(Text/Zhang Yuyi) The dream of "China Starbucks" is shattered, but the dream of "China Tesla" continues.

On the last day of July, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued an announcement stating that Ruixing Coffee had inflated revenue by 2.119 billion yuan and would impose administrative sanctions on Ruixing Coffee’s main domestic operating entities in accordance with the law. punishment.

On the day before the announcement of Ruixing’s penalty decision, Li Auto “ringed the bell” in Beijing and officially listed on the NASDAQ in the United States with the securities code “LI”, becoming China’s second largest automaker. It is the third listed new car company in the world.

Li Xiang, who once scolded Lu Zhengyao as a "scammer", finally got his wish. On the bright side, Li Auto's development is stable, and its market value once exceeded that of NIO, which listed on the U.S. stock market two years ago. However, judging from the store visits, the ideal car behind the light does not seem to give the Chinese people the "security" they expected.

Too few stores, shutting out some consumers

Li Auto only has one retail center in Wuhan, and NIO User Center has two stores left after closing one last year. , there are 3 Xiaopeng experience centers and 2 Weimar user centers.

Because the ideal retail center is far away, on the afternoon of August 4, Cheyou Toutiao took the lead in visiting a display center in a shopping mall. The euphemistically named exhibition center is actually a temporary exhibition stand built on the open space on the first floor of the shopping mall. The space is only large enough to place an Ideal ONE.

In the same shopping mall, diagonally opposite the Ideal booth is the NIO Experience Center, and further ahead is the XPeng Experience Center. By comparison, Li Xiang is indeed the one that can save the most money among the new car companies.

Although the shopping mall has a large flow of people, Cheyou Toutiao has observed that there are not many consumers interested in Ideal ONE, almost none. Later, Cheyou Toutiao clearly felt that the sales consultant was absent-minded during the communication process, so he had to continue to the retail center.

To be honest, there are four leading new forces including Weilai, Xiaopeng, Weimar and Ideal gathered in the same area of ??the same shopping mall, so the competition is not small. But after a round of comparison, the ideal sales consultant is the most Buddhist-like, has not a strong desire to promote, and seems to be very single. There is no doubt that such a small booth will not provide test drive services. The sales consultant said that you need to make an appointment in advance for a test drive. You can choose to go to a retail center for a test drive or contact door-to-door service by phone.

The products are single, and a group of consumers are shut out

Offline stores serve as windows for direct communication between brands and consumers. One less window means many fewer marketing promotions. opportunity. When we came to the retail center, despite its remote location, there were obviously more people entering the store to look at the cars. It seems that for new brands, the money still has to be spent, and the stores that need to be opened still have to be opened.

Looking carefully at the layout of the store, it is exactly the same as when I visited the store last year, with no changes. There are two Ideal ONE show cars of the same model and different colors displayed in the store. Both the appearance and the interior exude a sense of luxury and stability. Especially the four high-definition large screens in the car are refreshing, combining technology and Fashionable, even without discounts, the price of 328,000 yuan after subsidies is not too exaggerated. In addition, since China CITIC Bank and China Merchants Bank unilaterally announced the cessation of financial cooperation last year, Li Auto has only provided financial services from three banks: Bank of Communications, Bank of China and Jiangnan Bank.

According to the sales consultant, Li Auto currently only has one product, "Lideal ONE", and has no plans to launch new products in the near future. "A larger SUV may be launched in 2022, which also has an extended-range power system." When a consumer inquired about plans for a sedan product, the sales consultant gave this answer.

Although there are more people coming to the retail center to look at cars than in the showroom, they all seem to be just looking around, and very few consumers actually make transactions. A father and son used the simulated chassis model placed at the door as a teaching model and chatted about several different car power systems. Indeed, Ideal ONE's unique extended-range power system is a good teaching case, but it is a very risky choice for consumers.

During the chat, this car-savvy father told fellow car enthusiasts Toutiao that the extended-range power system is not a technology unique to Ideal, but only Ideal is betting on this technology, whether it is the Ideal brand or consumers. Everyone must bear the risk.

After being launched, Li Auto still has to face reality

Judging from an afternoon visit to the store, the market response of Li Auto is not ideal. The relatively high bicycle price and Jianzai The skewed power system makes Ideal ONE far less popular than other leading new car companies. When Cheyou Toutiao raised this question to the sales consultant, the sales consultant pointed to the promotional poster on the wall: "Our sales volume in the first half of the year was No. 1."

There is a saying that is good for laymen. Lively, insiders know the way. Indeed, according to official data, Li Auto delivered a total of 9,666 new cars in the first half of this year. Since the official delivery in December 2019, Li Auto completed the delivery of its first 10,000 vehicles in just six and a half months. Although such results are excellent, looking at them separately, Li Auto is actually in decline.

As of now, Li Auto has not announced the latest sales data for July, but based on the sales in the first three months, it is not optimistic. In April, May and June this year, the number of new cars insured by Li Auto was 2,794, 1,993 and 1,891 respectively. Behind the seemingly menacing Li Auto, there is actually a different scene.

As the saying goes, an ideal car that is outnumbered and does not have the support of new cars and new technologies will definitely face great difficulties after it is launched. After visiting the store, this conjecture seemed to be confirmed. In contrast, NIO's SUV and sedan products have all been launched, and the construction of battery swap stations and BaaS platforms has been successful. Foreign competitors such as Tesla are also constantly launching new models and further lowering prices through localization.

In addition, the impact of the epidemic has had a huge impact on the global economy, and Luckin’s lessons have made the road ahead for Chinese startups even more difficult. Under internal and external difficulties, the road to realizing our ideals is full of ups and downs, but we cannot stop.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.