Author | Chai Xuchen

Editor | Wang Xiaojuan

There is only one month left until the end of 2024, and Ideal has provoked a year-end battle in the luxury car market.

On November 29, Ideal announced a 3-year zero-interest policy for all of its models, lowering the car purchase threshold to a minimum. Among them, the initial L6 down payment was less than 0.07 million yuan, and the flagship MPV MEGA down payment was less than 0.16 million yuan. The policy will last until December 31 of this year.

Liu Jie, president of Ideal Product Line, said that the interest-free policy was jointly introduced with partner banks; if users need a 5-year long-term loan, Ideal also provides a low interest rate plan (0.99%), and “the rate is only less than half of the financial solutions on the market.”

This means that you can drive an L6 with a monthly fee of 3,000 or 5,000, and you can buy back MEGA for 6,000 to 10,000. It's really tempting for working family users who are still on the sidelines.

This is an ideal attempt to consolidate the high-end market share. Under the ice, a general attack against the BBA began quietly.

In the first half of the year, due to the impact of the MEGA crisis, the ideal share of the 0.2 million+ market was lower than 16% at the end of last year. Fortunately, the decline was swept away after L6 volume and smart driving, and it rebounded to 17.3% in the third quarter.

According to the data, with the release of the L series, Ideal has been the Chinese brand car sales champion of more than 0.2 million for 31 consecutive weeks. Currently, the L6 surpasses the main BBA forces such as Mercedes-Benz C-Class, BMW 3 Series, and Audi Q5. Driven by top sales, in the third quarter, sales volume in the ideal price range of 0.2 million yuan or more surpassed that of Audi and BMW.

This is a critical moment for domestic brands to break the traditional competitive pattern in the luxury car market. Currently, Ideal has just reached the point of one million sales. Whether it can stabilize its rise and sprint to the second million next will also test its ability to excel in the luxury market.

However, Ideal has also entered the year-end product gap period and the low sales season in the market. It must ensure that it can maintain its upward trend, and also wait steadily until pure electric models take over next year, so it will inevitably give more sincerity to the market.

Prior to this round of preferential policies, Ideal was already looking for increments to achieve further penetration into the high-end market.

Meng Qingpeng, vice president of Ideal Supply Chain, revealed that from the end of this year to the beginning of next year, Ideal will continue to unleash the potential of L6, impacting 0.03 million/month sales. On the other hand, Ideal is finally determined to catch up with this round of external expansion and set up a first-level overseas division at the end of October this year, which is currently targeting the Middle East and Latin American markets.

In addition to the product, Ideal is also actively refining smart driving functions. Recently, with the launch of the End-to-End + VLM model, the ideal smart driving experience has rapidly improved, leading to an increase in sales of various high-spec, high-margin AD Max models.

Behind a series of measures is the desire to secure the final seat.

Ideal Insider said bluntly that the ideal goal is to gain 25% of the market of 0.2 million yuan or more. Meng Qingpeng pointed out that the domestic market of 0.2 million yuan or more sells more than 6 million units a year, and the corresponding market share of 1/4 is 1.5 million units. The three BBA companies together account for more than 2.3 million, with an average sales volume of 0.773 million units last year.

Currently, Ideal has the capacity to sell around 0.6 million new cars a year. If it continues its current momentum and continues its onslaught, adding up next year's Pure Electric Series cards, it may not be far away from completely surpassing the BBA.

However, according to industry figures, the internal volume and price war situation in the automobile market will intensify next year. Rivals such as Huawei, Xiaomi, and NIO are already eyeing their backs, and brands such as Avita and Zhiji are also preparing to embark on a range-enhancing circuit. Even joint ventures such as Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz are preparing to launch an all-out battle next year.

Zhang Xiao, the person in charge of the Ideal Auto product line, mentioned that before 2030, Ideal would have to take 30% of the domestic market share of 0.2 million yuan or more to be considered stable, corresponding to a scale of more than 2 million yuan. At that time, the ideal will be one of the few top winners and stay on top of the final table in the luxury car market.

This is still quite a challenge for an ideal that has just reached the scale of one million. In the future, in addition to surpassing the BBA, it will still have to compete with its rivals to secure a small number of seats in the end. This also means that its pure electric series, which arrives next year, cannot be lost.

Ideally, next year will be a critical time to determine whether it can become a “giant” and maintain the throne of domestic luxury cars.