Li Xiang: The ideal L9, which is 100,000 more expensive, does not worry about selling it, sticks to the standard mass production and avoids calculating with users

“The sales of the L9 will definitely surpass that of the Ideal ONE, even though the price is more than 100,000 more expensive.” Li Xiang, founder, chairman and CEO of Ideal Auto, said at today’s media communication meeting.

Last night, Li Li officially launched Li Li Li, its second flagship SUV after Li Li Li Li ONE, priced at 459,800 yuan. The server crashed at one point due to hot bookings. However, Li Xiang did not disclose the latest order situation. He said that now most users have not seen the car, and it is useless to look at the order. It depends on the final sales and deliveries.

Previously, he expected that after the car was opened at the end of August, sales in September would exceed 10,000.

At this communication meeting, Li Xiang also responded to the influence of the Ideal L9 on the Ideal ONE, product positioning, user groups, the reasons for choosing the standard method, and the supply chain.

L9 will not hit the ideal ONE market, targeting 89% of home users over 200,000

Since the audience is relatively close to the Ideal ONE, both of which are home users, there are many views that the Ideal L9 may affect the sales of the Ideal ONE. In response, Li Xiang also responded that the sales of Lixiang ONE did not decline after the release of L9, and the sales of Lixiang ONE increased again yesterday.

“People who should buy 300,000-350,000 should still buy 300,000-350,000. As for the previous budget of 300,000-350,000, but suddenly they want to buy a 500,000 car, there must be such people, but they must be within 10%. The ratio is not the real market.” Li Xiang said.

For the price range of more than 400,000 yuan where the ideal L9 is located, Li Xiang believes that this is also a very healthy market. “We need a more expensive car and expand the scale to reduce costs, and then promote cars of different price points, which is a core choice.

In terms of product positioning, Li Li aimed at family cars from the very beginning. Li Li L9 released this time is also a global smart flagship SUV that is positioned for families, but this also makes the ideal user group too narrow for the outside world.

Li Xiang also refuted this, arguing that this statement lacks basic theoretical and logical judgments. “I don’t believe anyone can do more market research than I did when I was in Autohome. 89% of the 200,000+ purchasers are home users. In other words, our main home users are already Covering 89% of the group, that is, the user group of more than 200,000 that we have locked in, we just eat in one range and one range.”

“If I talk about high-end to the market every day, no one cares about you, and even the team doesn’t know how to make products, I will have a sense of presence during research and development, and I will have a sense of presence in product strength.” Li Xiang gave an example: When talking about the family, the team will build every penny and every technology around the family, and will consider whether this function and demand meet the needs of the family.

Li Xiang also revealed that in the future, Li Xiang’s goals are even larger, including the next year and the year after, the cars you see are a sales space that will exceed what you can imagine in the past. It was previously reported that Ideal will have four new cars on the market next year, which will form a market spanning the price range of 200,000 to 500,000, and has also established a goal of selling 1.6 million cars in 2025.

Using AR 3D to set 3D will make people collapse, and continue to invest in AI and algorithms

Some of the designs of the Ideal L9 have also attracted attention this time, such as replacing the dashboard with a HUD (head-up display), but not using the high-tech concept AR-HUD.

Li Xiang said that what users really need is that the HUD can effectively replace the instrument screen, and the ideal L9 is the first in the world to completely present information including intelligent driving interaction information, navigation, speed and speed limit on the HUD. It is also one of the very few models that uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 processing chip to directly render the HUD.

He also explained why AR-HUD was not used. “If AR is used to make a real three-dimensional interaction method, then interacting with another three-dimensional space in one three-dimensional space will basically collapse for the human neural perception system.” Li Xiang believes that using a three-dimensional space is very good. The HUD specially designed for two-dimensional planes is better and less expensive.

The Ideal L9 released this time has created a five-screen three-dimensional space interaction, including a HUD head-up display system, a safe driving interactive screen, a central control screen, a passenger entertainment screen, and a rear cabin entertainment screen, and through 6 array microphones and 3DToF sensors, Equipped with multi-modal three-dimensional space interaction technology to achieve more natural interaction.

Li Xiang believes that smart electric vehicles carry two most important purposes, one is energy regeneration, and the other is that the entire information will enter three-dimensional artificial intelligence from the past two-dimensional, traditional PC Internet, so the ideal is artificial intelligence. A lot of people, money and energy have been invested in solving three-dimensional problems.

According to reports, Ideal has 4 independent AI and algorithm teams, the largest is in intelligent driving, the second is in intelligent space, the third and fourth are in internal systems (such as factory processes, etc.) and vehicle scenarios, respectively. The four teams have been recruiting continuously.

Standard configuration can better allocate costs and avoid mutual calculation with users

Different from the popular function selection method on the market, the ideal has always been the mode of mass production that is standard. In this regard, Li Xiang emphasized Apple’s core capabilities at the communication meeting, that is, it can make very luxurious things accessible to consumers, and at the same time make very unique innovations in experience and technology, so that users can If you spend a little more money, you can get the ability that you can only have several times the price in the past and dare not aspire.

“We will also insist on doing it in this way.” Li Xiang said as an example, the price of the Ideal ONE is similar to the starting price of the Audi Q7 (European and American markets) globally. The current global sales of the Audi Q7 is about 3,000 to 5,000 units. During the time, these sales have to share the research and development costs of so many things, the research and development costs of different seats and different configurations. And the ideal ONE sells more than 100,000 units a year and more than 10,000 units a month, just one set of things, so the entire cost is completely different.

“With this method, we can pull the price of a luxury brand mid-size car for a product that everyone thought was unattainable in the past, with more than 1 million or more than 2 million. This is what we got after we carefully studied Apple. Apple’s core philosophy.” Li Xiang said.

In addition, sticking to the standard configuration also has user considerations. “A car has many configurations and a bunch of options, but I always feel intrigued with the manufacturer when I choose it. I choose the one with the highest configuration, and I feel that I have spent a lot of money, and I am not willing to choose the one with the lower configuration.” I want to express that, through the standard method, it is possible to avoid intrigue with users and calculate each other.

He also said that the second benefit to the user is that all the money spent on the entire car can be turned into an asset, which is equally valuable when it comes to changing cars. Some things, such as optional foot pedals, must be done, because some people are very tall and do not need them, and they have no value to them after putting them on, but such as screens, HUD, seat ventilation, seat massage, air suspension, etc. None of them have been made optional, because there is a very important standard in the automotive industry. Basically, the optional equipment will be cleared when it reaches the used car, so the optional equipment is an expense for the user after spending money, not an asset.

“The value retention rate of the Ideal ONE is very high. Many people still sell the 2021 car with a 10% value retention rate. When I put all these configurations on the car, it can be used for 10% off everything. Sell ​​it.” Li Xiang revealed.

The biggest bottleneck in production capacity lies in the supply chain, and it has been making up after the IPO has money

In terms of production capacity and supply chain, Li Xiang said that the Changzhou factory can meet the production ramp-up demand of L9. “For us, the biggest bottleneck in production capacity is not our own factories, but the control of various surrounding supply chains, so we manage the entire R&D quality, including supply chain manufacturing, by ourselves.”

According to reports, the range extender of the Ideal L9 was developed by Xinchen, which is owned by Ideal Holdings, and the motor and five-in-one powertrain will be put into production in Huixiang, a joint venture between Changzhou and Huichuan, and several joint ventures with Ningde Times in Liyang. production lines to ensure the supply of production capacity.

This is also a lesson from the ideal itself. He mentioned that Ideal ONE has encountered supply chain problems in the past, and told suppliers early that it could sell 10,000 units a month, but some suppliers actually placed orders for 3,000 production lines, and some lined up 1,000 units. I didn’t add more vehicles until I started to build it, because I didn’t believe that medium and large SUVs would sell so much.

Li Xiang said that after the IPO in 2020, the ideal can invest more money in research and development. In the past, there was really no money, and when you have money, you will really invest in it. “In the past few years, the entire supply chain capability has been working hard to make up lessons, because if you don’t invest money, technology, and people in this area, it’s impossible to sit there and wait for the supply chain to get better.”

He said that the supply chain through a holding company or a joint venture company is mainly due to various considerations. One is to solve the controllability of the technology, which will greatly improve the efficiency of research and development; the second important thing is supply, and the supply capacity must be controlled by oneself. hand. In addition, although there will be some investment in the early stage, the components will have a lower cost advantage.