The ideal car starts layoffs, and the pure electric team will be shrunk

Interface journalist | Zhou Shuqi
Interface News Editor | Chen Xiaotong

Under the crisis of sales falling short of expectations and poor performance of the first pure electric product, the ideal car tries to reduce costs and increase efficiency through direct layoffs.

In the middle of May, the interface news learned from internal insiders that the news of layoffs began to spread inside Ideal Auto at the beginning of the month, and the first to "move" was the human resources department. In addition, the modeling department, production and supply chain related departments have different proportion of personnel adjustment.

The insider said that the overall internal mood is tense now, and they are passively waiting for the results of layoffs. It is reported that the pure electric product team in Shanghai will also shrink. Now some employees of the team have gone to Beijing Shunyi Ideal Auto Headquarters to discuss the subsequent planning adjustment of pure electric products. According to the original expectation, the ideal car will also release three M-series pure electric products in the second half of this year.

According to 21 Finance and Economics, the overall optimization ratio of Ideal Auto exceeded 18%, and the number of employees involved was expected to exceed 5600. Among them, the sales service operation department has optimized more than 400 people, the recruitment department has reduced from more than 200 people to 40 to 50 people, and the smart driving team will be reduced to less than 1000 people.

The official of Ideal Car did not respond to the request for comment on the interface news.

The ideal automobile manpower reserve is set according to the initially estimated sales target of 800000 vehicles, and the current layoff measures are to "pay" for this radical expansion target.

In October last year, Ideal Auto vigorously recruited intelligent driving R&D talents. A headhunter told the news on the interface that the salary level given by Ideal Auto was the first echelon in the industry, and some talents could get more than 50% of the salary increase if they change jobs.

At present, the ideal car has not yet achieved significant success in the competition of high-level intelligent driving. This automobile company, which has made great efforts in the field of intelligent driving, once proposed to launch urban pilot assisted driving systems in 100 cities, but the progress was slow, and the actual mass production was not as expected.

In order to meet the sales target of 800000 vehicles, at the beginning of this year, Ideal Auto also proposed to add 333 direct retail centers, sinking to the fourth tier cities and some fifth tier cities. This is different from the idea of prudent opening stores for the ideal car in the past. In 2023, only 179 stores will be added.

Considering the market competition situation and the sales performance at the current stage, the sales plan of Ideal Auto has been significantly reduced to 560000 to 640000 units this year; The sales guidance for the ideal MEGA of pure electric MPV was lowered from 8000 to 2000 per month. When the sales guidance changes, the corresponding staffing needs to be reduced.

An insider told InterfaceNews that as early as the end of March, the outsourcing personnel of Ideal Auto were basically dismissed. At the beginning of April, the official of Ideal Auto denied the rumor of substantial budget reduction and layoff to the interface news, but at that time, the internal employees had already had the speculation of layoff.

The internal staff mentioned above told InterfaceNews that it was not easy to complete the annual sales of 560000 vehicles. In the first four months of this year, only 106200 ideal cars were sold, 18.96% of the sales guidance after the reduction. In the next eight months, the average monthly sales of ideal cars need to reach more than 56000.

The ideal L6 launched in mid April is regarded as the key model for the ideal car to revive sales. The incremental SUV with a starting price of 249800 yuan is the cheapest one among the ideal car models. At present, there are more than 40000 cumulative orders. However, this is an order that can be returned within 7 days, and the actual number of locked orders ordered is less than 15000.

In fact, the current situation of Ideal Auto is not bad, and its cash reserve at the end of last year was more than 100 billion yuan. This layoff measure is more to solve the risk in advance, to prepare for the next more brutal market competition. Tesla's layoff actions around the world are based on the same considerations.

According to the interface news, BYD, which ranks first in terms of sales of new energy vehicles, is also implementing stricter performance management measures internally. From the layoffs and burden reduction of Tesla and Ideal Auto to the strict management regulations of BYD, it reflects the fierce competition in the field of new energy vehicles. Even the leading companies in the industry are actively preparing.