Caixin News Agency, April 22 (Reporter Xu Hao) Faced with unexpected orders and increasingly tight competitors, Ideal Automobile, which has always been opposed to a "price war", can only choose to "join if it cannot win".
On April 22nd, Ideal Automobile announced that starting from now, the 2024 Ideal L7, Ideal L8, Ideal L9, and Ideal MEGA will adopt a new pricing system, and new ordering users as well as those who have already ordered but have not yet delivered can enjoy the new prices. At the same time, cash rewards will also be provided to owners of the 2024 Ideal L7, Ideal L8, Ideal L9, and Ideal MEGA who have already collected their vehicles. Among them, the new price of the Ideal MEGA is 529800 yuan, a decrease of 30000 yuan compared to before, making it the model with the largest decline. The price reduction for different versions of the Ideal L series ranges from 18000 to 20000 yuan.
Liu Jie, Vice President of Ideal Automobile, once stated that he will challenge the sales target of 800000 vehicles this year. Among them, the sales target for the L7, L8, and L9 models currently on sale is 400000 units this year. The Ideal MEGA will challenge the monthly sales target of 8000 units, and the Ideal L6 will challenge the monthly sales target of 30000 units. However, after the listing of Ideal MEGA, it encountered a public opinion storm and the market performance did not meet expectations. In addition, data shows that Ideal Automobile delivered 80400 units in the first quarter of this year. Prior to this, Ideal had announced that due to lower than expected sales orders, the expected delivery volume of vehicles in the first quarter of 2024 was 76000 to 78000 units, lower than the previous expectation of 100000 to 103000 units.
Before the official announcement of the price adjustment for the entire series on April 22, with the release of information on the 2024 facelift models of the Ideal L series earlier this year, a round of price adjustments had been carried out, with a maximum reduction of 33000 yuan. In addition, the newly released Ideal L6 has also adopted a low price strategy. Liu Jie once publicly stated that the L6 Pro version was originally priced at 259800 yuan, but after internal consideration, it was ultimately changed to 249800 yuan. On the evening of April 21st, Ideal Automobile announced that the accumulated orders for Ideal L6 exceeded 10000 units within 72 hours.
Just before Ideal made the aforementioned adjustments on April 21st, Tesla China also lowered the prices of all models, but earlier this month, Tesla China announced a price increase. The repeated price jumps of Tesla are also a helpless move under the pressure of a price war. According to data released by Tesla, the company produced over 433000 vehicles and delivered approximately 387000 vehicles in the first quarter of 2024, which fell short of market expectations. Among them, the delivery volume of Model 3/Y was 369783 vehicles, a 10% decrease compared to the estimated 426940 vehicles.
"The main adverse factors faced by Tesla include a larger than expected decline in car prices, increased competition in electric vehicles, and delays in products and functions such as FSD and third-generation platforms. Therefore, although the company has long-term growth potential, it faces significant risks in the short term," said Goldman Sachs analyst.
Not only Tesla and Ideal, but also Xiaopeng Motors announced on April 20th a limited time purchase subsidy of 500 million yuan, covering multiple models under its umbrella, including the Xiaopeng G9, G6, P7i, and the 2024 Xiaopeng P5. Among them, the official guide price for the new 580 Long Range Plus version of the Xiaopeng G6 is 199900 yuan, with a limited time discount of 20000 yuan. On April 1st, the starting price of the entry-level model of the Wenjie New M7 was also reduced by 20000 yuan to 229800 yuan from 249800 yuan.