Facing the hard and hard boundaries, Ideal L9 can not get around the first battle

On May 15, the new ideal L9 (parameter | inquiry) was officially launched, with a total of two models, with an official guided price of 459,800-509,800 yuan. The whole conference took the comprehensive comparison of new and old models as the vector, progressing through the layers, clearly showing the all-round evolution of the new car. "New", "unique", "self-developed" and other keywords throughout, highlighting its technological breakthroughs and benchmarking. Finally, the official also launched the first sale period cash reduction and other car purchase rights and interests, full of sincerity. It seems that there is no need to judge the product power in depth. Just watching the press conference is enough to make the impulse to go to the experience store to taste the real car. However, how exactly is the new car, is it as described at the launch? As a former benchmark for extended-range SUVs, the new ideal L9 that completes the reborn and reborn upgrades, can it reach the top again and return to the top? The year-on-year growth exceeded 20%, and the sales target of Ideal Automobile in 2026 exceeded 487,000 by 2025. The annual sales of China's new power brands were Zero Run Automobile, Aito Boundary, Xiaomi Automobile, Ideal Automobile and Xiaopeng Automobile. Among them, the annual sales of running cars exceeded 500,000, an increase of 184% year-on-year, and the sales volume of Xiaomi cars nearly doubled year-on-year. Among the top five, only the ideal car declined year-on-year, which is also the first negative annual sales growth since 2020. In the face of the growth inflection point, Ideal Automobile quickly came up with the "3 +2" growth strategy, and made it clear in the fourth quarter of 2025 and the annual financial report conference call: The sales volume target for 2026 is more than 20% year-on-year growth, which refers to the annual sales scale of more than 487,000 vehicles. From the former Overlord of Extension to falling behind in growth, can the ideal car rely on new products and strategic adjustments to achieve a headwind turnaround? The average monthly sales volume of the ideal i6 is nearly 20,000 units, but the sales volume of the brand is difficult to solve by a single explosion. In January-April 2026, the ideal i6 took the lead in breaking through the circle and became the only highlight of the brand: the average monthly sales volume was nearly 20,000 units, a surge of 169.6% compared to September-December 2025, which strongly shouldered the basic sales volume. In contrast, the trend of other models of the ideal brand continues to bear pressure, especially at the most competitive SUV circuits, the L series is in a "high open low" predicament - once the sales pillars L7, L8, L9, now the monthly sales have fallen to thousands or even lower, the halo is no longer. The way to break the deadlock is to reconstruct the potential energy from the top down. Only by pulling the flagship 9 Series, which represents the brand's highest technology and positioning, out of the trough and reshaping the benchmark image can we drive the L series and even the brand's entire camp to recover and achieve "rising boats". At present, the configuration of "refrigerators, color TVs, large sofas" alone is no longer enough to support the flagship premium and competitiveness. In order to establish a new flagship image, we must first establish our own technical barriers. Before formally launching the market counterattack, the first task is to identify the root cause of the decline in sales. Relying on the comparison data of the car family, it can be seen that when the ideal L9 was just launched, the competition in the new energy market was scarce, and the external competition pressure was extremely small. 32% of the models compared by users came from the ideal home camp, with the ideal L8, ideal one, and ideal L7 as the mainstay. In 2024, with a large number of new power brands entering the market, the industry followed the product approach of the ideal "refrigerator, color TV, and large sofa", and the top five competitors in the ideal L9 list began to flood into external rivals. In particular, after the listing of the boundary M9, it quickly ranked second in the comparison of competing products, accounting for 13.1% of the comparison, second only to the ideal L8. In 2025, the ideal L8 slipped to the third place in the competitor list, and the ideal L9 began to face the strong impact of all models. The upheaval in the competitive landscape of the market is especially true from the terminal sales data, and the ideal L9 is the absolute hegemony of the extended-range large SUV in 2022. But by 2025, its share has been heavily eroded by the boundary series models, leaving only 14.7%. Relying on the full support of Huawei's full stack technology, the boundary M9 and M8 quickly opened up the extended-range large SUV market, rising to 74.3% in 2025, achieving strong expansion. With intelligent and comprehensive landing, comprehensive product upgrades can not be abandoned, although the advantageous experience of the original refrigerator, color TV, and large sofa in the extended range position can not be abandoned, but the empowerment of new technologies is the core key to the ideal return to the peak. In fact, overweight core technology, deep cultivation of the smart cockpit and advanced intelligent driving are the inevitable correct choices for the industry. According to data from the Automobile House survey, the higher the budget for car purchases, the higher the proportion of users who tend to choose new brands in China. Among them, among the more than 500,000 high-end car buyers, 80.4% of users said that they were considering buying new brand models from China. They valued the hard strength and value of the products, so as to achieve good value for money. Among the many car purchase considerations, the top 5 most concerned by over 500,000 budget users are intelligence, range, quality, safety, and after-sales service. Among them, compared with the overall users, more than 500,000 high-budget users have an exceptional preference for intelligence, and the TGI is as high as 154. It can be seen that intelligence has become the core key to the battle for the high-end new energy market. Among the considerations that can accelerate users' car purchase decisions, the core components and favorite new cars of well-known technology companies have the highest market share, accounting for 54.3% and 52.2%, respectively, and the TGI is as high as 121 and 132. Although the name of the supplier was not highlighted in the new car launch conference, an important part of the story is the new self-developed Mach M100 chip. Of course, the user's perception of the chip ultimately rests on the actual experience of the entire vehicle. Whether it is intelligent assisted driving or car cabin functions, it is the most intuitive criterion for users to judge the technical strength. For the new Ideal L9, regaining lost market share is a no-lose battle. Its success or failure is not only related to the market position of the product, but also directly affects the future development trend of the entire brand of the ideal car. In order to win this battle, the ideal L9 is desperate to complete the complete transformation from the inside out, and each upgrade points to the market pain points and meets the needs of users. But this is just the beginning, and the real challenge is just beginning. The boasting and self-promotion in the press conference has never been a standard for measuring the quality of products. Only by withstanding the cruel test of the market and the sincere recognition of users can we truly stand firm and achieve continuous improvement. Although the conference ended perfectly, for the ideal car, the new journey has just begun, and the future must be even thinner. Only when the new ideal L9 is recognized by the market and a stage victory is completed, can it be regarded as formally on the right track. (Monogatari)