People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. Steve Jobs once used this concise statement to explain the deepest philosophy of product design. However, for many Chinese car consumers, the situation is not that complicated.
Everyone knows very well what car they want and aspire to. In the real world, the most difficult barrier to overcome when realizing our dreams is the price.
In the Chinese car market, when the words “imported”, “luxury brand”, and “3.0 L and above displacement” appear together on a car, it usually means a frustrating fact – compared to the United States, where cars are priced the cheapest globally, we may need to spend nearly twice or even more for the same car.
So many consumers, including myself, often have the thought: if there were no tariffs, displacement taxes, and high brand premiums, we could buy our dream cars at the “U.S. price”, and many “Dream Cars” would not be so far out of reach.
In 2020, the post-production domestically-made Tesla achieved the same price in China and the US, and the Chinese-made Model 3 Performance was priced at RMB 339,900, which made many domestic consumers’ dreams of a performance car come true at the price of an entry-level B-class sedan from BBA.
And today, with the release of L9, the ideals have achieved a similar thing in the domestic car market in their own way.
Full-size SUV, is it necessary?
Before getting into the contents of the product launch, I would like to share with you my experience of first learning about L9.
In 2020, while chatting with some friends, we discussed the topic of what would be our ideal second car. At the time, everyone’s opinions were surprisingly consistent, that the ideal second car should be a mid-size plug-in hybrid SUV slightly smaller than the ideal ONE. This type of car would theoretically have a lower price and a wider audience, and there were no corresponding horizontal competitors in the market, so the sales would definitely be good.
Later, when Zhang Xiao, the product manager of IDEAL, told me that the second car of IDEAL would be a full-size SUV, I was quite surprised. My logic was simple: in the Chinese car market, full-size SUVs are a niche model with very few sales. The huge size of full-size SUVs would also bring a lot of inconvenience for commuting and parking, and the audience should not be many. It is easy to understand that making higher-level car models could help explore the upper-end market, but this car seems to have very limited sales, except as a facade for the brand.“`
And the answer given by Zhang Xiao in the following is still fresh in my memory: “The reason why the full-size SUV has low sales in China is not because people don’t like it or don’t need it. If you can afford it, who wouldn’t want a car like X7 or GLS in their home? The ideal target users are family users, and they have a strong demand for large space. Moreover, due to policy reasons, the purchase quota of users in many big cities in China is actually very limited. If they can only choose one car under limited purchase quotas, buying a large SUV is the best choice. From this perspective, the market size of full-size SUV is actually very large largely determined by price ranges.”
After listening to these words, I suddenly realized that my previous ideas were limited, and I also realized that the ideal second product was not a face project I initially understood for enhancing brand image, but a powerful product meticulously prepared for China’s mainstream luxury market segment, a milestone model that could change the market pattern. This feeling was confirmed when the price of L9 was announced at the press conference.
There is a standard configuration that is even better than the top configuration
The actual length of Ideal L9 is like this:
Starting at a price of 459,800 yuan, with a size of 5,218 x 1,998 x 1,800 mm and a wheelbase of 3,105 mm, the cheapest full-size SUV in the Chinese auto market today was born with the launch of Ideal L9.
At the same time, the cheap price of L9 does not mean low configuration. At this price, you can buy a car that has few rivals in any price range in terms of configuration.- All 3 rows and 6 seats of the entire car have electric adjustment and heating. The first 2 rows have ventilation and 10-point massage seats.
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Electric suction doors, double-layer glass for the first two rows, privacy glass for the last two rows.
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Equipped with 21 speakers, the second row has 4D seat vibration and supports a 7.3.4-channel surround sound system with Dolby sound effects.
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1.5T four-cylinder turbocharged engine, 42.6 kWh Ningde 622 ternary lithium battery.
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100\% -20\% battery power WLTC pure electric range of 175 km, fuel consumption of 7.8 L/100 km under the lowest charge.
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Dual-motor four-wheel drive system composed of front 130 kW and rear 200 kW, with 0-100 km/h acceleration of 5.3 seconds.
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Front double-wishbone, rear five-link, equipped with height-adjustable air suspension and adaptive CDC damping.
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Equipped with 21-inch wheels and Michelin PS EV low rolling resistance silent tires.
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Three 3K OLED displays with a resolution of 2,880 × 1,620 driven by two 8155 chips, and a WHUD head-up display.
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Equipped with an ADAS perception system with a Herziel AT128 lidar, 6 8M + 1 2M pixel cameras, and 2 Orin-X intelligent driving chips, including navigation-assisted driving and other functions.
In terms of its configuration strategy, the L9 continues the Ideal ONE’s “standard equipment is top configuration” approach, with all of the above configurations being standard. In fact, the only two items that need to be purchased separately for all configurations of the Ideal L9 are special paint and electric pedals. Whether compared to vehicles in the same price range or to similar models, the Ideal L9 is a highly cost-effective product with superior configuration.
On the high-end of the configuration, just like the Ideal ONE before it, the L9 has taken it “up a notch.”
Under the high-end configuration
As early as the QA session of Ideal’s 2021 Q1 financial report in February of this year, Ideal officially revealed some information about its second new vehicle. At the time, we were still calling this car the “X01” with a code name. Li Xiang himself made a very summary description of this car: “On the X01, we will satisfy many Ideal ONE users’ unmet needs and also create many forward-looking needs that users have not yet realized.”
Prior to the release conference, I had the opportunity to personally experience the L9’s static vehicle performance, and the following are some of my impressions based on some of the key points mentioned at the conference.
Needs that have not been satisfied by the Ideal ONE
Starting from the “existence” and “non-existence” perspective, let us take a look at what the L9 has added, i.e., filling in the gaps in Ideal ONE’s configuration.First, let’s talk about the issue that many users criticized Ideal ONE for not having ** electronic child locks **. In fact, as early as the delivery of Ideal ONE, Ideal had already started to reflect on this issue and started to find ways to make up for it. However, adding electronic child locks almost requires redoing the door locks, and the development cycle of the project is close to one and a half years, so it did not catch up with the launch of Ideal ONE in 2021. L9 learned from the lesson and added this feature during the vehicle development stage.
Another feature that Ideal ONE users have been calling for, ** electric suction doors **, is also standard on the L9. It allows for quietly closing the door when a child is asleep in the car.
The ** Sentinel mode ** missing on Ideal ONE is available on L9, with dual Sentinel modes for both inside and outside the car. The in-car Sentinel mode will combine with TOF sensors to perform live body detection to prevent cases where parents accidentally lock their children in the car.
The ** air suspension ** also made its appearance on Ideal L9 as expected. In off-road mode, the car’s height can be raised by 40 mm. During high-speed driving, it can be lowered by 20 mm. In loading mode, the rear axle can be lowered by 50 mm. In comfort mode, the height of the entire vehicle can be lowered by 40 mm. In practical experience, a surprising point is the speed of the car’s air suspension lowering and raising in loading mode, which takes only about 6 seconds to complete. Unfortunately, the static experience cannot be test-driven, and it is still unclear how much it will improve the driving experience.
In terms of comfort, L9 also added ** electric steering wheel adjustment **, which further enhances the vehicle experience when multiple people are using the car, with the help of the memory function.
** After talking about the from-scratch features, the following are the further improvements compared to Ideal ONE **.
The most concerned improvement is the ** longer pure electric range **. This time, Ideal L9’s battery capacity has increased to 42.6 kWh, and the WLTC pure electric range based on the 100% to 20% battery level measured by the MIIT is 175 km. Based on this, L9 now also allows users to use the battery in the pure electric mode to a lower level, which further increases the available pure electric range, making it a great relief for daily long-distance commuters.
The new ** range extender power system has improved energy efficiency **, with WLTC power consumption of 7.8 liters per 100 kilometers even at the lowest battery charge level, which is even lower than the smaller sized and less powerful Ideal ONE.
** Sound system ** is also a major upgrade of L9 compared to Ideal ONE. The new car has a 21-speaker 7.3.4-channel sound system with significantly improved basic sound quality, and the overall stereo performance of the entire vehicle is quite impressive. One could say that while sound was a weak point on the original Ideal ONE, it became a strong point on the L9.
After the model became larger, the ** interior space of L9 has also been correspondingly improved **. In summary, the third-row interior space of the L9 has been improved.1. The depth of the front row legroom has been further increased. The seat position for taller drivers no longer needs to be adjusted so far back, allowing for a more comfortable grip on the steering wheel with both elbows resting on the door panel and center armrest.
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The second row seat height has been increased, providing better support to the thigh area near the knees and significantly improving seating comfort.
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The third row seat height has also been raised, with improved headroom and longitudinal legroom. The backrest angle now supports electric adjustment and heating, and can be reclined to a level comparable to the second row of some SUVs.
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The trunk can accommodate one 28-inch and one 20-inch suitcase.
At my height of 180cm, with the front two rows of seats adjusted to a comfortable position on the L9, I still have about three fingers worth of legroom when sitting in the third row. My right foot can stretch under the second row seat, while my left foot can rest on the aisle.
Increased space is one aspect of the improved comfort of riding the L9. Another significant improvement is the softness of the seat padding, which is reminiscent of latex, and even the cushions and backrests in the third row offer excellent cushioning. After all the improvements mentioned above, the third row of the L9 is the most comfortable I have ever experienced in any SUV, approaching that of the GL8, although the seat height is still not as high as that of the latter.
The third-row experience also includes voice control, with the previous 4 audio zones on the Ideal ONE changing to 6 audio zones on the L9. In addition to a better voice experience in the third row, one can now use voice commands to reduce the volume when closing the power tailgate when standing at the rear door.
The addition of a laser radar to the L9’s intelligent driving features has taken it up a notch in terms of active safety, addressing a pain point in safety scenarios – high-speed recognition of stationary rollover vehicles leads to automatic braking. This feature meets the needs of previous Ideal ONE users who were not satisfied with the previous model.### Unconscious Forward-looking Demands
Speaking of forward-looking demands, the Ideal L9 has incorporated some content that echoes the first sentence of the entire article. In this section, let’s start with the lights because the Ideal L9 has added a brand new type of car light: ADAS status indicator light.
In the state of using driving assistance, 5 indicator lights will light up in the positions of both sides of the star ring light, both sides of the turn signal light, and the center of the lower part of the taillight on the L9, with a shallow blue color that is very close to the color of the garage logo.
In my opinion, this design not only conveys vehicle status information to surrounding traffic participants and enhances safety, but also increases vehicle identification and becomes a somewhat hidden show off, which is great for those who enjoy being noticed.
Inside the car, a valuable innovation is the addition of the rear entertainment screen.
Prior to the Ideal ONE, the need for a co-driver screen was ignored by people, as well as the ignored separate Bluetooth audio output for the co-driver and voice recognition for the back seats.
As Li Xiang puts it, the family car market has always been ignored by people. Most cars in the world only serve two types of people: the driver in the front row and the boss in the back row. The third row of a 7-seater car is like a cell, and the second row of a 6-seater car has many manually adjustable seats, making it very difficult for the elderly and children to adjust.
However, a true family car should take care of every passenger in the car in every aspect, which is what makes Ideal stand out in its product philosophy compared to other brands.This time, L9 brings an entertainment space for second and third-row passengers. The reason why it’s mentioned as the second and third row is that the newly added rear entertainment screen and the arrangement of the second and third-row seats have undergone much systematic consideration in ergonomics. The most impressive thing in actual experience is that both second and third-row passengers can naturally view the content on the screen at an angle without obstruction, thanks to its systemized consideration, which is much better than watching screens on planes or buses in terms of resolution, distance, and angle. Combined with the Dolby sound system of the 21 speakers and the 4D vibrating seats, the in-car viewing experience of L9 is unparalleled. Moreover, this screen, even when in the open state, has little impact on the car’s rearview mirror, not affecting normal driving.
In terms of interaction, the second-row passengers can operate the screen through touch, and the second and third-row passengers can operate the screen content through the voice system’s “see it, say it” and gesture interaction through the TOF sensor.
Now, someone might ask, “Why would anyone want to watch a movie in a car?”
Well, imagine experiencing the good sound insulation, air conditioning, and comfortable, adjustable, with massage, heating, and ventilating chairs of L9 in a closed environment, watching a movie with a 3K resolution OLED screen and listening to the breathtaking Dolby panoramic sound effect. After that, you won’t have this question again.
If you connect your Switch, PS5, XBOX, and other game consoles to the DP video interface of the second row, this place can become a game room again. By the way, you don’t have to worry about the power supply of the game console because L9’s third-row seats have a 1,100W, 220V power supply interface underneath.
In the past, I occasionally listened to music in nap mode or watched videos inside the Model 3 when I parked at home, or occasionally napped inside the car with air conditioning. The reason why I didn’t spend much time in the car for other scenes is because the in-car experience was not good enough.
On L9, the static scene of the smart car has developed to a new stage, and the user’s car use can no longer be just for “using a car.”
If you think the entertainment function is too fancy or off-topic, let’s look at another practical feature: the in-car cooling and heating box.
In addition to the unique design of adding two cup holder slots for the second row, the Ideal team has also integrated a compressor refrigeration and heating box under the center armrest in the L9, with an adjustable cooling range of 0°C to 7°C and a heating range of 35°C to 50°C.
Compared to the rear refrigerator in the Mercedes S, which has a luxurious appearance but occupies a lot of trunk space, the layout of the L9 is more practical. What’s even more surprising is that as a large battery extended-range car, the cooling and heating box in the L9 can continue to work for 24 hours after the vehicle is powered down.
There are many details on the L9 like the cooling and heating box that can continue to work after being powered off. In addition to the forward-looking needs mentioned by Li Xiang, there are also some needs that users may not be aware of. However, these are all the product team’s ultimate exploration of the scenario details.
For example, there is a hook for hanging rubber plugs on the charging port cover. The backrest of the second and third-row seats will automatically adjust without interference from each other. The second-row seats have a one-click recovery button on the car’s multimedia system, and there’s a small storage box on the left side of the main driver. The audio volume will automatically lower when opening the door.
The Ideal L9 has three screens, and the outer frame of each screen is only about 1 cm, and the reflectivity is very low. In most cases, it is almost integrated with the black OLED inner screen, making it difficult to perceive. High configuration is undoubtedly a feature of the Ideal L9, but what makes this car stand out is the understanding and intention of meeting user needs shown in every aspect, big or small. Not only do they have something that others don’t have, but they also have something better than what others have.
In conclusion, after introducing a lot of information about the Ideal L9, let’s go back to the discussion on price and talk about my views on the price of luxury cars in China.
In China, owning the Ideal L9 with numerous configurations for only RMB 459,800 is a very affordable full-size SUV, as the entry-level models of traditional luxury brands such as X7 and GLS have prices in the seven digits.
However, if we convert the price of the L9 into US dollars, it is actually an SUV with a price of over $70,000. This is close to the MSRP price of the entry-level model of the X7 in the US market, which is already a very expensive price.The reason why L9 appears to be cheap in China is because traditional luxury brands in the Chinese market are subject to significant premiums that far exceed their intrinsic values due to policies and various special environments. After years of market education, this values system has already entered the hearts of ordinary people, and people have come to take this premium for granted, even to the point of questioning the “cheap” products in reverse.
Even so, the value of a product itself does not increase with the premium.
In 2014, 8 years ago, the Tesla Model S was launched on the Chinese official website, with an entry-level price of 734,000 RMB far lower than the same-priced model in the US market. On the same day, Tesla released an official announcement《A Fair Price》that could be recorded in the history of automobiles.
Eight years later, based on the needs of Chinese family users, Ideal Automobiles has created a flagship SUV with sufficient product power to rival and even surpass traditional luxury brands. Based on its own product power and costs, Ideal has priced this car at 459,800 RMB.
This is a fair price for both consumers and Ideal Automobiles.
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.