"later LatePost" learned exclusively thatLi Auto Inc. has recently launched the pure electric vehicle project, and the first pure electric vehicle is scheduled to be released in 2023.

Prior to this, the ideal follow-up model will still use the add-on technology. According to the prospectus, ideal will launch a second production car in 2022, which will be a full-size add-on SUV. Later LatePost learned that the car, code-named X01, was built on the second-generation add-on "X platform", which is higher than the ideal ONE positioning, and matched the BMW X7 and Mercedes-Benz ONE.

Meanwhile,Li Auto Inc. is also developing a medium-sized SUV; with the same platform as X01 this year, and will also launch a modification of the ideal ONE.

The technical route of Li Auto Inc. 's add-on program has been controversial all the time. The add-on program is a kind of plug-in hybrid technology. to put it simply, it adds an engine and fuel tank on the basis of the three-electricity system of the pure electric vehicle, which drives the vehicle by the motor, drives the motor and supplies energy for the battery.

According to the prospectus, the ideal add-on electric vehicle is mainly for two reasons: first, China's charging infrastructure is insufficient, public charging network coverage is not enough, home charging is faced with a shortage of parking spaces, power grid capacity restrictions in old residential areas and other problems. Second, the battery cost remains high, and the extended range system can achieve higher mileage at lower cost.

However, the policy of first-tier license-limited cities is not friendly to add-on electric vehicles. In Beijing, hybrid cars can only be purchased with fuel targets. At present, Shanghai gives away green cards for the purchase of hybrid cars, but the newly issued measures of Shanghai to encourage the purchase and use of new energy vehicles stipulate that plug-in hybrid cars (including additional programs) "will no longer issue special licenses" from January 1, 2023.

Later LatePost learned that ideal had done the pre-research of pure electric vehicles a long time ago, planned the pure electric car of standard Model 3, and the X01 had considered both extended range and pure electric versions at the same time. However, due to the unreasonable cost estimation, there has been no formal establishment of the project.

A few days ago, Li wanted to send an internal letter, proposing that Li Auto Inc. will maintain the two technical routes of adding programs and pure electric in parallel in the next 10 years, and planned the second generation add program "X" platform, as well as pure electric "Whale" platform and "Shark" platform. The sales goal in 2025 is to capture 20% of the market share of 8 million new energy vehicles, that is, annual production and sales of 1.6 million units.

In order to achieve this goalIt is ideal to lower the product positioning from 200000 ~ 500000 to 150000 ~ 500000, and step up preparations for product research and development, sales network and production.

In February this year, ideal announced the establishment of an R & D center in Shanghai "with complete R & D capabilities for new models", with a recruitment target of 2000 people.

"later LatePost" learned that the Shanghai R & D Center will have engineering and technology centers, styling design centers, trial production and other departments, with the same configuration as the Beijing R & D team. In addition to the open recruitment of middle-level and grass-roots positions, senior management posts will also be set up to report to Ma Donghui, the co-founder and chief engineer in charge of the project.

Ideal is also stepping up the expansion of its sales network. "later LatePost" learnedThe ideal plan is to expand its stores to 200 by 2021.According to the financial report, as of January this year, ideal has built a total of 60 stores, as well as 121 maintenance centers and authorized sheet spray centers in 89 cities.

The ideal Changzhou plant is being expanded and a new plant with an annual production capacity of 100000 units is expected to be added to prepare for the mass production of subsequent models.

In 2020, sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 1.367 million, an increase of 10.9 percent over the same period last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Of the three new car-building forces, NIO Inc. delivered about 43700 units for the whole year, ideally about 32600 units, and XPeng Inc. about 27000 units. In the same period, Tesla, Inc. sold 147900 units in China for the whole year, accounting for 29.6 percent of its global sales. There is an order of magnitude difference between the sales of the three new Chinese car companies and Tesla, Inc..