At present, the global automotive industry is transforming and upgrading, and the Chinese market is the best testing ground and weather vane.
Previously, the China Automobile Association issued a forecast that in 2021, China's automobile sales or will suddenly 26 million; in 2022, the total sales volume of China's automobile market will reach 27.5 million, although there is still a gap compared with the previous "peak" period, but in the "electrification, intelligence, networking" technology change to promote, China's auto market is still not lacking in highlights. In particular, new energy vehicles maintain rapid growth, the cumulative output of January to November this year exceeded 3 million, sales of nearly 3 million, is expected to reach 3.4 million vehicles, an increase of 160% year-on-year; it is expected that next year's sales of new energy vehicles will reach 5 million, an increase of 47% year-on-year, penetration rate of 22.0%. The new energy market is undoubtedly the next highlight of car companies.
In the face of such opportunities for change, Kia is about to start a new phase of development after this year's brand renewal. Recently, Kia's senior executives in China said in an interview with reporters: "Combined with Kia's global Turn-around strategy, Kia will start again in the Chinese market with the new attitude of new power startups, and increase investment in brands, technologies and products with a more Chinese attitude and action." Of course, the change will not be achieved overnight, but Kia is ready and has a clear goal, that is, to come up with better products to meet the needs of Chinese consumers, mainly from the two dimensions of electrification and high-end. At the same time, we will pay more attention to the needs of Chinese consumers and increase investment in China's technology research and development. In addition, with reference to the successful experience and management methods of Global Kia, we will establish an efficient organizational management system, including the introduction of local talents who understand the Chinese market better. In the face of the new market pattern, Kia not only did not shake its confidence in the Chinese market, but also further upgraded the position of the Chinese market while straightening out the joint venture relationship.
With a lot of accumulation, Kia's electrification transformation is already on the way
As one of the world's top ten automobile manufacturers, as well as one of the world's top 500 and one of the world's top 100 most valuable brands, Kia's technology research and development strength is well-known. What many people may not know is that Kia is currently one of the few car companies in the world that has a comprehensive layout of multi-power energy, in addition to the traditional internal combustion engine, transmission, chassis, but also in the hybrid HEV, pure electric vehicle EV, plug-in hybrid hybrid vehicle PHEV, fuel cell four major technical fields have a deep accumulation, and mastered the electric vehicle global modular platform E-GMP and other core technologies, and based on the platform to build EV6 and other pure electric vehicles have been widely recognized in the mature automobile market such as Europe.
In fact, from kia's several "actions" in the past, we can already glimpse the fact that Kia has accelerated its transition to electrification. For example, as early as 2019, Kia began the two-line strategic layout of "new energy models + traditional models", and has achieved good results in the global market. In 2021, Kia put on a new LOGO and removed the word "car" from the company name, showing the determination of the traditional car manufacturer to transform into a future mobility service provider. Not only that, in Kia's "Plan S" medium- and long-term strategy, it also clearly puts forward the goal of transforming to the two core directions of "electric vehicles and environmentally friendly mobility" in the future.
Specific to practice, Kia plans to launch 11 electric vehicles in the world by 2026, including 7 E-GMP special electric vehicles; by 2030, it will achieve annual sales of 1.6 million pure electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and other environmentally friendly models, of which 880,000 pure electric vehicles, accounting for 55%, ranking among the world's first-class electric vehicle brands. In addition, in the "2045 Carbon Neutrality Strategy" released by Kia, it plans to achieve 100% electrification in major global markets by 2040; it will also promote the "Blue Carbon Project" for marine ecological protection, through cooperation with the Marine Cleanup Organization, to achieve more than 20% utilization of recycled materials for vehicle production by 2030; and will introduce solar power generation systems in production facilities in plants in South Korea, the United States, and China, and complete the conversion to renewable energy in global plants by 2040.
"China is an important market for Kia in the world, and it is also the world's largest automotive market and new energy vehicle market, which will be an important base for Kia's sustainable development." Liu Changsheng, general manager of Dongfeng Yueda Kia, said, "For the Chinese market, we will also have the introduction of new energy models such as pure electricity and hybrid, providing Chinese consumers with higher quality choices." For example, the E-GMP platform mentioned above, the first dedicated pure electric vehicle EV6, will soon be introduced into China. Next, we will expand the new energy vehicle matrix by launching a dedicated pure electric vehicle model every year, accelerate the transformation to electrification, and plan to achieve a 50:50 sales ratio of pure electric and hybrid vehicles in China by 2030. The implementation of such a plan, in addition to Kia, also needs the support and help of the majority of dealers, Kia now mainly promotes the "retail-centric" business mode, "customer-centric" business philosophy to strengthen the MZ generation as the target group of online and offline integrated marketing, are to achieve win-win and high-quality sustainable development with dealers. The right approach is needed to achieve the goal of sustainable development.
The brand and products continue to rise, and Kia's high-end development has begun
Hyundai Kia is the world's top 5 automotive group, by May 2021, Kia has won the trust of more than 50 million consumers worldwide, and has won many international safety and quality awards and at least 75 world-class design awards for several consecutive years, and has been shortlisted for the J.D. Power China New Car Quality Research (IQS) mainstream brand TOP 5 for five consecutive years. At the same time, it has more than 10 plants in six countries with an annual production capacity of 3.7 million units, and more than 5,000 dealerships in more than 180 countries around the world.
In recent years, Kia has been working hard to improve product quality and positioning on a global scale, such as in the U.S. market, where the actual price of Kia and Toyota's products is flat; in overseas markets, some models are positioned even higher than Toyota and Hyundai. However, in China, Kia is still a cost-effective brand impression in the minds of many consumers. It is not a simple task to make domestic consumers change their minds and accept Kia's high-end positioning. Therefore, on the one hand, Kia will gradually stop the production of low-end entry-level models priced below 100,000, stabilize the market competition of high-priced products, put an end to the previous low-price competition strategy, and no longer "exchange price for volume"; on the other hand, introduce the world's best-selling high-quality models into the Chinese market, win consumer recognition through product competitiveness, and change the inherent impression of kia brands in the domestic market for a long time.
Kia said that it is not sales-oriented, but will focus on improving product quality, in order to enter a higher level of the market, after getting the stage of success, and then slowly enhance the brand power to compete for the market. From today's point of view, this is a more correct step in the process of high-end. Although sales growth may not be seen in the short term, and the process of building a brand based on product quality is arduous and long, these practices have been very helpful in changing the face of Kia's brand in China. And in fact, Kia has already begun to do so.
Since last year, Kia's three blockbuster models in China, including the new K5, Smart Running Ace, fourth-generation Jawa, etc., have illustrated this trend, especially the fourth generation of Jawa, the price of 300,000-level directly refers to the Buick GL8, Honda Odyssey and Toyota Xena and other high-end MPV; more importantly, All important parts of Jawa are imported through Kia's global supply chain, thus ensuring that the global unified standards in product quality and product strength are guaranteed. Kia wants to convey to domestic consumers the fact that the brand is renewed and moving towards high-end through the fourth generation of Jawa. According to the data, since the launch of the car, the sales of first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have accounted for 26%. It is reported that next year, Kia plans to launch a new flagship SUV Sportage and K3 mid-term modification model in the Chinese market; and also plans to introduce a hybrid version of the new model HEV to continuously enhance the brand image with high-value products and multiple choices.
Write at the end:
In the face of the surging tide of the global automotive market to the trend of "electrification, intelligence, and networking", and in the face of the opportunities and challenges of the Chinese auto market, Kia resolutely and resolutely opened a new journey, the introduction of new energy products, the introduction of high-end products, etc., is obviously planning to fight. However, in the rapid development of the Chinese market, consumers to regain confidence in the brand is not so easy, leaving kia time is not much, kia can finally get its wish, time will tell us the answer.