One Year After Picking Up My Ideal ONE: Top 6 Crimes of Ideal

On December 9th last year, I was thrilled to receive the key to my Ideal ONE at the Ideal Automotive Hangzhou Delivery Center, becoming the first car owner to pick up a car in Hangzhou. The delivery experts welcomed me with applause!

I once thought “After getting the Ideal ONE, life is perfect”, but to my surprise, Ideal ONE has left me disappointed and feeling deceived for a year.

As one of the first batch of “guinea pigs” for this carmaker, I feel it is my responsibility and duty to reveal the true nature of driving Ideal ONE to avoid being blinded by false reports from unscrupulous media outlets.

Based on my year-long driving experience, I have summarized the top 6 crimes of Ideal ONE. Below are my observations:

Crime 1: Owning an Ideal ONE has made me penny-pinching

From December 9th last year to December 1st this year, my Ideal ONE has covered a total of 15,339 kilometers. As a privileged “home charging” user, I have also requested “peak valley electricity prices” for my home-use new energy meter. Hence, I usually drive with pure electric power, and specifically utilize the car’s reservation charging function during off-peak hours.

Therefore, of these 15,000+ kilometers, the majority were driven using electric power, with only a few mid-to-long distance trips switching to gas. Following Ideal’s propaganda slogan, “use electricity in the city, and gas for longer distances.”

According to the car’s statistics, as of December 1st, my Ideal ONE has driven a total of 12,634 km using pure electric power, with an average energy consumption of 17.3 kWh/100 km (excluding air conditioning, car computer, and other energy consumption), and driven for 2,705 km using gasoline, with a displayed fuel consumption rate of 7.6 L/100 km.

In addition, I have also calculated the electricity and fuel expenses from last year’s car pick-up until now. The household charging pile cost was 1012.25 yuan, fast charging pile cost was 254.26 yuan, and the 95 gasoline cost was 1488.67 yuan (when the car was picked up, the displayed fuel range was NECD 100 km, now it is displayed as NEDC 200 km). According to this rough calculation, the total car usage cost is about 0.18 yuan/km.

In theory, for a medium-to-large SUV weighing 2.3 tons, such a usage cost can be considered perfect. However, the miser inside me is always urging me to save every penny.

For example, whenever I need to charge during peak electricity hours, I feel particularly pained. Although the peak electricity price of 0.588 yuan/kWh of Hangzhou’s household new energy electricity meter is not much more expensive than the off-peak price of 0.308 yuan/kWh, it still makes me feel extremely distressed. If I felt at first that using gas in the Ideal ONE was a rip-off, now I gradually feel that even charging during peak electricity hours is a rip-off.

Originally, I thought that being too thrifty was only my own problem. But when I asked in the car owner WeChat group, I found that everyone was the same. Ideal ONE car owners all expressed that “after driving an Ideal ONE, I became increasingly stingy.”

What could be the reason for this change among Ideal car owners? After much thought, I can’t find any other answer, and can only assume that the culprit for this stinginess must be Ideal!

Because apart from being very generous in car manufacturing, Ideal is very stingy in all other areas. Even the delivery center only provides Nongfu Spring bottled water, and does not offer any snacks or refreshments. This has led car owners to be influenced and become more and more stingy.

Charge Two: Since owning the Ideal ONE, my driving skills have regressed

The Ideal ONE comes standard with L2 level assisted driving, which is included in the delivery package and does not require additional payment. This means that assisted driving is essentially free of charge.

Because daily driving mostly involves city roads, only 24% of my total mileage, or 3,656 km, is attributed to assisted driving. However, I almost always activate the assisted driving when on closed courses or on the highway. The Ideal ONE’s assisted driving can effectively handle most road conditions, thus significantly reducing the driver’s driving burden.

Therefore, during the 218 days of driving within the 363 days after picking up the car, I used the assisted driving function. Of course, L2 level assisted driving is not “automatic driving”. When using it, the driver must hold the steering wheel and pay attention to the road conditions.

Everything looks great, doesn’t it? But it’s not like that! Because I’m used to driving the Li Xiang ONE, I feel uncomfortable when I drive other cars now.

Last month, a few friends and I agreed to go to Hainan for vacation. Because there were many people, we rented a Buick GL8 in Haikou and drove to Sanya by ourselves. The three-hour drive from Haikou to Sanya tortured me with this 2020 basic version of GL8 without even cruise control.

The hardware conditions of the Hainan Ring Expressway are good, and the traffic volume is not large, which is particularly suitable for using assisted driving. If I were driving the Li Xiang ONE, I could just turn on the assisted driving, release the throttle, hold the steering wheel, and pay attention to the road conditions.

But driving the GL8, leaving aside the discomfort caused by slow and sluggish throttle response, after all, it is a comfortable business vehicle, and the power requirement cannot be as high as that of the Li Xiang ONE since there is no cruise control. The right foot must keep stepping on the accelerator. After driving for more than three hours, my right foot was almost cramping.

During the drive, I subconsciously tried to turn on the assisted driving by turning the wiper lever on the right side of the steering wheel several times. As a result, the assisted driving was not turned on, but the windshield wiper sprayed water on the front windshield. My friend sitting in the co-driver’s seat laughed at me and asked if I bought my driver’s license with money since I couldn’t even figure out the turn signal and wiper switches.

When we arrived at the hotel in Sanya, I let my friends get off the car first to check in, and I parked by myself. Then I encountered a new problem. The parking space at the hotel entrance was only one space in the corner. The reversing lane was not wide, and there was a minibus parked on one side of the parking space and a flowerbed low wall on the other side. This GL8’s only parking assistance hardware was the rear radar, and high-tech like 360 surround view was out of the question.

Because it was a rental car, I was particularly careful when parking. I was afraid of hitting the minibus on the left and scratching the wheel hub on the flowerbed low wall on the right (I missed the wheel hub view of Li Xiang ONE so much at this time). I was also afraid of hitting the opposite side fence when reversing into the parking space. After struggling for a while, I finally parked the car.After parking my car, I sat in the driver’s seat lost in thought. In the past, I could drive without any driver assistance, 360-degree surround view, or wheel viewing angle and drive quite skillfully. So why do I suddenly feel helpless now? It’s only reasonable to blame my declining driving skills on the fact that I’ve become too reliant on technology!

Accusation 3: Spoiled by driving a LI ONE

To understand how I was spoiled by owning a LI ONE, we need to start with the car buying process.

Spoiled during the car buying process

LI’s retail centers are all directly managed stores, and prices are the same across the country. Since the prices are fixed, there’s no need to bargain with the sales staff during the purchase process. By merely understanding and researching the car, I could make a decision. If I went to a dealership to buy a car, the thought of haggling with the sales staff to get a good price would give me a headache.

Moreover, according to current policies, purchasing new energy vehicles does not require paying acquisition taxes, so I was able to save some money in that respect.

Spoiled during travels

This issue is not particularly related to LI and is mainly the result of license plate restrictions. Taking Hangzhou as an example, the license plate restriction policy states that the blue license plates for internal combustion vehicles need to be drawn by lottery or auctioned, while the green license plates for new energy vehicles can be obtained as long as you apply. One person can receive up to five new energy indicators.

In addition, the green license plates in Hangzhou are not restricted during rush hours on workdays or holidays and don’t have to worry about accidentally violating driving restrictions and getting fined.

Spoiled by maintenance

Previously, if I needed to maintain my car, it would take at least half a day waiting at the 4S store. But with LI’s Plus membership, I could directly call the 400 customer service center or use the mobile APP to book a free car pick-up and drop-off service for maintenance. The driver would take my car to the after-sales center and then bring it back after the service was done, so I wouldn’t have to make two trips myself.

Moreover, since LI’s after-sales service is self-managed (there are also LI’s own after-sales staff in the repair and paint center), there’s no need to fear being tricked into purchasing various cleaning packages or having parts replaced with fakes, unlike at 4S stores.

Of course, these features are not unique to LI, and many other new car manufacturers offer similar services that are just as good. But once you get used to these conveniences, it’s tough to go back to the way things used to be. So it’s apparent that LI is responsible for this charge too!

Accusation 4: Driving a LI ONE has made me more demanding

After being spoiled by driving a LI ONE, another side effect is that I have become more picky. As the saying goes, it’s easier to go from frugality to luxury than it is to go from luxury to being frugal, and this is entirely accurate. If I buy a new car next time, my requirements will definitely be higher since I now have experienced driving a LI ONE. If I get a new car, I believe it should meet at least the following requirements:

Firstly, the steering wheel must have heating function, as well as the seats and ventilation; all touchable areas inside the car should be soft, and the seats must be made of Nappa leather; the air conditioning system needs to be three-zone automatic; the more screens inside the car, the better; the mobile charging port should be adequate, with at least one per person.

Secondly, the power system needs to be responsive, ensuring a quick start at traffic lights and maintaining momentum in the middle and later stages; acceleration and deceleration must be smooth, without any sense of jarring; the cost of use cannot be too high, and refuelling should be easy.

Thirdly, the car should be intelligent, with complete navigation, music, and video functions; it should have an auxiliary driving system, which is an indispensable feature once tried; there should be voice control functions, allowing function control through voice command; it should also have a good mobile connectivity function.

Lastly, the price must not be too high, otherwise it will be unaffordable.

In summary, the configuration needs to be high, the functions need to be abundant, and the price needs to be reasonable. In the end, blame it on LI, making me so picky!

Charge Five: I’m Distracted by the LI ONE

Originally, the issue of fickleness should have been included in “Charge Four”, but because the problem was so significant, this charge had to be made separately.

The LI ONE supports vehicle OTA, with ten upgrades completed from delivery last year until now; the software version has been upgraded from V1.0.3 to the latest V1.4.19, with the latest 2.0 version software scheduled to be released at the end of this month.

I listed the key features of each version upgrade as follows:

V1.0: Optimized alarm display method, add reservation charging function, HiFi mode and surround mode of the audio system.

V1.1: The available fuel is increased from 42 L to 44 L, and new features include off-road rescue mode, 360-degree panoramic view of the wheel hub, WeChat application in car, and digital clock;

V1.2: New features include Bluetooth classic mode, phone Bluetooth key to open/close tailgate, vehicle setting for appointment charging, and Bluetooth earphone playback for co-pilot entertainment screen;

V1.3: New functions include QQ music, co-pilot entertainment screen Aiquting, full-screen rearview, seat welcome function, rear air conditioning lock, and horn alarm when locking the car;

V1.4: Optimization of appointment charging logic, addition of car wash mode, auxiliary driving mileage statistics, and truck lane departure warning function.

For Ideal car owners, every OTA update brings a bunch of practical new functions, which always brings a lot of surprises and makes it feel like driving a new car. Therefore, car owners always have high expectations for OTA updates.

For example, last month, Ideal released the V1.4 OTA update, and many car owners complained that the newly added functions were not as exciting as those in the V1.3 version. However, luckily, the upcoming V2.0 OTA update is still highly anticipated.

From owning a car that won’t change after delivery, to owning a car that will continuously grow, my understanding of cars has changed: once you drive an Ideal ONE, you will always look forward to new OTA software updates!

Sin No.6: Owning an Ideal ONE made me indifferent

Many early Ideal car owners, like me, have been laughed at by family and friends, saying that we are like joining a cult, always greeting other Ideal ONE drivers on the road.

I still remember clearly the scene of driving my Ideal ONE and encountering another one for the first time. Seeing a car that looked like an Ideal ONE from far away, I carefully observed it for a while and confirmed that it was the same model as mine. Then, I immediately flashed my headlights, turned on the hazard lights, rolled down the window, and stepped on the gas to quickly catch up and say hello, just like a Chinese person wandering abroad meeting a fellow countryman. At the next traffic light, I even asked in the car owners’ WeChat group to see if the driver was one of our friends.# Ideal ONE’s Six Charges

Many of the first batch of Ideal ONE owners were early followers and fans of Li Xiang as well as dedicated users of Autohome. Although buying a car is often considered a rational decision, it cannot be denied that there is an emotional factor involved. Thus, when a group of such people gather, they easily develop a sense of empathy and admiration for each other.

Two days ago, Ideal released the delivery data for November, which showed that a total of 4,646 units of Ideal ONE were delivered. From January to November this year, a total of 26,498 units of Ideal ONE have been delivered.

As the delivery volume of Ideal ONE continues to increase month after month, more and more Ideal ONEs can be seen on the road. However, old owners are starting to complain that sometimes when they encounter unregistered Ideal ONE vehicles on the road and enthusiastically greet them, the other party completely ignores them.

After some discussion, everyone finally came to a conclusion: Ideal has now “gone viral,” and many new owners and our old owners’ “spiritual core” are no longer the same. Many of the new owners who have taken delivery of the car now only bought the Ideal ONE because they think it’s a good car, with large space that can meet the needs of a family, and no longer have the “feelings” of the first batch of owners.

The new Ideal ONE owners are likely to be unfamiliar with and not care about the old stories that the first batch of owners often talked about, such as the Ideal ONE product launch on October 18 two years ago, the price release conference on April 10 last year, the open day of the Changzhou Base on April 11 last year, the national centralized test drive event in September last year, the 2020 hardware upgrade in October last year, and refreshing the APP dozens of times before delivery on December last year.

Therefore, when encountering an Ideal ONE on the road now, I’ll just flash the headlights at most. Even if I say hello, as a car owner, I should still remain reserved. Yes, I am no longer enthusiastic and have become indifferent, but this is entirely Ideal’s fault, for selling so many cars.

Conclusion

Above are my six charges against Ideal ONE. As the first Ideal ONE owner in Hangzhou, I can guarantee that what I said above is absolutely true. Please help me forward this and let more people know the truth about Ideal ONE!Translated English Markdown:

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Of course, if you don’t believe it, you can also scan the QR code below to make an appointment for a test drive of LI ONE and experience it yourself. If you insist on buying after the test drive, remember to fill in my name as the referrer when you pick up the car.

I believe that if you buy a LI ONE, you will definitely empathize with my words when you come back to read this article a year later.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.