Core Viewpoint - The article discusses the transformative journey of Li Auto in the autonomous driving sector, highlighting the shift from skepticism to a strong commitment to AI-driven end-to-end solutions, culminating in the successful launch of the "end-to-end + VLM" system, which significantly boosted sales and market presence [1][6][42]. Group 1: Strategic Shift - In March 2024, Li Auto's CEO, Li Xiang, expressed dissatisfaction with the company's autonomous driving performance, emphasizing the need for a decisive shift towards end-to-end technology [2][8]. - The introduction of the "end-to-end + VLM" system in July 2024 marked a pivotal moment for Li Auto, allowing the company to transition from a follower to a leader in the autonomous driving space [3][4]. Group 2: User Reception and Sales Impact - The "end-to-end + VLM" system received overwhelmingly positive feedback during initial trials, leading to a significant increase in user engagement, with 65% of test drives featuring the new technology by October 2024 [5][6]. - By the end of 2024, the delivery share of models equipped with the AD Max system (featuring the new technology) reached 75.4% in the 300,000+ yuan segment and 84.6% in the 400,000+ yuan segment, a dramatic increase from just 20% earlier in the year [6][50]. Group 3: Team Dynamics and Development - The autonomous driving team at Li Auto faced anxiety and uncertainty at the beginning of 2024, but the successful implementation of the end-to-end system led to a turnaround in morale and performance [8][12]. - Li Auto's strategy involved rapidly expanding its autonomous driving team from around 600 to over 1,000 by the end of 2023, although this expansion initially did not yield the expected results [9][10]. Group 4: Technological Innovation - The end-to-end approach allowed Li Auto to integrate various functions into a single model, enhancing efficiency and reducing complexity compared to traditional modular methods [57]. - The project was characterized by a rapid development cycle, with the team successfully delivering a demo version of the end-to-end system in just over a month, showcasing superior performance compared to previous iterations [31][52]. Group 5: Data-Driven Approach - The success of the end-to-end project was largely attributed to a robust data-driven strategy, which emphasized the importance of high-quality data over sheer manpower [63][71]. - Li Auto's data collection capabilities were built into every vehicle from the start, ensuring standardized and comparable data for algorithm training, which was crucial for the success of the autonomous driving system [71][72].

Investment Rating - The investment rating for the company is "Buy" and is maintained [6]. Core Insights - The company is developing a 720 billion parameter large-scale autonomous driving model, named "Xiaopeng World Base Model," which aims to significantly enhance the intelligence of AI vehicles and support various applications such as AI robots and flying cars [2][4][8]. - The company has established a robust AI infrastructure, including a computing cluster with a cloud capacity of 10 EFLOPS, which is crucial for building a "cloud model factory" [8][30]. - The company has achieved significant milestones in AI development, including the successful implementation of scaling laws in autonomous driving, demonstrating that larger models yield better performance [36][41]. Summary by Sections Company Overview - Xiaopeng Motors is focusing on AI-driven autonomous driving technology, with a significant investment in developing a large-scale model that is 35 times the parameter size of mainstream models [27][30]. AI Infrastructure - The company has built the first 10,000-car intelligent computing cluster in the domestic automotive industry, achieving a cloud computing capacity of 10 EFLOPS, with a high operational efficiency of over 90% [8][25]. - The data infrastructure has been self-developed to enhance data access efficiency, with video data for training the base model currently at 20 million clips, expected to increase to 200 million clips by the end of the year [30][20]. Technological Advancements - The company is leveraging a multi-modal model that incorporates visual understanding, chain reasoning, and action generation capabilities, which are essential for achieving L3 and L4 level autonomous driving [8][23]. - The company has initiated the training of the 72 billion parameter base model, focusing on reinforcement learning to enhance the model's performance and adaptability [45][50]. Market Position - The company is positioned to benefit from a new vehicle launch cycle in 2025, with multiple new models expected to drive sales growth [8][30]. - The anticipated revenue for 2025 is projected to be 99.1 billion, corresponding to a price-to-sales ratio of 1.4X, indicating a strong market outlook [8].

高管们承担上一次冒险的代价，马斯克开始新的冒险。 文丨李梓楠 编辑丨程曼祺 黄俊杰 两位知情人士称，特斯拉高层在今年初就已提出 4680 部门的目标是让自产的电池比供应商更便宜。 电池部门管理人员当时被告知，如果年底还无法实现这一目标，特斯拉可能会放弃 4680 项目。 过去一个月，每到周日，特斯拉员工都在等一封关于自己命运的邮件。收到了，他下周一就不用上 班；没收到，他继续工作，等下周日的邮件。4 月 15 日开启大裁员至今，已有超过 1.4 万人收到裁 员邮件，离开特斯拉。 不过本周日开始，特斯拉 4680 电池部门和电池材料部门的员工不用等邮件了。我们独家获悉， 特 斯拉为 4680 电池部门任命了新的负责人博纳·埃格尔斯顿（Bonne Eggleston），他随后召开部门全 员会，宣布暂停裁员，但必须在年底完成降本目标——特斯拉自产的 4680 电池要比向松下、LG 新 能源等供应商采购的同类电池便宜。 这与 2020 年 4680 电池发布时的目标已相距甚远。当时马斯克希望用新的结构和制造方式让电池成本 降低一半，以此让特斯拉的车建立价格优势。 4680 电池部门新负责人埃格尔斯顿此前担任 4680 ...