Preface
At the beginning of this article, I have a question for you: What is the first factor you consider when buying a car? I’m sure many people will answer, “It’s definitely the budget.” Until recently, I also thought so persistently in my own information cocoon.
Today, I attended the first delivery ceremony of the IDEAL L9 and met Mr. Wu during this trip. The exchange process also gave me a clear mind. So today, I will try to share the interview contents with you from my own perspective as a novice.
Let me introduce Mr. Wu briefly. Why do we call him Mr. Wu? Because during the introduction, it was discovered that Mr. Wu is actually a high school mathematics teacher. Mr. Wu is also a promising young person, a post-90s generation who is unmarried and has no children. So when he first entered the interview room, he was a little surprised, “Hey, are you really the target user for the IDEAL?” As we all know, the IDEAL is positioned as a family-oriented car.
Why Choose IDEAL?
This answer is also the question I raised at the beginning of the article: What is the first factor you consider when buying a car? Appearance? Brand? Comfort? Fuel consumption? Maintenance costs? Or budget?
Today, I got a new answer: Start from the needs and think about what you really want to achieve. Pain points lead to problems, problems lead to needs, and needs lead to decisions.
Mr. Wu himself is a 2020 IDEAL ONE owner, so I want to focus on “Why choose hybrid” here.
In the initial car purchase decision, Mr. Wu was very clear: I want to choose a hybrid car.
Here, Mr. Wu raised the first pain point, “If I buy a car with a range of 700 kilometers, and my range drops by 300 kilometers after a day of driving, should I charge it or not if there is no charging station around? What if I have heavy car usage needs tomorrow?”
First of all, the** sense of control brought by the hybrid model allows you to choose between charging and refueling at will**, without any worries about traveling. When you feel depressed and want to relax by visiting the beautiful mountains and rivers in your country, you don’t have to specially plan your trip, you can just go.
Secondly, the car usage experience you need was mentioned during the communication process. Mr. Wu also talked about the pain points of a gasoline car.
- Hangzhou’s commuting traffic is still quite severe. Whenever there is a traffic jam, the energy consumption of the gasoline car will be very high. However, if it is a hybrid car, it will preferentially consume electricity during low-speed driving, with better fuel-saving effect. After the electricity is used to a certain extent, it will use gasoline range, which saves a large part of the fuel consumption.
- The quiet feeling inside the car is also indispensable. When you are waiting for the traffic lights or caught in a traffic jam, the engine of the gasoline car will keep vibrating. Comparatively, the hybrid car will be relatively quiet, which can provide a quieter space for thinking.- The green license plate will solve the problem of restricted driving. In the comparison process, I was very fond of the Lexus ES300h series, which features hybrid cars. However, Lexus can only put a blue license plate. At this time, the appearance of the Ideal ONE also solved this pain point very well.
Why Ideal?
Maybe it’s because of my background as a math teacher, but the Ideal product concept is very similar to Teacher Wu’s thinking logic. I like to start thinking about what goals I want to achieve from demand. After all, the product is the best spokesperson, and the Ideal product strength makes people feel at ease.
Moreover, compared to the current extended range market, Ideal has no rivals. Among the green license plate models selected by Teacher Wu, Ideal is the only vehicle that meets all his requirements.
Because the extended range is completely electric-driven, there is no gearbox, and the driving quality consistency of pure electric drive is high, and the system is more reliable; the extended range can work in a more efficient range, and the fuel consumption in the city, where users spend the vast majority of their time, is lower.
In fact, Teacher Wu also test drove and compared hybrid models of traditional brands such as BMW and Audi, but eventually gave up.
In Teacher Wu’s eyes, one of the biggest problems with traditional manufacturers is that the “electrification transformation” is not thorough enough.
In the current BBA product line, there are still many products that are “oil to electricity” and not purely electric vehicles. First of all, in terms of the attitude towards making cars, Teacher Wu does not particularly agree with traditional manufacturers.
Secondly, let’s talk about the “making cars” issue. At this stage, most of the hybrid models of traditional luxury brands that Teacher Wu has tried use a parallel hybrid + P2 motor system. Relatively speaking, this hybrid technology is relatively old, and there will be more obvious jerks and noise when the engine intervenes in driving. The overall driving quality and NVH control cannot meet his expectations.
Final Remarks
At the same time, I also asked Teacher Wu some questions that everyone cares about. For example, what are the improvements of the Ideal L9 compared to the ONE?
Of course, these answers must be easy for veteran drivers like you to understand. As a novice, I still want to show off a little.
Compared to the 20 models of the ONE, you can clearly feel the following three points in the L9:
- The fuel tank capacity of the L9 has increased.
- The front storage space is much more spacious.
- The air suspension is also more comfortable.
I don’t know how many veteran drivers will see this interview. In many reports, my article with a novice perspective is really not satisfactory. However, I still want to raise some areas where the L9 can be improved, hoping to be seen.
- The placement of the driving recorder is a bit weak.
- The interaction of the car machine design is a bit hasty, such as the unreasonable setting of the wind speed control on the air conditioning interface.
Finally, congratulations to Teacher Wu on picking up his car.
I sincerely hope that all manufacturers can stick to their original intentions to improve their product experience and communication with users. In the increasingly competitive new energy industry, products are the core competitiveness.
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.