Text | Huaxia Energy Network
"It’ s another price cut of 20,000, and it’ s announced to stop production. It feels like being backstab." A car owner who just booked a Li one not long ago told Huaxia Energy Network, "Now it’s time to return the reservation and wait and see. After all, there are other options on the market."
Recently, LI was caught in the vortex of "cutting prices and stopping production", which was acknowledged by the official customer service and related personnel in LI on the 5th. Previously, LI had publicly stated that he would release Li one’s "flat replacement" ideal L8 in the future to replace the current Li one, but the specific time has not yet been announced.
On September 3, LI released "About Li ONE for sale" on the official APP.HoubaoDescription of Barriers and Software Upgrade Services, which indicates that after the release of L8, the basic guarantee of Li ONE will not be affected, but in this announcement, the news that it is about to stop production has not been publicized.
As the first model released by founder Li Xiang, Li one can be called "outstanding achievements". The car was released in October 2018 and officially delivered in December 2019. In less than three years after delivery, he has led LI to win the sales champion of new forces and the sales champion of medium and large SUVs several times, which has accumulated a good reputation for the ideal.
However, the more so, the more surprising LI gave up this car. Giving up the brand name for three years and replacing it with a more "standard" but no accumulation L8 is quite rare in a very successful car.
Behind this action, it reflects the difficult situation that LI is facing at present.
If you don’t pick it up, the sales volume will be halved.
In the past August, it was a "disaster" for LI, and the monthly sales volume was "halved" month on month and year on year.
According to the official data of LI, a total of 4,571 vehicles were delivered in LI in August, down 51.54% year-on-year and 56.14% quarter-on-quarter. From January to August, a total of 75,400 vehicles were delivered, a year-on-year increase of 56.5%; Since the delivery, the historical cumulative delivery volume is nearly 200,000 vehicles.
As LI’s new L9 model was only delivered on August 30th, the above sales data almost completely depend on Li one. It is with this model that the ideal sales volume has been equal to that of Tucki, Weilai and Nezha.
On the one hand, the current L9 has just been listed, and it is limited by the production capacity of some parts in the supply chain, so it is impossible to increase the volume quickly. On the other hand, Li ONE is influenced by the upcoming release of new cars, and consumers are holding money to wait and see.
From a deeper perspective, LI is extremely dependent on a specific market group at present, which will lead to the emotional fluctuation of this market group in any vehicle change, upgrade and new action, resulting in internal competition among different models, which will have a huge adverse impact on its vehicle sales.
Take Ideal L9 as an example. It is the same technical route as Li ONE, and it also focuses on medium and large SUVs. The prices are 350,000 yuan and 460,000 yuan respectively, both of which belong to the high price range. "It can be said that the two models are direct competing products, and the target users and product positioning are highly similar, which has a great impact on the sales of the whole company." A car critic told Huaxia Energy Network.
The direct evidence of the competition between the two products is in LI’s own performance conference. On August 15th, the company released Q2 financial report, saying that the expected delivery volume of Q3 was 27,000-29,000 vehicles. According to the current data, if the sales volume of L9 successfully exceeds 10,000, the sales volume in Li ONE in September will be halved compared with that in July, and the competition between the two products is very obvious.
On August 31st, Li Xiang revealed on social media that both Pro and Max versions can be selected for the new ideal L8 six-seat and five-seat VIP models. Pro version corresponds to the combination of AD Pro and SS Pro, while Max version corresponds to the combination of AD Max and SS Max. AD Max ADopts dual Orin X+ lidar+full set of security redundancy, while AD Pro is the world premiere of a high-performance ad chip with high cost performance.
Judging from the information published at present, there is still no significant difference between L8 and L9 in terms of target users and product positioning, which means that after the launch of L8, LI’s overall sales volume will still face the dilemma of "beating itself". If the price difference is too large, it will even cause fierce reactions from some scheduled L9 users, just as Li ONE announced the price reduction this time.
Surrounded by tigers, the situation is embarrassing.
LI’s current embarrassing situation has something to do with targeted competition from outside.
Li ONE’s success depends largely on its accurate product positioning. But three years later, this market has been targeted by many players. Whether LI can survive under the encirclement and suppression of new forces and old rivers and lakes will be the main problem in the future.
In July, at Huawei’s press conference, Yu Chengdong made a high-profile announcement about the M7. This car belongs to the extended program, and its product positioning, target users and price range are almost the same as those of Li ONE. Although the series of cars in the world were launched by Xiaokang Selis, neither officials nor consumers will doubt the "Huawei lineage" of this car.
At this press conference, Yu Chengdong also praised the technology of extended range, saying that extended range is a very good choice, and extended range is the closest step to pure electricity, because the battery capacity is large and there is no direct drive of fuel engine, which reduces the maintenance cost and improves the ride comfort and performance.
Due to the strong benchmarking nature of this product, Auxiliary snatched a large number of ideal potential users as soon as it was released, and obtained 20,000 scheduled orders on the same day. Although the sales volume in the first month shows that there is still a big gap between Li ONE and China, the gap is not obvious, and it will continue to grow when Li ONE announces to stop production.
Perhaps the ideal felt the crisis. Shortly after the release of M7, the news that the ideal L8, which should have been released next year, will be accelerated began to appear, and it was recently proved that it will be released this year. The two models have not yet fought head-on in the market, but from the ideal hasty response, it is enough to see the tremendous pressure felt by the company.
If Huawei is a foreign "invader", then the "peers" such as Wei Lai, Tucki and Nezha, who belong to the new power camp, are as tough to deal with. The relationship between Ideal and them has entered the stage of all-round competition from the previous dislocation competition.
Take Weilai, which is also a high-end car, as an example, its second brand with a positioning of 200,000 yuan has been on the line, and news has come out that it will release the third brand with a positioning of 100,000 yuan, directly killing and grabbing the market.
When the new forces were in full swing, BYD quietly surpassed Tesla in the first half of this year and became the world’s first car company in terms of new energy vehicle shipments. At the same time, whether it is joint venture brands such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz or BMW, or independent brands such as Great Wall, Chang ‘an and Guangzhou Automobile, etc., they have announced ambitious new energy vehicle strategies this year, which are overwhelming with strong supply chain and channel advantages.
In the face of such complicated and fierce market competition, it is difficult for LI to get rid of the current predicament easily with the release of Ideal L8. Once its advantages of misplaced competition are gradually eroded by competitors, it will be more passive in the future competition.
Can we save the decline with the release of L8? Obviously, LI needs to think more.