Text | Joey
What is the status of Korean cars in the Chinese market now? That's an interesting question.
I still remember the first real daily scooter in my life, that is, a Korean Kia Maxima, with an displacement of 1.3L, the power is not enough (the summer air conditioning is not powerful), the space is not very large, but for me it is the beginning of real human car life. At that time, such a "thousand-mile horse" seemed to be my own "BMW".
Many people are actually like me, in the years when Korean cars were very popular, when they bought their first scooter, they would set their sights on Korean cars, which could be Maxima, or Elantra, or better, Sonata. They were competitively priced and balanced in every way, making it a perfect choice for people who wanted to own their first car at that time.
However, with the change of the times, people's concepts when choosing cars have also changed, especially in the context of the continuous innovation, change and high-tech of new car-making forces. But does this mean that Korean cars have no chance at all? Obviously, such a conclusion seems arbitrary.
After all, Korean cars still have products that can be beaten in the Chinese market, such as the seventh-generation Elantra of Beijing Hyundai, the recent sudden explosion of Kusitu and so on.
The product can still play, still focus on the future
In the past 2021, although the entire auto market is facing a series of major challenges and adjustments such as the impact of the epidemic, the lack of cores, changes in the market pattern, and the change of consumers' car buying concepts, Beijing Hyundai still relies on good product strength to stabilize its sales. An old family car such as the Elantra, which has now been replaced by a new seventh-generation Elantra, still has a record of 130,000 sales in the whole year, with an average monthly sales of more than 10,000 vehicles.
Obviously, this is the coveted sales volume of other car companies except for a few big car companies. It should be known that the two brands of French cars Peugeot and Citroën's domestic models have just exceeded 100,000 sales in the whole year, and the seventh generation of Elantra has achieved and surpassed this goal.
At the same time, Beijing Hyundai can sell more than this car, and in 2021, Beijing Hyundai achieved annual sales of about 385,000 vehicles. Although such achievements have declined to a certain extent compared with before the outbreak of major uncontrollable factors such as the epidemic and the lack of cores, the various measures actively adjusted by Beijing Hyundai have played a good role in stabilizing sales.
According to Du Junbao, permanent deputy general manager of Beijing Hyundai, in 2021, Beijing Hyundai will stop selling several products that may not have an advantage in the market, and concentrate its energy and resources on 4 brand competitive models such as the seventh generation Elantra, Tucson L, ix35 and Kustu. On the basis of their own product strength is not inferior to the same level, these products have cooperated with the service of Beijing Hyundai to win the first place in after-sales satisfaction for eight consecutive years, achieving stable sales and enabling Beijing Hyundai to harvest good sales results.
In addition, Beijing Hyundai is constantly introducing new products. According to the changes in consumer demand in the Chinese market and the possible changes in the structure of family members in the future, Beijing Hyundai keenly paid attention to the possible demand growth in the MPV market and launched an MPV model such as Kusitu. The product has been on the market for only 3 months, and sales have exceeded 7,000, which is already very good in the small audience of the home MPV market.
However, according to Du Baojun's words, the sales volume of Kusitu is still limited by production capacity. And when the production capacity is released, a hot product that can bring fire and revitalize the Beijing modern MPV product line will obviously be ready to come out. Based on this possibility, we can expect that in the 2022 that has arrived, Kustu will be expected to become a new growth point for Beijing Hyundai's sales.
Of course, these eye-catching sales results are still limited to the scope of traditional cars. However, the times have changed, and if you want to carry the banner of the revival of Korean brands in the Chinese market, it is obviously not enough to rely on these traditional fuel vehicles. So what does Beijing Hyundai intend to do?
New energy is the future direction
If you think that Korean cars are still a desert in the field of new energy, you are underestimating them. In fact, in the global competition for new energy vehicles, Korean cars have very good results. In the recently released European new energy sales ranking, Hyundai Ranked Fourth with 54,200 units, while The same Hyundai Group Kia ranked sixth with 46,700 units. Globally, Hyundai sold a total of 270,000 electric vehicles last year. In 2021, they released the exclusive brand IONIQ 5 for pure electric vehicles to promote the brand's continuous progress in the field of pure electric vehicles.
In the Chinese market, starting from the launch of the Onsino EV and plug-in hybrid version in 2019, it marks Hyundai Motor's official entry into the competition in the field of new energy electric vehicles. In 2020, Beijing Hyundai launched the transformation of Festa electric vehicles to participate in the competition of the mid-to-high-end electric car market. But these are still not the full strength of Hyundai in the field of new energy.
In addition to focusing on electric vehicles, Hyundai Motor has set its sights on the field of hydrogen fuel cells with more market potential. If in the past, when you mention hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, you first think of Toyota, then you should also know that Hyundai is also a pioneer in this field. Their NEXO is also expected to lead the development direction of the next stage of the new energy process of automobiles in the future.
In the Chinese market, the new energy brand strategy originating from Hyundai Group will surely bring new changes to Beijing Hyundai. However, the changes are also not only the continuous introduction of new energy models, more intelligent technologies will also continue to enrich and strengthen the product strength of Beijing Hyundai.
According to Du Baojun's introduction, Beijing Hyundai is about to introduce a model of Hyundai Group with the internal code name "OE". This product, which is between the sedan and the SUV, will apply the latest intelligent driver assistance technology jointly developed by Hyundai Motor and Beijing Hyundai, and introduce the function of FOTA remote online upgrade. In terms of network technology, Beijing Hyundai is actively cooperating with Baidu and Nanyang Research Institute to achieve a more intelligent human-computer interaction experience.
In terms of the driving experience of the vehicle, Beijing Hyundai introduced the i-GMP platform a few years ago to improve the stability of the vehicle chassis and thus provide a better driving experience. In the future, based on the needs of the future introduction of pure electric vehicle models, the i-GMP platform will also be combined with the pure electric E-GMP platform to make the manufacturing of pure electric vehicles modular and systematic.
When this purpose is achieved, the vehicle's battery, body, and floor will form a fully integrated module, which will reduce the R&D cycle while improving efficiency. This also means that in the future, hyundai motor and even Beijing Hyundai's product update iterations will continue to accelerate based on this module, and users will be able to purchase more technologically advanced Beijing Hyundai products more efficiently.
In fact, this series of changes are integrated in Hyundai's 2025 strategy. But for ordinary consumers, how can they understand Beijing Hyundai more clearly? Obviously, at this point, a proper marketing strategy is essential.
Constantly cross-border, so that users perceive
How to let users understand the marketing of the brand is nothing more than two points, so that potential consumers can see, and let users perceive. At this point, Beijing Hyundai has done a lot of work in 2021.
In terms of letting users see, Beijing Hyundai has tried a large number of cross-border marketing strategies. For example, through the promotion of the fifth generation tucson L, Beijing Hyundai has jointly customized related travel programs to Russia with the famous video tourism column "Couple's Journey"; at the same time, Beijing Hyundai has also cooperated with Zhejiang Satellite TV's variety show "The Star Chaser". Through these two columns, the stability and applicability of the vehicle in the process of long-distance driving and use are very well demonstrated. To attract more consumer attention to Tucson L series products.
At the same time, relying on Hyundai's continuous investment in the field of sports motors, it has also established a more performance and sportier product image for Beijing Hyundai products. For example, as early as 2019, Beijing Hyundai won the annual championship of the WRC World Rally Championship for the construction team of that year; and in the 2020 season, they won the annual championship. Through the WRC event, the market's expectations for Beijing Hyundai products have also increased, not only to focus on home, but also to provide users with more driving pleasure products.
Based on such market demand, Beijing Hyundai is now moving away from the overall product planning that was closer to the home in the past, focusing on the introduction of more personalized and sporty products. For now, Beijing Hyundai has begun to introduce some N Line versions (such as tucson L N Line models) to meet the needs of younger consumers who are pursuing a driving experience.
Obviously, in the future, whether it is the introduction of new new energy products, the layout of intelligent human-computer interaction, the launch of a new platform, and even the continuous promotion of cross-border marketing, we have a reason to have better expectations for Beijing Hyundai. And when this series of measures began to bear fruit, perhaps the banner of the revival of Korean cars in the Chinese market was naturally carried by Beijing Hyundai.