urgency like a mission, "like a shadow accompanying it. By 2028, Ideal Automobile has set an ambitious annual sales target of over 3 million vehicles. Once realized, China will not only embrace its true luxury car brand, but also become a world-class luxury car brand.