72 hours after the new Li Auto MEGA was launched on the market: it has shed its internet celebrity aura and precisely targeted the group of existing veteran car owners.
Two years ago, MEGA was first launched. Li Auto opened stores for this flagship all-electric model in core business districts such as SKP Beijing. Back then, Li Auto set the target of making MEGA the top-selling model with a price tag above 500,000 RMB regardless of powertrain type and body form.
36Kr once visited this flagship store. Although the foot traffic was limited at that time, the avant-garde appearance attracted a large number of customers who did not originally plan to buy an EV at Li Auto. A young girl who loves equestrianism placed an order at the China Central Place store, and she drove her friends in the equestrian social group to purchase a total of 20 units.
This year, after the new-generation MEGA was launched again, 36Kr found that this flagship store no longer exists. Li Auto has also adjusted the positioning of the new MEGA to a family MPV.
The transformation from breaking through the market upward to focusing on stable operation also reflects the development trajectory of Li Auto in the past two years.
New MEGA Launch: Booming Orders, Low In-store Foot Traffic, Old Owners Become Core Customer Base
On the evening of September 2, the new-generation MEGA went on sale, with only one Home trim priced at 509,800 RMB, which is a direct price cut of 50,000 RMB compared with the previous generation.
After the price was announced, the delivery lead time in the Li Auto App rose rapidly: it showed 2 to 4 weeks at the initial stage, extended to 5 to 7 weeks about 20 minutes later, and reached 8 to 10 weeks the next day. According to 36Kr's understanding from the industrial chain, the 8-10 week waiting period corresponds to a production capacity plan of more than 4,000 units; based on this calculation, the number of locked orders of the new MEGA within 24 hours after launch is roughly equivalent to the production scheduling volume of two months.
The day after the new MEGA was launched, 36Kr visited multiple Li Auto stores in Beijing to observe the market popularity and user logic of this "hit product" at close range.
A salesperson at a Li Auto store told 36Kr that on the first day of the new MEGA's launch, the store received about 30 locked orders, more than half of which came from existing owners who replaced or added new vehicles. "There are even 3 customers who directly traded in their old MEGA for the new version, and their old cars have been driven for less than two years."
From the perspective of market strategy, the new MEGA shows obvious inward-oriented features: it does not rely on controversial topics about appearance design to attract new customers, but deeply taps and converts the existing old user assets.
36Kr learned that the new MEGA was officially stationed in stores only on the day of launch on September 2, but before that, Li Auto had invited some old owners and intended customers in a targeted manner to complete advance vehicle viewing and test drive experiences under the premise of signing a non-disclosure agreement.
Even so, a salesperson admitted to 36Kr that most of the current order-locking owners still placed blind orders. "We followed up with all customers who placed orders, and almost all the answers we got were that they trusted Li Auto and placed the order directly as the price is suitable."
During the store visit, 36Kr ran into an old Li Auto owner by chance.
"This is the fourth Li Auto car our family has bought," Uncle Zhang told 36Kr. As soon as the new MEGA was released last night, his family placed an order directly. After owning Li Auto ONE, L9 and i8 successively, Uncle Zhang's family once again cast a vote of confidence with real money. "After driving this car, you really can't stand driving other cars."
In the extremely involuted Chinese automobile market, Li Auto seems to have jumped out of the primary stage of "building brand with high-end vehicles" and taken the lead in realizing the monetization of brand assets.
A person from Li Auto's store told 36Kr that the customer acquisition cost of the new MEGA is much lower than that of other models. "Orders that used to require a lot of explanation and test drives to close can now get half of the orders from old owners just by announcing the price on the new MEGA." The high proportion of repurchase by old users is the best proof of the gold content of Li Auto's product definition capability.
However, on the other side of booming orders, the "internet celebrity effect" of MEGA is quietly fading.
Since the first day of launch was a working day, coupled with the fact that the new model has little appearance change, and the store did not carry out high-profile outdoor exhibition publicity like when the i6 was launched, the in-store foot traffic did not reproduce the onlooker grand occasion when the first-generation MEGA was launched.
A store insider revealed to 36Kr that even in the shopping mall with the largest foot traffic in Beijing, most of the people who walk into the Li Auto exhibition hall to see the MEGA are high-intent customers. "The 5th floor of our mall is the catering area and new energy vehicle exhibition area. Any brand launching a new car will cause onlookers, including the MEGA two years ago and the NIO ES8 this year."
During the prime time on weekend afternoon, 36Kr walked into the Li Auto store again. Compared with the deserted working days, the stores in core business districts on weekends ushered in a peak of foot traffic. Many salespeople admitted that customers gathered on weekends and everyone was too busy to keep their feet on the ground. "However, most of the customers who enter the store go straight to the i6 and L8, and only a few people come specifically to see the MEGA."
A Li Auto store
The internet celebrity attribute of MEGA is highly concentrated on its avant-garde appearance design. With its highly recognizable shape, the first-generation model not only caused heated discussions on the Internet, but also attracted passers-by to stop and take photos frequently in reality.
A Li Auto salesperson with three years of working experience told 36Kr that when selling MEGA two years ago, many old owners gave up placing orders because they could not accept the appearance. "But today, customers who can come to the store and are willing to sit in the second row of MEGA for experience no longer discuss the appearance."
However, after two years of market education, Li Auto MEGA has actually completed a "preliminary user screening". The conversion logic has now undergone a qualitative change: Li Auto no longer needs to make great efforts to persuade users to accept the appearance, but only needs to complete the final order conversion in the circle of people who already appreciate the design of MEGA.
Does an MPV Need a Very Strong Chassis?
Now that refrigerators, color TVs and sofas are no longer new configurations, MPV models all seem to want to play the "chassis" card.
From Denza D9 equipped with BYD Cloud Chassis system, to the "rear-wheel steering + dual-chamber air suspension" combination of XPeng X9, all major brands are trying to use new chassis technologies to tear off the labels of "boat-like driving feel" and "clumsiness" of MPVs.
Li Auto is no exception. The new MEGA is equipped with steer-by-wire and rear-wheel steering technologies, which reduce the turning radius of this 5.3-meter-long large vehicle to 5.5 meters, hoping to impress users with the flexibility of a small car.
In addition, the active anti-roll technology is also the technical signature of Li Auto MEGA. Many Li Auto salespeople told 36Kr that the first item in the sales script trained by the company is to introduce the active anti-roll technology.
However, the active anti-roll technology on the new MEGA is not the same concept as the mechanical anti-roll bar of traditional fuel vehicles. The traditional solution uses a solid metal rod, and some high-end models are additionally equipped with hydraulic or electronic control clutches to achieve "active" adjustment.
The innovation of the new MEGA lies in the introduction of 800V electronic control as the active actuator, which has greater torque than traditional hydraulic and electronic control clutches. Combined with the vehicle speed, steering angle, lateral acceleration and body tilt angle read by body sensors, according to Li Auto's official data, the response time is about 30 milliseconds, which is 1.5 to 5 times faster than the traditional hydraulic active anti-roll technology.
However, according to the feedback from front-line salespeople, the technical iterations of intelligent driving and chassis have not become the core decision-making point for users. Customers who enter the store almost focus all their attention on the comfort of the cockpit, and the active anti-roll technology that Li Auto invested heavily in building has unexpectedly encountered cold response among users.
Some industry insiders also admitted to 36Kr that the difference of the active anti-roll magic carpet of the new MEGA is not obvious under low-speed conditions in urban areas. "Usually, you need to reach a cornering speed of more than 80km/h to get an obvious physical sensation difference."
When 36Kr conducted on-site visits at the Li Auto store, it just recorded such a scene.
Facing the customer's concern that the huge body of the new MEGA "is difficult to drive and park", the salesperson was about to introduce the upgrade details of the chassis, when Uncle Zhang, who was resting in the car with his grandson, grabbed the conversation: "This car has intelligent driving, it can drive itself on any road, and it can park itself in the shopping mall. Just leave it to the system, don't worry about it."
Compared with those steering and anti-roll technologies, Li Auto's users have significantly stronger demand and perception for intelligent driving.
As for the dimmable glass, one of the few optional configurations on the new Li Auto MEGA, according to front-line salespeople, this configuration which is widely praised on commercial vehicles of other brands has almost zero active selection rate on Li Auto MEGA. The technical upgrade built by Li Auto with heavy investment does bring a better experience, but in fact, it has not been transformed into the core purchasing driving force.
Li Auto MEGA is not an isolated case.
The MPV model Zhijie V9 launched in May this year is also focusing on the "chassis card", from rear-wheel steering, road preview, to caliper configuration and 100km/h braking distance, all of which are the key points of publicity. But during 36Kr's visits, the core driving force for most users to place orders is still their trust in the Huawei brand and its intelligent driving technology.
When all MPVs are competing on chassis and intelligent driving, while users only care about cockpit comfort and intelligent experience, is the technical arms race in the MPV market to meet real demands or just self-entertainment? Are MPV users paying for driving control or comfort? On the new Li Auto MEGA, we seem to have found the answer: in the MPV market where the proportion of replacement and additional purchase exceeds 70%, brand, space and comfort are the correct answers for MPVs.