After the launch of MEGA, a subsidiary of Ideal Automobile, into the market, it was caught in a whirlpool of public opinion due to its appearance. Li Xiang, Chairman and CEO of Ideal Automobile, finally spoke out.
On March 11th, Li Xiang posted on his WeChat Moments, saying, "We are already using legal means to deal with the organized illegal and criminal acts that occurred in the incident."
Li Xiang: There are organized illegal and criminal activities
According to a report from China News Service, Li Xiang posted on his WeChat Moments on the 11th, "Everyone should be quite clear about what has happened in the past ten days. Many users and friends are worried about us and speak up for us. No matter how difficult it is, they are continuously helping and supporting us. I am deeply grateful for this, which is also the core driving force for our growth."
Li Xiang said, "We are already using legal means to deal with the organized illegal and criminal activities in the incident."
In addition, Li Xiang also stated, "Although I am in darkness, I still choose light. If I choose to compromise with darkness, or even join darkness, then I and the people around me will become the ones we dislike, and the society we live in will become increasingly dark. After careful consideration, we have decided to start counterattacking with light. We hope that more people can work together to create and transmit beautiful designs, unique creativity, and happy times, so that more beautiful images can appear in our lives."
Source: Zhongxin Longitude and Latitude
On March 1st, the first pure electric MPV of Ideal Automobile, MEGA, was launched at a price of 559800 yuan. This also means that Ideal Automobile will officially start competing in the pure electric MPV market.
At the launch event of Ideal MEGA, Li Xiang stated that MEGA can achieve peak 5C battery charging rate, with a peak charging power of over 520kW, and can charge 500 kilometers in 12 minutes. Meanwhile, relying on factors such as a 0.215 low wind resistance design, MEGA uses a 102.7 kilowatt hour battery and can achieve a range of 710 kilometers under CLTC conditions.
Li Xiang stated that MEGA will be the next explosive product of Ideal Automobile and is confident to become the best-selling product for passenger cars priced over 500000 yuan.
The background of the launch of Ideal MEGA is that the penetration rate of new energy in the domestic automotive market with a price of over 500000 yuan is relatively low, currently hovering around 10%. This means that there are still huge opportunities in this niche field.
According to the Daily Economic News reporter, Ideal Automobile has high expectations for MEGA, with an expected annual sales volume of around 80000 units. This means that after the launch of Ideal MEGA, the average monthly sales will reach nearly 8000 units.
However, in recent days, the appearance, pricing, and order volume of Ideal MEGA have been subject to a lot of public controversy. At present, the official data related to Ideal MEGA has not been released by Ideal Automobile. The stock price of Ideal Automobile has experienced a significant decline in both the Hong Kong and US stock markets, and in just a few days, the market value of Ideal Hong Kong has dropped by nearly 70 billion yuan.
It is worth noting that Li Xiang, who was quite active on Weibo before, has not updated Weibo since March 2nd.
The new car MEGA was maliciously photographed by netizens
Ideal Automobile sends a complaint letter
In 2023, the official released some pictures of the ideal MEGA, which were mocked by many netizens for having a droplet shaped front end and a sloping roof. The overall design has similarities with high-speed rail. And the Ideal official also played a joke and gave it the nickname "Highway High Speed Rail", which to some extent resolved external doubts.
Surprisingly, after the release of Ideal MEGA, it once again encountered a design controversy.
According to a report from First Financial News, a car blogger recently exposed a notification letter on the internet stating that Ideal Automobile has filed a complaint with a certain platform. The notice letter shows that on March 2, 2024, users of a social media platform such as "Mature Cat" maliciously posted "P images" on the new MEGA model of Ideal Automobile, including the words "Dien" and "New Energy Funeral Parlor Car", seriously infringing on the product image and brand reputation of Ideal Automobile, and infringing on its reputation. In terms of ideals, it is required that the relevant content of the platform be deleted or processed.
According to a report by Red Star News on March 4th, the reporter found that as of 10:00 am on March 4th, all the links involved in the notification letter could no longer be opened. On the afternoon of March 4th, the reporter verified the authenticity of the above-mentioned notification letter with Ideal Automobile, stating that "the letter was indeed sent to some media by us." Ideal Automobile also stated that the netizen who issued the notification letter had changed their account name and could not find any relevant information, and it is currently being resolved.
Ideal Automobile stated that the extensive posting, forwarding, and commenting of images, videos, and comments containing the above-mentioned insulting information on online platforms has clearly violated the provisions of Article 1024 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China and infringed on the company's reputation rights. The company has requested the deletion of infringing information from various online platforms through sending infringement notices, lawyer letters, and other forms. Ideal Automobile reserves the right to pursue legal responsibility for the infringement of malicious manufacturing and dissemination of the aforementioned information.