On March 11th, which was the official delivery date of the Li New Car MEGA, Li Xiang, the chairman of Li Automobile, posted on his social media, "Although I am in darkness, I still choose light."

Li Xiang wrote on his Moments, "Everyone should be quite clear about what happened in the past ten days. Many users and friends are worried about us, speak up for us, and continue to help and support us no matter how difficult it is. I am deeply grateful, which is also the core driving force for our growth. For the organized illegal and criminal activities that exist in the incident, we are already using legal means to deal with them."

He further stated, "After careful consideration, we have decided to launch a counterattack, using light to counter darkness. We hope that more people can work together to create and convey beautiful designs, unique creativity, and happy moments, so that more beautiful images can appear in our lives."

MEGA was smeared

What Li Xiang's social circle is talking about is the recent incident of MEGA being hacked.

On March 1st, MEGA was officially launched. This is the Li latest family seven seater pure electric model. According to the official introduction, the car is equipped with a dual motor intelligent four-wheel drive system, magic carpet air suspension Max, dual chamber air springs, and CDC shock absorbers. The roof is equipped with 128 line LiDAR and 11 high-definition cameras. In terms of endurance, MEGA's CLTC has an ultra long range of 710 kilometers and consumes 15.9 kilowatt hours of energy per 100 kilometers. In terms of charging, MEGA paired with high-speed 5C supercharging only takes 12 minutes to charge 500 kilometers.

As the company's latest masterpiece, MEGA has a nationwide unified starting price of 559800 yuan, which is currently the most expensive model on sale by the company. Previously, the top management of Li has repeatedly stated to the public that the company is confident that MEGA will become the "best-selling" model in the Chinese market for over 500000 yuan.

However, after the launch of MEGA, things went in a strange direction.

The most controversial Li appearance has been questioned by some netizens as being like a hearse. Before and after the release of MEGA, a photo of a parking lot with several MEGAs parked was circulating online. At first, everyone thought this photo of the rear of multiple MEGA cars was a bit strange, until a netizen added filters to this photo, and finally everyone understood why. In a dark environment, the entire photo became unusually eerie, and many netizens exclaimed that it looked "terrifying".

As a newly launched car, the MEGA is labeled as "eerie", which the Li side cannot tolerate. Li subsequently sent a complaint notification letter to Today's Headlines platform. The notice letter states that multiple users on Today's Headlines have maliciously posted pictures of the MEGA model, posting words such as "Dien" and "New Energy Funeral Parlor Car" on the car body, seriously infringing on the product image and brand reputation of Li Automobile, and infringing on its reputation rights. In terms of Lis, it is required that Today's Headlines platform delete and handle relevant content.

However, this move did not suppress public opinion, and many netizens can still be seen on other platforms playing jokes or creating P-images about MEGA. After ten days, Li Xiang finally couldn't help but choose to "fight back against darkness with light" on his social media.

It is worth noting that Li Xiang's friend circle has also attracted comments from He Xiaopeng and Yu Chengdong. He Xiaopeng expressed support for Li Xiang's claim of "using light to fight back against darkness", and Yu Chengdong also affirmed Li Xiang's statement: "Always choose light, it is the correct value system!"

MEGA's early sales seem to have been affected

Li Xiang's rare statement this time that legal measures should be taken is because the negative impact of the MEGA being brought by the black belt may have been transmitted to the sales end of the car.

On some platforms, some netizens expressed that they felt "unlucky" after reading the relevant P images and decided to abandon the purchase. The cold reception of MEGA is not only reflected in netizens' friends, but also in the official silence that has raised doubts about MEGA's sales from the outside world.

On the one hand, as a car tycoon who is often active on social media platforms such as Weibo, Li Xiang's Weibo has not been updated for nearly ten days. The last Weibo post was reposted on March 2nd, the second day of MEGA's listing, regarding an interview with MEGA designer Ben.

On the other hand, since its listing, the Li official has not released any news about large orders, which is also quite abnormal. At present, only the day before the launch of the MEGA, Li Xiang said on Weibo, "The current small order quantity of 5000 yuan has far exceeded the performance of the Li L9 in the same period of 2022."

It doesn't seem like a good omen for Li Official and Li Xiang to avoid discussing the sales of MEGA after its launch.

Although the authorities have avoided discussing it, there are still some third-party revelations online that indicate one thing: the MEGA order volume is far lower than previously predicted levels. According to a widely circulated disclosure, an insider revealed that within 72 hours of its launch, MEGA had only about 3000 orders nationwide and over 10000 cancellations. Previously, an executive from Li stated in an interview in January that MEGA would challenge monthly sales of 8000 vehicles after its launch.

Moreover, the disclosure also mentioned that the proportion of MEGA entering stores is rapidly increasing, but the vast majority are curiosity seeking users. In addition, after the MEGA price was announced, the customer profile was polarized, and many transferred customers did not come to the store. Customers who observed the price believed that the price difference was too large and chose to unsubscribe, accounting for between 10% and 15%.

A large number of customers or have turned to competing products

What's more, after the MEGA went on sale, there was a backflow of orders for the relevant competition.

According to reports, after the launch of MEGA, it is basically confirmed that Xiaopeng X9, Tengshi D9, Wenjie M9, Lantu Dreamer, and Jike 009 have all experienced significant backflow. "Among them, Tengshi D9 is the biggest winner, with a double harvest of in store orders. Over the weekend, more than 1,700 new orders were added, doubling the number of orders. Xiaopeng X9, on the other hand, saw a significant surge in in in store sales, with orders increasing by at least 40% compared to the steady week."

Tengshi is a joint venture brand between BYD and Mercedes Benz. On March 6th, the 2024 Tengshi D9 was officially launched, with an official guide price starting from 339,800 yuan. According to official sources, the 2024 Tengshi D9 received 11,287 confirmed orders within 12 hours of its launch. In sharp contrast to the MEGA of the same period.

Looking at other competitors, their prices are also much lower than the MEGA. The Xiaopeng X9 was launched on January 1st this year and began delivery in the same month. There are a total of four models with a price range of 359,800 to 419,800 yuan. The Wenjie M9 also has four models with a starting price of 469800 yuan. According to official data, the cumulative number of units of the Wenjie M9 has exceeded 50,000. The 2024 Extreme Krypton 009 was also launched in January, with a starting price of 500,000 yuan.

Last year, Li's sales target for the company in 2024 was 800,000 vehicles, which means it needs to reach an average of 66,700 vehicles per month. As the first battle of Li Automobile in 2024, MEGA suffered a Waterloo, which will have a significant negative impact on the company's sales throughout the year.However, Li stated in its Q4 financial report that this year will be a major year for Li Automobile's products, with four extended range models and four pure electric models, totaling eight models to meet the needs of household users. In addition to the MEGA, the first model under 300,000 yuan, the L6, will also be launched in April. In addition, the Li L7, L8, and L9 will also welcome the 2024 model year. These new models may be the main force for Li's 800,000 sales this year.