Focusing on the concept of "new fuel forces", MG has impacted the "new mainstream" echelon of independent brands

Economic Observation Network reporter Gao Feichang intelligent, is no less than electrification of an automotive technology revolution. Emerging car companies, represented by new car-making forces, are usually considered to be more intelligent, which is already their strong means of competition. Can traditional fuel vehicles be intelligent? The answer is yes. At present, fuel vehicles have not yet entered the intelligent stage on a large scale, and some fuel vehicle brands with a keen sense of smell have seized the opportunity to try to build intelligence into their own brand characteristics.

Saic Motor's MG brand for passenger cars is one of them, and the brand's new SUV MG ONE has proposed the concept of "new fuel forces". Recently, MG ONE (divided into α and β) announced its official launch, launching α models in advance, and the official price of the three versions is 107,800-12.98 million yuan. The β model is scheduled to be launched in 2022 due to the supply of chips.

"The term 'new forces' does not specifically refer to the new car brands that have emerged in recent years, and the core connotation of 'new' lies in whether it can lead the automotive industry into a new era of intelligence, and whether it can bring consumers a real intelligent experience, which is the core of dividing 'new forces'." A person in charge of SAIC Passenger Cars explained mg one's meaning of "new fuel forces".

According to the statistics of the China Automobile Association, the sales of new energy vehicles in China from January to November 2021 have reached 2.99 million units, accounting for 12.7% of sales. Caambiz expects that the sales of new energy vehicles this year will reach 3.4 million. More optimists expect that by next year, new energy vehicles will achieve a 20% sales share and achieve the national target for 2025 ahead of schedule.

Conversely, 80% of the car sales in the market are still contributed by fuel vehicles. In the era of "software-defined cars", consumers' demand for intelligence in fuel vehicles is also very urgent. As the proposer of the concept of "new fuel forces", the goal of the MG brand is to retain the driving pleasure of fuel vehicles while giving MG ONE intelligent technology comparable to high-end electric vehicles.

This is not something that can be achieved with a simple concept or slogan. How does MG ONE do it? According to reports, MG ONE is based on the new platform architecture SIGMA that SAIC Passenger Vehicles has built over the past four or five years. The architecture integrates the technologies of the two major fields of machinery and intelligence, and realizes the effect of "force, combat power, brain power and vitality" in addition to horsepower and computing power.

At this stage, the major mainstream independent car brands in China have launched their own car-making platforms or architectures, which has almost become a symbol of whether a brand has core technology. SAIC Passenger Car, one of the earliest independent car companies in China to embark on the platform for car manufacturing, has launched the industry's earliest car manufacturing platform, and also launched the "blue core" power technology brand very early. As a new generation of mechatronic architecture for SAIC Passenger Vehicles, the SIGMA architecture has many industry-leading technologies. For example, full vehicle control, including engine control, can be achieved with a FOTA upgrade.

Based on the SIGMA architecture, mg ONE is impressive in terms of mechanical capabilities: powered by the MEGA Tech 1.5T Pro high-power engine, which can produce a maximum power of 181 horsepower and a maximum torque of 285 Nm, traditionally matching the CVT280 continuously variable transmission, and the chassis tuning has a "German" texture.

In terms of intelligent experience, MG ONE put forward the core advantages of "three unique, three firsts": the only high-level intelligent auxiliary driving based on high-precision maps within 200,000 (later upgraded through OTA), the only one within 150,000 equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon flagship 8155 chips, the only switchable stereoscopic sports exhaust sound wave of the same level; the first sensorless mobile phone car key of fuel vehicles, the first intelligent cockpit system equipped with Roselle, and the industry's first Dharma AI semantics with T+X self-learning capabilities.

"We first spend money on the construction of hard power, do a good job of the car, and spread word of mouth, rather than removing the key configuration first and hitting the low price, so that there will never be competitiveness." We hope that the first step will be recognized, supported and disseminated by everyone. The person in charge of SAIC Passenger Vehicle said.

With the continuous deepening of the intelligent transformation of automobiles, when various automobile brands are more intelligent, it is inevitable that there will be a phenomenon of "homogenization". The MG brand believes that to get rid of homogenization, it requires efforts in experience.

"We have always said that technology is for human beings, and no matter how high technology is, it will ultimately serve human beings, so the difference in the future is in experience." For example, the same parking, in terms of the accuracy of parking, difficulty or parking scenes, what are the advantages compared with other brands, whether there is a difference between good, medium and poor, this is the differentiated advantage of intelligence. The person in charge of the above-mentioned SAIC passenger car said.

At the listing site of MG ONE, MG made a high-profile appearance of the "spaceship mecha" artwork jointly created with domestic mecha ambassador Sun Shiqian, showing the "mechanical" and "intelligent" attributes of MG ONE on the one hand, and showing the brand's thinking on future technology on the other hand.

In addition to creating new concepts and releasing new products, the MG brand also attaches great importance to narrowing the distance with users through marketing and forming a marketing offensive. In the past two years, the MG brand has passed MG Live! Actions such as modifying the tide run have marked the brand with the mark of "young tide run", and now they are constantly moving in terms of intelligence.

For MG ONE, MG and B station to cooperate in e-sports and other aspects, and cooperate with the animation "Under One Person" to promote the brand "breaking the circle" through the elements that young people like such as fashion clothing, e-sports, games, and animation. In addition, the MG Cyberster concept car was released to open a new stage of "co-creation".

"It can be proudly said that the MG brand has characteristics in terms of sensibility, and consumers will feel that the car is more fashionable, trendy, different, and can be chosen by young people, and this feature has initially been established." Next year, we will exert efforts on rational characteristics and establish a brand image with good performance, a solid chassis and strong technology. In addition, we must also exert efforts on new energy, make efforts on brands, and better integrate with products. The person in charge of the above-mentioned SAIC passenger car said.

The market performance of the MG brand is good this year. According to the official data released by MG, MG sold 74,000 vehicles worldwide in November, an increase of 42% year-on-year; from January to November, MG's total overseas sales volume was 310,000 units, an increase of 42.6% year-on-year, ranking first in overseas sales of Chinese brands. From the overall perspective of SAIC Passenger Vehicles, the cumulative sales volume from January to November was nearly 700,000 units, becoming one of the "new mainstream" enterprises second only to Geely, Changan and Great Wall in addition to the "three independent strong".