Author: GeekCar

Just now, the second mass-produced model of Ideal Automotive was officially released, along with a starting price of 459,800 yuan and specific car configurations.

A few days ago, we saw the actual car of the Ideal L9 in advance. We can first use a video to get a closer look of this Ideal L9.

There are still many features of the Ideal L9, and the video is relatively long and detailed. So, next I want to chat about the Ideal L9 in detail.

First, let’s talk about its appearance

As for aesthetic preference, it still holds true that “to each his own.” However, at least the Ideal L9 is in line with my aesthetic preference, mainly because it looks a lot like my childhood memory: RoboCop.

Take the BMW X7 and Mercedes-Benz GLS as examples, both models have obvious character displays. For example, the BMW X7 wants to emphasize sportiness, while the Mercedes-Benz GLS wants to emphasize imposing presence. However, the feeling that the Ideal L9 brings to me is somewhat too restrained.

There are a few details that still leave a deep impression on me:

One is that the Ideal L9 is equipped with a new Star Ring LED daytime running light. Compared with the Ideal ONE, the Star Ring LED on L9 is 2 meters long and has no seams.

Although I already knew this information from the official pictures of the Ideal L9 a long time ago, seeing the actual car is still impressive.

Secondly, the observation of the tower-type lidar on the actual car is not as abrupt as I imagined. It may be because the Ideal L9 has a large body size and is a relatively square SUV model, so the lidar is not so prominent.

Okay, let’s take a look inside the car.

First, let’s talk about the intelligent cockpit.

The Ideal L9 has a total of four screens + one HUD in the car. The four screens include a 15.7-inch central control screen, a co-pilot entertainment screen, and a rear cabin entertainment screen:

• Using Samsung AMOLED material;
• The resolution reaches 2880*1620;
• Supports 16 million colors, 210 pixels per inch and 100% NTSC color gamut.

There is also a 4.82-inch safety driving interaction screen.

Overall, the screen quality of the Ideal L9 is still very high. The Ideal L9 did not blindly pursue the quantity, but also achieved the ultimate in software and experience. This point is still worthy of praise, after all, there have been many cabin products in our past car experiences that are “overburdening and poor in experience.”

This experience of the Ideal L9 also answered a question for me: how does the rear cabin entertainment screen interact?

For the rear cabin entertainment screen that is attached to the car roof, touch interaction is undoubtedly the “worst solution”. Although the rear cabin entertainment screen of the Ideal L9 also supports touch, the Ideal L9 also provides two other answers: voice and gestures.“`

When interpreting the Ideall L9 cabin in the previous article “After reading the L9 cabin spoiler, I want to say…“,
I proposed a viewpoint:

• The 6-audio-zone recognition carried by Ideall L9 can easily distinguish the position of the person being awakened and execute the front and rear entertainment screens accordingly.

• But for me, sometimes I may not know what I want to watch, I just want to browse, search, and select. If only voice interaction is retained at this time, the entire cabin will become like this during the driving process:

• “Ideal classmates, I want to watch movies, next page, next page, next page… Forget it, let’s watch TV series, next page, next page, next page… Or watch cartoons, next page, next page, next page… The fifth one…”

In addition, I also believe that the interaction with the rear entertainment screen can still be more enjoyable with the vehicle control tablet or remote control.

But Ideall L9 does not seem to do so, but uses 3D ToF sensors for gesture control. In the video just now, we also saw the interaction mode of gesture control.

P.S. If you haven’t watched the video, go back and watch it, and give it a like and a bookmark….

• But I think there will be several disadvantages to this interaction method:

• The control accuracy is not high;

• There may be a possibility of misoperation;

• The impact of the vehicle swaying on the interaction during dynamic driving;

• The learning cost is high;

• Too lazy to raise hands frequently, because hands get tired…

Previously, we wrote an article “Is gesture interaction reliable?” to analyze the practicality of gesture interaction in the automotive scenario. Therefore, even if Ideall L9’s 3D ToF gesture control has higher “playability”, I still don’t think this interaction mode is promising in the short term.

And, you can think of a scene: You are driving the Ideall L9 and glanced at the rearview mirror, and then found that the person in the back seat is… (as shown below)

Those unseen and temporarily unseen

Next, let’s briefly talk about intelligent driving.
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The Ideal L9 is equipped with the “Ideal AD Max” intelligent driving system, with a hardware component consisting of 2 Nvidia Orin-X chips, 6 800W cameras, 4 200W surround cameras, 1 200W rear camera, 1 front millimeter-wave radar, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and 1 128-line LiDAR.

In terms of software, the Ideal L9 adopts a pure visual algorithm, while the front millimeter-wave radar and LiDAR are more for providing safe redundancy in complex scenarios.

In addition, the Ideal L9 is also equipped with an external ADAS indicator, which can inform other traffic participants of the current status of the vehicle’s ADAS function. I believe this configuration will become one of the necessary hardware for future intelligent vehicles.

Currently, it is known that the intelligent driving system of the Ideal L9 is different from that of NIO and will adopt a standard configuration mode, with hardware embedded and software not requiring subscription. However, the specific performance still needs to be seen in future test drives.

Here, I have a question about the speed of software openness.

First of all, no matter whether the software and hardware of the highest level of autonomous driving function meet the standards, they cannot avoid the restrictions of policies. So, apart from the L4 and above autonomous driving functions, what will be the performance of the high-speed/city navigation assistance functions of the Ideal L9? When will software be pushed to let users experience the brand-new intelligent driving system and functions earlier? These are the contents that I am more concerned about.

Apart from the experience of intelligent driving, the information that is currently unknown is the specific dynamic driving. But we can take a simple look at the “hardware quality” of the Ideal L9.

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The IDEAL L9 is equipped with an extended-range electric 2.0 platform, adopting a front and rear dual-motor layout with a maximum system power of 330kW (approximately 450 horsepower), maximum torque of 620N·m, and a 0-100 km/h acceleration of 5.3 seconds.

The IDEAL L9 also uses NCM622 battery cells with a total battery capacity of 44.5kWh. The pure electric range under WLTC test conditions is 180km (215km under CLTC test conditions). Equipped with a newly developed 1.5T four-cylinder range extender produced by the IDEAL itself, the maximum thermal efficiency of the range extender reaches 40.5%, and the fuel tank has an available volume of 65L. The comprehensive cruising range capability under WLTC test conditions exceeds 1100km (1315km under CLTC test conditions).

The suspension system adopts a front double-wishbone and rear multi-link structure, equipped with air springs with CDC continuously adjustable damping system. The air springs are supplied by German supplier WABCO, and the shock absorbers are supplied by ZF Friedrichshafen.

Overall, whether it is self-developed or hardware provided by suppliers, the IDEAL L9 has a solid hardware foundation. Or it can be said that, before the dynamic experience, the IDEAL L9’s “book data” is very attractive. So, as for the final performance, we still have to see the test drive experience that will be open in July.

Finally, the final ending

So, in the end, what is the product strength of the IDEAL L9? What level does it represent?

To summarize, I think the Ideal L9, starting at 459,800 yuan, has the ability to compete with traditional luxury brands in the full-size SUV market, while also having the strength to block other SUV models in the same price range.

• If we only talk about “price”, 459,800 yuan might only buy a high-end mid-size SUV or a low-end large SUV from traditional luxury brands.

• If we only talk about “class”, aside from the Ideal L9, the cheapest non-pure electric full-size SUV on the market costs over one million yuan.

So, is the Ideal L9 only suppressing luxury brands? Actually, it has a significant impact on domestic and new energy vehicle brands. For example, NIO’s former flagship SUV model ES8, and the newly released “new flagship” SUV model ES7, as well as AITO’s upcoming mid-to-large-size SUV model M7 are likely to be priced in the 400,000 yuan range.

When chatting with a friend who is a father, he “instinctively” compared the Ideal L9 to MPV models on the market. Although we do not recommend comparing SUVs to MPVs, when considering usage scenarios such as “family” and “traveling with full occupancy,” there are similarities between the Ideal L9 and some mainstream MPV models.

After experiencing the Ideal L9, I found that it has its own advantages compared with some mainstream MPV models for “family” usage scenarios.

Finally, I wanted to discuss a question: Who really needs an Ideal full-size SUV, regardless of its product strength? First, not everyone needs a full-size SUV, as it may feel empty for a single user or a two-person group, and parking a large SUV also poses a challenge. Second, I think most people who choose the Ideal L9 are pragmatic, have strong family travel needs, and care more about product strength and value for money, rather than blindly pursuing luxury brands.Below is the English Markdown text with professional translation, keeping the HTML tags inside Markdown and only outputting the result:

That’s all for our experience and feelings about the Ideal L9. From the level to the price, from innovation to configuration and functionality, Ideal L9 seems to have become a “disruptor” in the segmented market. So, after the dynamic test drive, the comprehensive product strength of the Ideal L9 will be revealed.

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.