Author: Zhu Yulong

The release of the Ideal L9 yesterday was very lively. The incentive for the Ideal L9, which was originally planned to be released in April (delayed by two months due to the pandemic), has begun to be realized. The Ideal L9 still adopts a unified price system of 459,800 yuan, while the price for optional electric pedals and blue, green, and purple colors is also 10,000 yuan.

Actually, I want to do two things, one is to explore the market attributes of this car itself, and the other is to explore the cabin and intelligent driving configuration of this car. The former is to see how it fits into the price segment and the market for segmented models. The latter is to explore how much improvement its intelligent driving and intelligent cabin can bring.

Since my database revolves around new energy vehicles, I still take December 2021 as a reference, which was the best month for China’s auto retail sales in 2021. The sales volume of vehicles priced between 350,000 and 500,000 yuan was 125,800, accounting for 5.54%. If we extrapolate, assuming that the market in the second half of 2022 is still 11 million, the market size for half a year is 609,400 units. If we include prices between 350,000 and 750,000 yuan, this market is 723,800 units. However, there is also a market issue for large SUVs like the L9, which currently accounts for 0.32% of the entire market, which is a total monthly sales volume of 7,287 units. My understanding is that the L9 also uses cost-effectiveness to squeeze into the midsize SUV market and cover the 35-50k market with a monthly sales volume of 56,600 units by fighting big with small.

Note: Because the price of 450,000 yuan is still 10,000 yuan away from 350,000 yuan, if we further divide it into 350,000-400,000, 400,000-450,000, and 450,000-500,000 yuan ranges, the estimated proportion may still be a structure similar to 5:3:2.

Brand and model prices

I have made several charts, and you can refer to the brands that the L9 currently needs to face. Actually, NIO is currently competing with BBA in this price range, with the best month being over 20,000 units. Entering the price range above 450,000 yuan, the Ideal has also formally transitioned from a dad car to a dad luxury car.

Note: There are large differences in the car sales market in recent times.

My understanding is that the upgrading of Chinese brands is still centered around joint ventures. The two new forces, NIO and Ideal, are really targeting the most profitable luxury segment. Even if the pricing is expensive, entering the market above 500,000 yuan is still a niche market. Therefore, the price range of 350,000-450,000 yuan (luxury cars are also decreasing) is also included. The entire market is still dominated by BBA.

In my opinion, the strategy of Ideal L9 is to further expand its size. My car is bigger and more practical than yours, and my car can be driven by electricity. In fact, here, it is still more about attracting mid-size SUV customers.

This goes back to the name of Ideal Auto before, Car and Home. Originally, after communicating with Shidong, it meant a mobile home, mainly aimed at bosses (later successful 80s, 90s), when buying a car, they began to consider more about the needs of their children, wives, and fathers and mothers who want to see their grandchildren. In short, family users want too much. A car that satisfies the driving and riding needs of all family members simultaneously (dual restrictions of license plate and parking space) is required. From the current point of view, fuel consumption, functional configuration, and intelligence cannot be compromised, but the most basic and important consideration is a large space with a reasonable layout. Ideal’s series of layouts are all around mid-size to large SUVs, allowing individuals to meet the real needs of family users with limited conditions, and can meet the needs of most family travels. From the perspective of space, it is indeed more convenient to take the family out.

Of course, this still has to be worth the price. Currently, more people who choose Ideal cars are considering practicality. For people like me with income, there is still a fundamental difference between 300,000 and 450,000 yuan.

L9 Technology Features

Power Optimization

Because it is an extended-range electric vehicle, the newly added range system, the range extender, was developed and produced by Ideal’s joint venture company Xinchen Power. The new range extender is a 1.5T four-cylinder range extender with a maximum power of 113 kW and a maximum thermal efficiency of 40.5%. It adopts front and rear dual permanent magnet motors, with a maximum power of 330 kW and a maximum torque of 620 Nm. Its 0-100 km/h acceleration is 5.3 seconds, without any fuss on the battery system. The battery capacity is 44.5 kWh, and the available capacity is 39.2 kWh. The pure electric range under WLTC conditions is 180 km.I am curious about the difference in technological specifications and development difficulty between the 45kWh simplified battery system and the 800V 100kWh 4C fast charging battery system, which Ideal has been developing. Will they still be using Contemporary Amperex Technology’s latest Kirin battery?

Cabin

Ideal has always enjoyed exploring new screen and cabin designs. This time, they have come up with an interesting touch-bar steering wheel called the “Safe Driving Interactive Screen”. It uses Mini-LED technology to display driving-related information such as speed, range, and navigation, as well as interactive information for smart driving. The Heads-Up Display (HUD) visualizes instrument information, map navigation, and smart driving perception information, and basic instrument panel functions such as speed, gear position, and turn signal are all included. The center console and the front passenger’s screen are composed of two 15.7 inch 3K OLED screens. The cabin chip comes with two 8155 chips, 24GB of memory, and 256GB of storage space, and supports dual 5G networks. The central area of the second row features a 15.7 inch screen with the same hardware quality as the front displays.

L9’s AD Max (Intelligent Driving)

The hardware mainly includes an estimated cost of 8,000 for the Velodyne AT128 LiDAR and 3,000 for other perception components, along with 10,000 for the main computing platform. The total hardware cost is over 20,000.

• 1 Velodyne AT128 LiDAR, with a cloud point density of 1.53 million/s

• 4 2-million-pixel surround-view cameras

• 6 8-million-pixel and 1 2-million-pixel (rear-facing) perception cameras

• 2 Orin-X chips, providing 508Tops of computing power (mutual redundancy)

• 5 Intelligent Driving Assistance Lamps

The two 8-million-pixel cameras in front can cover a wide angle of 120 degrees and identify vehicles, pedestrians, and objects up to 550 meters away. The 128-line LiDAR improves the accuracy of environmental perception, but the software effect is still the key factor.

Summary: The new energy vehicles this year have actually become more expensive. The good thing is that our joint venture and luxury brands have risen to the top of the new energy vehicle disdain chain. However, to achieve high profit margins like Tesla, it is not only about high selling prices, but also requires improving efficiency in technology and manufacturing. Sometimes the more I delve into Tesla, the more I feel that domestic car companies in China still need to invest more in technology and rely less on increasing prices, otherwise the niche market will become narrower as people’s incomes are limited.

小结：今年的新能源汽车其实越搞越贵了，好的一面在于我们合资品牌、豪华品牌在新能源汽车方面的鄙视链中抢了上峰；但另一面是，本身能像特斯拉一样拉出高毛利的不光是高售价，而是需要在各方面技术和制造方面的效率提高。有时候越深入研究特斯拉，我觉得国内的车企还是得做更多的技术投入，光靠提价格会把细分市场越做越窄 —— 大家的收入有限，曲高和寡。

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.