Ideal Car Q1 2026: 95,142 deliveries/New Ideal L8 to be released in June

On May 28, 2026, Ideal Motor announced its Q1 2026 earnings report. Overall revenue in the first quarter was 23 billion yuan; 95,142 vehicles were delivered cumulatively, up 2.5% year-on-year, exceeding the performance guidelines; as of the end of the first quarter, the ideal automobile cash reserve was 94.3 billion yuan. Based on confidence in the company's long-term value, Ideal Motors launched a $1 billion share repurchase program in March and executed it promptly, with $139.7 million repurchased as of May 26, 2026 and approximately 14% of the amount progressed in two months. It is worth mentioning that the new ideal L8 (parameter | inquiry) will be released in June. In the first quarter, the ideal L series entered the transition period in an orderly manner. Between the short-term performance and the long-term value of the user, the ideal car chose to prioritize the protection of the sovereign interests of new and old cars, actively stop the production of old models, and steadily cope with the delivery gap pressure and short-term revenue fluctuations caused by the product switching period. At the same time, the ideal car invested more than 500 million, and actively assumed the purchase tax difference over the years due to the exceeded expected orders for the ideal i6 owner, which provided the user's rights and interests. In the face of challenges, pure electric products have become the core force supporting brands to return to the No. 1 sales volume of Chinese brands in the new energy market of more than 200,000 yuan. As the production capacity continues to climb to a stable level, the ideal i6 enters the stage of stable volume expansion, and the monthly sales volume remains above 20,000 units, steadily occupying a leading position in the new energy market of more than 200,000 yuan. In April, the 100,000th production vehicle of the ideal i6 was officially launched, and it took less than seven months from the first batch delivery to 100,000 vehicles, creating an industry record of 100,000 vehicles in the 200,000-300,000 yuan pure electric SUV market. At the same time, the net recommended value (NPS) of ideal i8 users continues to grow, and high reputation is being translated into a new round of sales growth. According to the official news, the new ideal L8 will be officially released in June. The new car has previously been declared by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and as with the new ideal L9, Livis models have been declared. It is expected that the new car will be greatly improved in terms of intelligence and chassis control compared with the current ideal L8. In terms of body size, the new car has a length, width and height of 5135 × 2000 × 1800mm and a wheelbase of 3045mm. In terms of power, the new ideal L8 will use an ideal new generation range extender, code-named L3E15CA, with a maximum power of 115kW. The car is equipped with a 72.7kWh ternary lithium battery, WLTC comprehensive fuel consumption 6.2L/100km, WLTC pure battery life can reach 343km. In terms of charging stations, as of April 30, there were more than 4077 ideal supercharging stations. In order to support the large-scale landing of models equipped with the 5C range extension system, the ideal car will accelerate the construction of the supercharging network, and the number of 5C supercharging guns is expected to exceed 8300 by the end of 2026. In terms of expenses, Ideal Automobile has shown strong discipline in cost control, restrained inefficient spending, and heavy warehousing and hard core research and development. Thanks to the improvement of AI-enabled operational efficiency and continuous improvement of organizational capabilities, sales, general and administrative expenses in the first quarter were RMB 2 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 19%. However, on the R&D side, Ideal Automobile still maintains high R&D investment, with R&D expenses reaching 2.7 billion yuan in the first quarter, an increase of 8.3% year-on-year. It does not blindly follow the current marketing game, and focuses its resources on the two core R&D directions of intelligent first-half automatic driving and second-half general-purpose humanoid robots, accelerating to the world's leading intelligent enterprises. This year, Ideal Automobile is expected to invest about 12 billion yuan in R&D, of which AI-related investment accounts for about 50%. The synchronous layout is characterized by intelligent automatic driving in the first half and general-purpose humanoid robots in the second half. The self-developed chips, large models, sensing systems, control systems, and operating systems required for autonomous driving also form the core technology base of general-purpose humanoid robots. The technical capabilities verified on mass production vehicles in the first half can be directly advanced to the second half. At present, humanoid robot products have been developed, and the layout of products with intelligent upper and lower halves is accelerating.