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Li Xiang, founder, chairman and CEO of ideal Automobile, wrote on Weibo on December 6: "I can say for sure that ideal Automobile is the company with the lowest [marketing and communication cost] of all car brands in China, including all marketing and communication costs of mainframe factory and sales (direct marketing / agent) system. Tesla should be the only one in the world that is lower than us."

Li Xiang made the comments because a car blogger analyzed the dynamic changes of the sales cost share and gross profit margin of ideal car, Xiaopeng Automobile, Xilai Automobile and Tesla. Li then wanted to forward the analysis to his Weibo and made the above comments. Li Xiang pointed out in the article: "the expenses of marketing and communication that people are most concerned about are included in the overall sales and management expenses."

In response to the above remarks, Ma Lin, Assistant Vice President of Weilai Brand and Communication, also expressed different views. Ma Lin said that according to the "sky (star) eye (picture)" system, it is ideal that the Douyin content of the three cars this year should be about 90 million, and the most expensive one is not Weibo. At the same time, Ma Lin asked: "shouldn't everyone be most concerned about the cost and effectiveness of research and development?" The question.

On November 9th, ideal Motor announced its third quarter 2023 results. According to the financial report, the revenue of ideal car in the third quarter was 34.68 billion yuan, an increase of 271.2% over the same period last year; the operating profit and net profit were 2.34 billion yuan and 2.81 billion yuan respectively, achieving four consecutive quarters of profit; and the gross profit margin was 22.0%. With the continuous expansion of sales scale, the sales, general and management expenses of ideal car in the third quarter were 2.54 billion yuan, an increase of 68.8% over the same period last year, accounting for 7.3% of the total revenue.

According to the chart information forwarded by Li, in the comparison chart of sales expenses of new energy vehicle companies, the ideal car is slightly higher than Tesla (5.4%), but far lower than the "Wei Xiaoli" camp in the Lai Automobile (18.9%) and Xiaopeng Motor (19.8%).

It is worth mentioning that in May this year, in response to the hot topic of "marketing expenses of car companies" on the Internet, there was a view that: "among new energy car companies, ideal cars spend the most money on marketing." Subsequently, Li wanted to post a number of clarifications on his personal social account. Li Xiang said: "our brand market expense rate is 0.6%, including all the brand's public relations, activities, advertising, auto show, press conference, car owner operation and so on. I have to approve tens of thousands of yuan of fees to avoid wasteful spending." Li Xiang also said: "the market expense rate of mainstream brands is 2-3%, which is 4-5 times that of ours. The full-caliber sales expense rate, which includes brand + channel, is also 1/4 of that of luxury brands. The part that is more than the traditional brand is the R & D expense rate, 3 times." Li wants to emphasize: "listed companies, data such as fake replacement."

As for the question of "how to measure the marketing expenses of automobile brands", Li Xiang also gave his own point of view at that time. Li Xiang said: "as a passer-by, how to measure the marketing expenses of a car brand?" "the easiest way is to read the message," he said. In particular, brands that buy a large number of live messages, use a large number of real accounts that have nothing to do with cars, and desperately leave messages praising a product under each content at a certain period of time, including belittling a competitive product, such a brand marketing department has the most money! messages have never been lost, sales have never been. "

At present, "Wei Xiaoli" three quarterly reports have been announced. In the "Wei Xiaoli" camp, ideal has made a profit for four consecutive quarters, and the net profit of the first three quarters of this year has filled the cumulative losses of the previous three years. In this regard, Li Xiang said that with the continuous expansion of the business scale, ideal Automobile will maintain healthy profitability and continue to invest in research and development to support the company's long-term development. While Xilai and Xiaopeng are still not profitable. For comparison, the data show that in the third quarter of this year, the ideal net profit of the car was 2.81 billion yuan; the net loss of Weilai was 4.557 billion yuan; and the net loss of Xiaopeng Motor was 3.89 billion yuan.

In fact, now the "Wei Xiaoli" camp of the three car companies have gradually opened a clear distance, especially the ideal car and Xiaopeng Wei to the two car companies. Data show that from January to October this year, ideal cars delivered a total of 325677 vehicles, an increase of 190.75% over the same period last year, taking the lead in achieving the annual sales target of 300000 vehicles. The number of Lulai cars was 142026, up 33.14% from the same period last year, while Xiaopeng was 121486, up 10.98% from the same period last year.

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