Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dong Bin and I am one of the first users to purchase the Ideal L9 in Hangzhou, and also the 176th owner of the 2020 model of the Ideal ONE. I run a business selling wooden furniture, and currently have a family of five, with the second baby on the way, making us a family of four soon.
For the early batch of 2020 Ideal ONE owners, if you still remember, my car was speed-limited to 30 mph due to the transport mode not being released upon delivery, and I inadvertently drove on the highway. It became trending news, as the “slowest Ideal ONE” over 110,000 km, and I have now bought an Ideal car again and sold my Mercedes S for an L9.
This time, at the invitation of Garage 42, I would like to share with you the process of buying an L9!
Why did I choose Ideal in the first place?
From my hometown Nanxun to a wood factory near the Yunnan border, it’s nearly 3,000 kilometers away. With a pure electric vehicle, I would need to recharge every three to four hundred kilometers, which is inconvenient. With Ideal, it’s just like refueling – you can go wherever you want, without the anxiety of limited mileage.
Sometimes when my Ideal ONE is not being used at home, it can be inconvenient to not have a car for the wood factory. After purchasing an Ideal L9, I can use my Ideal ONE at the wood factory.
If there are other car purchasing requirements in the future, I may consider the BYD Tang EV, but the price is a bit higher. Alternatively, I can wait for the Ideal L8 in the same price range.
Will I switch my Ideal ONE for an L8?
I won’t consider switching because I need several cars for my factory, and even if I sell a car, I will prioritize selling other gasoline-powered cars because my Ideal ONE has a lifetime warranty.
One thing I am deeply impressed with is that I often drive from the China-Myanmar border to Kunming, a journey of about seven to eight hours. What can Ideal’s service do? What makes me recognize the Ideal brand is that they can drive seven to eight hours just for maintenance on my car.
At my recommendation, friends from the border factory also bought Li Xiang’s cars. Now, Li Xiang’s service staff can come and do maintenance for six or seven cars at once.
Will you consider switching to pure electric car models in the future?
At present, Li Xiang’s pure electric car models have not yet been released. I might consider buying a NIO ET5 for my wife, as she mainly drives in the city to pick up and drop off children.
If the experience is good, I may also buy a pure electric car for my sister. Their biggest need for a car is short-distance travel, with practicality being the main consideration, and they do not need a lot of space.
I am not opposed to choosing brands other than Li Xiang, such as BYD. Although BYD may not have been doing well a few years ago, the products they have made in recent years are still acceptable, leading to an improvement in my impression of BYD’s brand. Although there have been so many spontaneous combustion incidents, I think it is because BYD’s sales volume is high, and the base is large, but this is only my personal opinion.
So in the second half of this year, I may also add a BYD electric car to the border factory, either a Tang or a Song. But the price of a Song is more affordable, depending on the situation.
How do you view other brands of new energy vehicles?
Tesla
As for other brands, I do not consider Tesla, because I cannot accept its workmanship. One of my best friends bought a Model X, and when I rode in his car, I often asked him, “Did you not shut the rear window of your car?” because his Model X has some wind leakage from the rear window, probably due to the frameless door.
Another point is that I do not like its one-pedal mode. Some people may get used to it after driving for a while, but if my wife comes to drive a car with a one-pedal system, it will be more dangerous because she will press the wrong pedal when nervous, and then the accelerator will be considered as a brake. It is too dangerous. Compared with this, the kinetic energy recovery of the Li Xiang ONE is very comfortable and practical.
I don’t think it is necessary to deliberately change my wife’s driving habits in order to save electricity.
NIO
I may prefer NIO more. One of my friends is a dual-brand car owner of Li Xiang and NIO. Just today, I borrowed his NIO car and tried the 39,000 yuan high-level assisted driving. The feeling of getting on and off the ramp was okay.
I have not tried the ET7, but my dad went for a test drive and he gave ET7 a very high evaluation. One day he took the kids to the mall, and happened to pass by NIO’s experience store, so he test drove the ET7. After the test drive, he told me “Why don’t you change your wife’s car to ET7?” I said that the ET7 is too big, and my wife prefers a smaller car because it is more convenient to park, and many multi-level parking lots cannot accommodate cars over 5 meters.
XPeng
As for XPeng, my wife thinks the styling is okay, so when it comes time to change her car, we will choose between the ET5 and XPeng. I drove the XPeng car for a few days with my friend before. I think the power is very strong, but it is too low, resulting in a more reclined sitting posture, which may be because I am used to driving an off-road vehicle, and the suspension is quite ordinary.Before the popularity of electric cars, I liked fuel performance cars, such as the Golf R, and would buy cars of this type. However, after experiencing high-performance electric cars, I found that the original fuel performance cars were too slow.
However, the performance of electric cars is difficult to fully utilize in daily life and is not necessary. After all, safety comes first and there is no need to excessively pursue acceleration. A few days ago, the hundred-kilometer acceleration of the NIO ET5 was improved from 4.3 seconds to 4 seconds. I personally think that it is not suitable for women like my wife, it’s a bit too fast.
Ideal
My ideal is the interior space and six-seat layout, especially since I have a family of five and will soon be preparing for a second child. Ideal L9 with six seats is just right.
Sometimes, when traveling from Hangzhou to Shanghai Disneyland, which is several hundred kilometers away, if we were to take a five-seater car, we would need two cars. Because it is very uncomfortable to have five people sitting in a five-seater car.
My daughter doesn’t like to sit in the second row. After getting in the car, she goes straight to the third row. The aisle space in the second row is very large, and she can move freely between the second and third rows, just like a child. I think that the Ideal is really prepared for families with two children, or families with more members.
Then there’s the screen. Although many people criticize the Ideal’s “big TV,” for me, during a long-distance journey of 3 or 4 hours, it’s inevitable that children will make noise in the car. Now that I’m driving the Ideal, I can just let them watch an episode of a television show after getting in the car, ensuring that everyone stays quiet. So, there’s no need for everyone to hate on the Ideal for this.
Others
For other domestic cars, the Changan Blue, NETA, and BYD’s Hippo are all pretty good.
Why did I sell the S-Class and switch to the L9?
When I was still at home, I didn’t like driving the S-Class. I believe that besides the suspension being better than the Ideal ONE, there are no other advantages to the S-Class. For example, acceleration, car machines, and so on, even my 60-year-old father said that besides the suspension, the S-Class has no other advantages.
For example, I like to listen to music as soon as I get in the car, and the Ideal ONE starts up right away, but the S-Class needs to be started several times, which is not in line with my needs. Personally, I think that Chinese people have gone from having no cars, to starting to buy cars, to buying luxury brands, and now prioritize practicality.
As for me, the stage of paying extra for brand premium has passed, so when many people ask me why I spent over 400,000 yuan to buy the L9, my answer is: buy what you want.
Next is the operating cost of the vehicle. Before selling the S-class, the electronic parking brake broke down and repairing it cost more than 3,000 yuan. The day before selling the car, a fault code prompted the need to replace the brake disc, but I remembered that it hadn’t been changed in less than 30,000 kilometers, and besides being very expensive to replace, maintenance cost more than 10,000 yuan. Although I can afford the maintenance, I feel that the operating cost is too high and not necessary.
My previous car had a creaking sound from the trunk, and when I drove it to the Kunming delivery center, they immediately helped me replace it after inspecting it. This is something that Mercedes-Benz and all other BBA manufacturers cannot do.
I believe that in the current Chinese situation, electric cars are mainly used for urban commuting and occasional trips. I may drive a hybrid or pure gasoline car for short trips. For occasional long trips, a vehicle with an 800V high-voltage fast charging like the XPeng G9 is sufficient. During a half-hour break at a service station, I can use the restroom, grab a bite, drink coffee, and come back.
More importantly, it is the number of charging piles. I think the number is still too small. With the increasing number of new energy vehicles, we hope that the number of charging stations can also increase to avoid queues during holidays.
What is the biggest change after switching to a new energy vehicle?
I think the biggest change after switching to an electric car is that you can spend half or one hour in the car without worrying about anything, just enjoy your space. I have been to Shanghai, which is a fast-paced city. If I drive myself, at least that space belongs to me. But I am always worried about fuel consumption and carbon deposits when driving a gasoline car and parking it.
For instance, my wife said that when she was waiting for the kids in the past, the engine vibration was significant as she needed to turn on the air conditioner due to the hot weather. But after she got the Ideal ONE, she found it very quiet and could even watch TV. Now she may arrive 20 minutes earlier to have some personal space in the car instead of 5 minutes in advance. I think this is a significant change.
Will the auxiliary driving affect your purchase decision?
I rely heavily on this auxiliary driving system. As mentioned earlier, I can drive for 24 hours and cover 2,200 kilometers. I am very satisfied with the L9 auxiliary driving system because it is much better than the Ideal ONE in terms of hardware.
After driving the L9 system for another half month, I will post my experience, and you can look forward to it.
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.