In early March, the spring scenery by the Huangpu River was steep, while the Shanghai World Expo Center in the east of the river was bustling. Here, Li Xiang, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Ideal Automobile, made a rare appearance and shouted the strongest voice for the first pure electric model - Ideal MEGA: "We believe that MEGA will become the next best-selling model of Ideal Automobile, with the highest selling price of over 500000 yuan."
This is the first new product launch event of Ideal Automobile since 2023, and also the most important product launch event in recent years. As the first pure electric model of Ideal Automobile, Ideal MEGA is positioned as a large MPV. Beyond the vast body space, the most concerning aspect of an ideal MEGA is its energy replenishment efficiency. Ideal Automobile claims that the car can be charged for 11 minutes and can recharge up to 500 kilometers.
The Ideal MEGA bears the heavy responsibility of transitioning from a focus on range extension to pure electric and weight gain in parallel. However, the abundant materials and configurations make the ideal MEGA expensive, reaching 559800 yuan, far exceeding the current mainstream price of new energy MPVs.
Although Ideal Automotive is confident in pricing this, with many popular new energy MPVs such as the Tengshi D9, Lantu Dreamer, and Xiaopeng X9 at the forefront, can Ideal MEGA pry open the wallets of wealthy people and catch up?
Ideal MEGA target monthly delivery of 8000 vehicles
Ideal MEGA is positioned as a large pure electric MPV with a body length of 5350mm. According to Ideal Automotive, Ideal MEGA has a flagship body size and is the world's largest pure electric passenger car on sale.
Large space is one of the biggest characteristics of an ideal MEGA. In comparison with other models, Li Xiang said, "The ideal MEGA has more legroom in the second row than the long wheelbase of the BMW 7 Series, while the legroom in the third row is greater than the long wheelbase of the BMW 5 Series. At the same time, the trunk is still the largest MPV in the world. It has all three functions."
In addition, Ideal Automotive stated that Ideal MEGA has the world's largest trunk with a depth of 680 millimeters. When 7 people are fully seated, the trunk can accommodate at least 4 28 inch suitcases, 2 20 inch luggage cases, and 2 backpacks.
In terms of product configuration, Ideal MEGA only offers one configuration with four exterior colors, including gray metallic paint, silver metallic paint, and panda white pearl paint as standard. The interior has two options: white and coffee.
In terms of performance, the Ideal MEGA has a dual motor four-wheel drive system, with a 0-100 km/h acceleration of only 5.5 seconds. The Magic Carpet Air Suspension Max of Ideal MEGA adopts a front double wishbone and rear H-arm multi link independent suspension, with standard dual chamber air springs and CDC dampers, combined with self-developed control algorithms. Li Xiang claims that its comfort is even better than that of D-class luxury cars.
In terms of safety, the ideal MEGA body has achieved the industry's highest torsional stiffness, reaching up to 44000 Newton meters per degree. In the simulation test of Ideal MEGA, both the driver and passenger achieved a score of G in a 25% offset collision on both sides. At the same time, the Ideal MEGA comes standard with 9 airbags and side airbags, including remote airbags. The side airbags have a capacity of 90 liters and a length of 3.2 meters, covering all three rows of the vehicle.
The national unified retail price of Ideal MEGA is 559800 yuan, and delivery will begin on March 11th. The official goal for this new car is to deliver 8000 vehicles per month.
Ideal Auto released 2024 Ideal L series products at the same time, with updates on seats, refrigerators, and screens, and all intelligent chips upgraded to Qualcomm 8295. Li Xiang called it "the upgrade of refrigerators, air conditioners, and sofas once again".
In terms of intelligent driving, in addition to the Max model, the Pro models of the 2024 Ideal L Series will also be equipped with AD Max as standard. AD Max will serve more households, and the capabilities of AD Max and AD Pro will continue to be upgraded.
On the price side, the ideal L7 is priced at 319800 to 379800 yuan; The ideal L8 is priced at 339800-399800 yuan; The ideal L9 is priced at 429800-459800 yuan.
Liu Jie: It is expected to join Wenjie in the top three with a budget of over 200000 yuan
At the launch of the Ideal MEGA and the new L-series, Ideal Automobile is facing challenges both externally and internally.
Outside, it is at a time when the monthly delivery volume of Wenjie brand exceeds that of Ideal Automobile, becoming the top new force. In February of this year, the delivery volume of Ideal Automobile was 20251 units, although it increased by 21.8% year-on-year, it lagged behind the Wenjie brand with a slight disadvantage of 891 units. During the same period, with the support of Huawei, the delivery volume of the Wenjie brand was 21142 vehicles.
Regarding the competition with Huawei and Wenjie, Liu Jie, Vice President of Business at Ideal Automobile, believes that Huawei has strong organizational skills and is a senior worth learning from. However, the domestic new energy vehicle market is broad enough, and Ideal Automobile can grow together with Huawei in the automotive market. "We also expect that in the new energy vehicle market priced above 200000 yuan in the future, Wenjie and Ideal Automobile will enter the top three."
At the product level, the newly launched Ideal MEGA is facing competition from a group of new energy MPVs. Taking the Xiaopeng X9 released by Xiaopeng Motors on January 1st this year as an example, the market once considered it to be the biggest competitor of Ideal MEGA. The data released by Xiaopeng Motors also shows that the Xiaopeng X9 has become its main product.
However, Liu Jie told Time Finance, "The user categories of Xiaopeng X9 and Ideal MEGA are different. MEGA focuses on the technology flagship MPV of the big family. The pricing of the two does not overlap, and they are not in the same competitive range."
As a reference, the price of the Xiaopeng X9 ranges from 359800 to 419800 yuan.
In addition, Liu Jie believes that the recovery of consumer market confidence and market competition also have a certain impact on its performance throughout the year.
Ideal cars also face internal challenges.
"Our internal challenge is delivery capability, including factory capacity ramp up, commercial capacity enhancement, etc." Liu Jie said, "In 2024, we have made sufficient preparations at the production capacity level, so there is no need to worry about the production capacity of extended range and pure electric models."
On the eve of the official launch of Ideal MEGA on February 29th, Li Xiang also revealed on Weibo that the number of 5000 yuan small orders for Ideal MEGA has far exceeded the performance of Ideal L9 in the same period of 2022. Therefore, he called on suppliers and partners, hoping that they would ensure sufficient production capacity supply and not be misled by the assumption that high-end pure electricity has no sales.
The sales target for Ideal Automobile in 2024 is to deliver 800000 vehicles. In 2023, Ideal Automobile delivered a total of 376000 vehicles.
In order to achieve this goal, Ideal Automobile will still release multiple products this year. Previously, during the 2023 Guangzhou Auto Show, Liu Jie revealed that the other three high-voltage pure electric products of Ideal Automobile will be launched in the market in the second half of 2024, targeting the 400000-500000 yuan and 300000-400000 yuan markets. In addition, the Ideal Extended Range series also has a new car, the Ideal L6, aimed at the price range of 250000 to 300000 yuan.
According to Liu Jie's analysis, despite fierce competition in the domestic new energy vehicle market, user demand and the new energy vehicle market are still growing.
"In the price range of over 200000 yuan, we expect there is still room for growth in the new energy vehicle market of 900000 units this year, so we are very confident in achieving our annual sales target." Liu Jie told Time Finance, "This is also something we must achieve."