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not long ago, ideal auto released its q2 2024 financial report.

financial report information shows that ideal auto is still the undisputed sales champion among new forces, with 108,581 new cars delivered in q2, a year-on-year increase of 25.5%. compared with the previous quarter, ideal auto's sales increased by 35.1%.

the growth in sales volume will benefit revenue. ideal auto's total revenue in the second quarter reached 31.678 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.6% and a month-on-month increase of 23.6%. it is still a very eye-catching presence among the new forces.

such achievements are inseparable from ideal auto's steady pace and precise product definition. it does not seem strange that it can be among the top new forces and achieve positive revenue.but in comparison, the outside world seems to be more concerned about how ideal auto will adjust its subsequent pure electric product line after the unfavorable start of mega.

at the second quarter earnings conference, li xiang, chairman and ceo of ideal auto, revealed more information: a new pure electric product will be released in the first half of next year. he expressed confidence in this and hoped that ideal auto would enter the first echelon of high-end pure electric vehicles within two years.

after experiencing mega's initial failure, li xiang learned from his mistakes and decided to postpone the launch of pure electric products. the expectations for pure electric vehicles this time are obviously more restrained. so can ideal pure electric succeed in its revival?

ideal pure electric does not want to repeat the mistakes of mega

at the performance meeting, li xiang frankly stated that ideal's pure electric vehicles are currently facing two problems, one is product styling design, and the other is the coverage of supercharging stations.

li xiang did not disclose the future improvement directions for ideal's pure electric models. xiaotong guessed that the general framework will not be significantly changed or redone. it is reported that li xiang himself still intends to focus on the originality of the design. the overall streamlined shape will still be maintained, but it will not be as radical as mega. the direction of improvement may still be to maintain the uniqueness and practicality of the product appearance.

the design concept of mega is very cutting-edge. ideal auto gave top priority to the drag coefficient when designing it. the reduction in the drag coefficient is beneficial to the endurance of pure electric vehicles, but just like low-drag wheels, although it has practical significance, the styling design is out of mainstream aesthetics and may not be popular.

ideal pure electric suv is not a "mirror image" of the l series. its shape is still greatly affected by the drag coefficient, not as extreme as mega, but it still has a certain impact on mainstream aesthetics. in addition, the interior design of mega is too similar to that of the l series, which does not give people any surprises, and to some extent also lowers the market's expectations.

combined with the road test pictures in recent times, the appearance of ideal pure electric vehicle series (code-named m) still has many similarities with mega, but there are some more turns in the transition from the front cabin to the front windshield, which is a bit similar to the discontinued mercedes-benz r-class. it can be seen that the performance in terms of drag coefficient is still excellent.

high-voltage pure electric technology and feasibility have also been verified on mega, which means that the three-electric system of an ideal pure electric product is already at a very mature stage.

the most important topic of pure electric vehicles is the energy recovery facilities.in the early days, new energy vehicles were difficult to popularize and had low market acceptance, which can be largely attributed to the charging facilities. ideal mega itself is actually quite good, with a solid three-electric system, and all aspects are suitable for home use. the 5c fast charging experience is excellent, but the problem lies in the coverage of charging piles.

as of august 25, 2024, the ideal supercharging network has 730 ideal supercharging stations and 3,416 ideal charging pile in the country, covering 27 provinces and 155 cities. li xiang believes that the delivery node of ideal pure electric products should be when the number of ideal supercharging stations in china reaches 2,000.

in fact, the coverage of domestic charging facilities is no longer the same as before. it is not as difficult to find a charging station as before, but in terms of distribution, the charging rate of most charging piles is only 2c, and supercharging piles above 2c actually account for only a very small number, which leads to the super-fast charging selling point promoted by mega not being well utilized.

therefore, the goal of 2,000 charging stations given by li xiang is probably just a relatively ideal baseline to meet the market demand for ideal pure electric vehicles.

if li xiang's plan is followed, after the styling and charging stations are solved, ideal's pure electric products can be promoted in an orderly manner. in addition, ideal auto has also increased its investment in intelligent driving and sales channels.

let's talk about smart driving first. ideal launched noa without map in july this year, which made it possible to "drive all over the country". ma donghui, president of ideal, said at the performance meeting that ideal users' acceptance of smart driving is increasing. for models above 300,000 yuan, more than 70% of the orders are for versions that support urban noa. it is expected that by september, ideal's vlm+e2e autonomous driving architecture will undergo larger-scale user testing.

as for sales channels, ideal auto plans to increase the number of models on display in stores and strengthen the promotion of intelligent driving, so as to increase the exposure of models and the number of orders for intelligent driving models, which should be in preparation for the next pure electric products. after all, at present, some ideal offline experience centers do not fully display models, and some showrooms lack mega models. since both pure electric and extended-range models are to be developed, both models must have sufficient exposure.

various signs also indicate that ideal auto has learned experience from the failure of mega, "started again" with action, and has clearer expectations for market demand. in the long run, pure electric will still be the track that ideal will focus on.

with hybrid vehicles becoming the mainstream, why is ideal pure electric "going against the current"?

in the new energy era, ideal auto has taken the path of success by taking advantage of the special path of extended-range and precise definition of family cars, and has pioneered the "refrigerator, sofa, and large color tv". many car companies have seen ideal's success and have come to learn from it.

many new power brands have also found in the process of exploring the market that high-end pure electric models are expensive, and users' anxiety about energy replenishment and battery life is far from being resolved. most high-end pure electric products are rejected by consumers. ideal mega is not the only high-end pure electric car that has failed. many high-priced electric cars are not necessarily selling well. looking at the world, the demand for pure electric products is cooling down.

data from the china association of automobile manufacturers show that from january to july this year, sales of pure electric vehicles in the chinese automobile market grew by 10.1%, while sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles (including extended-range vehicles) grew by as much as 84.5%. hybrid vehicles are suppressing pure electric vehicles with overwhelming momentum.

new energy brands have gradually discovered the value of hybrid power and have turned around to develop extended-range models in a "mirror" manner, promote sales of dual-power versions, and focus on hybrid power, such as avita and leapmotor. zeekr has also been heard to be planning a hybrid product layout. more and more new energy brands are entering the hybrid camp.

it is an indisputable fact that hybrid vehicles have the technological features of electric vehicles, have lower costs, and do not have the anxiety of refueling.

logically speaking, ideal auto can just stay in its "comfort zone" and do a good job on the l series, because the market is inclined to hybrid power and is not optimistic about pure electric power. but in any case, hybrid power is ultimately a transition before pure electric power. only by making sufficient arrangements in the field of pure electric power can we fight a well-prepared battle in the later stage.

xiaotong believes that ideal has its own confidence in its efforts to squeeze into the pure electric track, and may have a clearer understanding of the target group, such as the second car for family transportation. there are also some consumer groups who don’t like the smell of gasoline but are fond of family cars like ideal. these are market gaps worthy of attention for ideal auto.

ideal auto's early wrong decisions led to the failure of mega. the key was that it was not well prepared and had too high expectations. with the increase in the number of ideal supercharging stations, smart driving will further rewrite the minds of users. from an optimistic point of view, ideal's pure electric models have the hope to go against the trend in this era where hybrids are king.

"hybrid" is just a comfort zone, car companies must embrace pure electric

from ideal auto's q2 financial report, it can be found that although the revenue and sales performance are impressive, the gross profit margin of the whole vehicle has actually declined to a certain extent. the gross profit margin of the whole vehicle in the second quarter was 18.7%, a decrease of 2.3% compared with the same period last year. the net profit and gross profit margin were also overtaken by seres.

the reason is that ideal auto is selling cheaper than before. in addition to reducing the price of the original car series, it also stepped up the launch of the more entry-level ideal l6 after the failure of mega. as ideal's cheapest model, l6 accounts for the majority of sales, with monthly deliveries exceeding 20,000. but the result is that ideal's per-car revenue is lower, from 331,000 yuan in the same period last year to 292,000 yuan.

with hongmeng wenjie and friendly competitors pressing forward step by step, the competitive pressure in the hybrid track will become greater. more and more "parallel substitutes" will appear and will continue to grab users. xiaotong believes that it is difficult for ideal hybrid products to win all the time, and staying in the comfort zone is not a good idea.

given ideal auto's positioning, the price of pure electric vehicles will generally be higher than that of hybrid vehicles, which will help bring the transaction price of ideal vehicles back to a higher level.the "restarting" ideal pure electric may not achieve the goal of being in the first echelon in a short period of time, but at least it will not repeat the mistakes of mega.

therefore, for ideal auto, pure electric products are the growth point, but before launching them on the market, it is necessary to first provide adequate coverage of the charging network and make its own differences in product design. after learning from its mistakes, perhaps ideal's pure electric "ideal" will not fall through again.