Recently, the ideal car that has not been ideal has been downgraded. On April 22nd, Ideal Automobile announced that the 2024 Ideal L7, Ideal L8, Ideal L9, and Ideal MEGA models will adopt a new pricing system from now on. New ordering users and those who have already ordered but not yet delivered can enjoy the new prices. Among them, the price of all models of Ideal L9, as well as the Ultra and Max versions of L8 and L7, has been reduced by 20000 yuan; The Pro versions of L8 and L7 have a price reduction of 18000 yuan; The flagship MPV Ideal MEGA has reduced its price by 30000 yuan, with a starting price of 529800 yuan. However, the recently released Ideal L6 model did not participate in this price reduction.
On March 1st of this year, the Ideal 2024 L-series model was launched together with MEGA, and it is not common to choose official price reductions after less than two months of launch. In the eyes of the outside world, the Ideal price reduction is also considered helpless. In terms of sales, although the L series has been updated and pure electric models have been launched this year, the sales of the four models are not optimistic. The data shows that the delivery volume of ideal cars in March this year was 29000 units, a year-on-year increase of 39.2%. Last year, with only three models, the monthly delivery volume of Ideal Automobile once exceeded 50000 units. Previously, Ideal Automobile set an annual sales target of 800000 vehicles this year, which means monthly sales need to exceed 60000 vehicles, but currently its monthly sales differ significantly. On March 21st, Ideal Automobile announced that it had lowered its expected vehicle delivery volume for the first quarter of this year, from 100000 to 103000 vehicles to 76000 to 78000 vehicles.
In fact, the first "pure electric" and "MPV" dual label MEGA from the top of the head ideal car has been officially launched, with a price of 559800 yuan. However, MEGA immediately fell into a vortex of "appearance controversy" and "unexpected order volume". According to a research report by Ping An Securities, after the listing of Ideal MEGA, the sales resources of Ideal terminals have been heavily tilted towards MEGA, squeezing out the sales resources of the L series, resulting in a decrease in the conversion of orders from the main sales force of the L series.
Regarding this, Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Automotive, also mentioned in an internal letter that due to the chaotic pace of Ideal MEGA, the sales team has significantly reduced the time and energy required to serve L-series users. Ideal Automobile stated that due to excessive focus on sales and competition issues, the user value and operational efficiency that the company was originally best at have significantly decreased. Next, Ideal Automobile will lower its sales expectations and return to healthy growth, focusing on users rather than competition. Return to improving user value and operational efficiency that one excels at.
It is worth mentioning that, in addition to the internal problems of Ideal Automobile, the constantly evolving automotive market has also put considerable pressure on Ideal Automobile. From March to April this year, there was a constant price war in the automotive market. As an ideal competitor of automobiles, Wenjie also adopts limited time price reduction promotions to attract consumers. According to the Hongmeng Zhixing App, starting from April 1st this year, the entry-level model of the Wenjie New M7- the M7 Plus large five seater rear wheel drive version - will have its price reduced by 20000 yuan to 229800 yuan from 249800 yuan, and the Wenjie New M7 Max five seater rear wheel drive intelligent driving version will have its price adjusted from 289800 yuan to 279800 yuan, while still receiving a technology comfort package as a gift. The new M7 large five seat Max four-wheel drive intelligent driving version with a starting price of 309800 yuan has also been reduced by 10000 yuan, and the starting price has been adjusted to 299800 yuan.
In addition, the day before the price reduction of Ideal Automobile, Tesla announced a price reduction of 14000 yuan for the entire series in China. Yan Jinghui, a member of the Expert Committee of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, stated that in the past two years, new energy vehicle brands and products have been continuously promoted, causing market competition to heat up again. In addition to competition in product new energy and research and development, price has become the most common competitive behavior to seize market share.
In the face of market competition, any car owner is important to their ideal car. Therefore, while reducing the price this time, Ideal Automobile also promises to provide cash feedback to buyers of the 2024 Ideal L7, L8, L9, and Ideal MEGA models. According to relevant statistics, the sales of Ideal L7 were 10800 units, Ideal L8 was 6392 units, Ideal L9 was 8595 units, and Ideal MEGA was 3229 units in March this year. According to this calculation, the subsidies for the three models of L "789" will reach 463-515 million yuan, MEGA subsidies will be 96.87 million yuan, and the total amount of cash refunds from Ideal Automobile to existing car buyers will be 550-600 million yuan.
However, the feedback from the capital market regarding this price reduction is not significant. On April 22nd, the stock price of Ideal Automobile fell below 100 yuan per share, a drop of over 6%.