In 2021, there will be a shortage of chips, and global car companies will be under tremendous pressure. In the face of tremendous pressure, ford motor company for century-old car companies has adhered to the pace of transformation and promoted the full development plan of Ford+ global development. With the blessing of electrification and intelligence, Ford's first pure electric SUV Mustang Mach-E has become the second highest pure electric SUV sales in the US market, while the brand has quickly promoted the innovative application of smart car technology, hiring former Apple Automotive business director Doug Field to be responsible for advanced technology and embedded system development.
Thanks to Ford's positive transformation attitude and excellent performance of landing product quality, Ford's market value has exceeded 100 billion US dollars for the first time, and its stock price has also hit a 20-year high.
At the same time, under the guidance of the Ford+ global development plan, the "Ford China 2.0" strategy has been effective, and has achieved good results in electrification, intelligence and user experience improvement. The data shows that while some brands have experienced negative year-on-year growth, Ford China, which has been deeply involved in the Chinese market for 26 years, has achieved annual sales of 624,800 vehicles, an increase of 3.7% year-on-year.
Ford EVOS exterior effect exhibition for enterprise image.
Referring to the "Ford+" and "Ford China 2.0" initiatives, Chen Anning, President and CEO of Ford China, said: "The top priority of Ford's global Ford+ plan is to treat customers as family, create unique products and experience solutions, build customer relationships that are always with you, and continuously improve the user experience. The changes led by the program in China are fundamentally changing our work culture, and I am very happy to see the 'Ford China 2.0' program landed and began to work." ”
Ford's sales in China rise and its competitiveness in terms of high-end is prominent
Official data show that among the 624,800 unit sales performance achieved by Ford China in 2021, Ford brand passenger cars, Ford brands and Jiangling brand commercial vehicles and Lincoln brands contributed 237,600 units, 264,200 units and 91,600 units respectively. Among them, Lincoln brand sales continue to rise, Ford brand passenger car high-end trend is obvious, commercial vehicles have opened up intelligent changes, outperforming the commercial vehicle market.
Lincoln Z appearance effect exhibition view enterprise courtesy of the picture.
As a traditional luxury brand, Lincoln achieved sales of 91,000 vehicles in 2021, an increase of 48% year-on-year. Lincoln, which has been in the Chinese market for 7 years, has won the love of many consumers with its excellent design concept of products, luxurious atmosphere creation, and solid and reliable power chassis. The localization of the Lincoln SUV "Three Musketeers" sold a total of 82,800 vehicles throughout the year, accounting for 90% of total sales. It is expected that the lincoln brand to create a "smart new generation of cars" the new Lincoln Z at the Guangzhou Auto Show world premiere and opened pre-sale, with a very creative new design and breakthrough in the imagination of intelligent technology, redefine the future experience of "smart" travel, so far the order has exceeded 3,000 vehicles.
The epidemic in 2021 and the shortage of chips have brought a great impact on the automotive industry, but the cumulative sales of Ford brand passenger cars in the whole year still reached 237,600 units. Among them, the brand's sales in the fourth quarter reached 72,743 units, an increase of 18.1% from the previous quarter. It is worth mentioning that the stable performance of Ford brand SUVs and high-end cars has become the main force of Ford's passenger car sales. For example, for Ford's medium- and large-sized SUV explorers, its annual sales increased by 43.4% year-on-year, which performed well. Sales of SUVs such as Ford Ruijie, Ford Ruiji, and Ford Lingyu have also continued to grow; the first strategic model, Ford EVOS, which began delivery at the end of November, has won the love of young consumers through intelligent, trendy design, and rich driving pleasure, and sales have continued to rise.
The overall commercial vehicle market declined slightly in 2021, but ford brand and Jiangling brand commercial vehicles sold 264,200 units in China throughout the year, outperforming the commercial vehicle market. Among them, the light bus model represented by Ford Transit and Jiangling Teshun, as well as the Jiangling brand pickup truck models, still showed contrarian growth under the downward pressure of the market, both of which increased by 4.9% year-on-year. Among them, the light bus model hit a record high in China with 94,100 units.
Enterprises can do a lot of good publicity in the face of the market, but only sales can prove the market's recognition of the brand, Ford China's steady efforts, through the frequent explosion of products, proving consumers' trust in the brand and more possibilities in the Chinese market.
Based on localization, the "four major centers" under the "Ford China 2.0" strategy have landed rapidly
On January 17, 2022, the new Ford China Design Center was officially opened at the Ford China Dx Hub "Flex Valley" in Shanghai, which, together with the Ford China Product Center, the Ford China New Energy Center, and the Ford China Innovation Center, is known as the "Four Centers" of the "Ford China 2.0" strategy. In Ford China's view, the "Ford China 2.0" strategy will build future products that lead the global trend with Chinese efficiency.
What is the "Ford China 2.0" strategy, which is based on China and leads the world?
Ford China held a press conference in April 2019, at which the company officially announced that in the future, Ford China will focus on five major plans to accelerate product development and launch speed, research and development of intelligent technology, deepen strategic partnerships, leading innovation and local talent training, and accelerate the implementation of this plan by building four major centers, including innovation center, design center, product center and new energy vehicle center. Since then, the "Ford China 2.0" strategy has been officially released.
In the past two years, Ford China has steadily moved forward, in order to better serve users in the ever-changing Chinese automotive market, Ford China is determined to combine its brand technology heritage with China's local consumer demand, and innovate in many fields.
In January this year, the new Ford China Design Center was officially opened in Shanghai. As Ford's latest global design center, it has the full-process design capabilities from design trend research, interior and exterior design, color material design, digital interaction experience design to digital model and full-size clay model production, and is the only full-featured vehicle design center in downtown Shanghai.
Ford China Design Center is located in the heart of Shanghai, courtesy of Ford China Dx Hub "Fotron Valley".
The original product engineering center and vehicle testing center in Nanjing were integrated and upgraded into Ford's China product development center, and the team began to localize from the past global models to lead the design and development of new products for the Chinese market in the future.
In order to better invest in the development of vehicle electrification, relying on the resources and advantages of the product development center, the newly established Ford China New Energy Center mainly aims at the needs of Chinese consumers for new energy models and plans and develops new energy products and technologies that are more suitable for the Chinese market.
Ford China EVOS model static experience courtesy of the enterprise.
In order to better promote the "Ford China 2.0" strategy, Ford brand passenger cars and Lincoln brands have also launched new plans and new products closer to the Chinese market. Ford EVOS, Lincoln Z is the representative products in between, the future of the company will also launch more models from China, leading the world, worth looking forward to.
Looking at the four centers and five major plans in the "Ford China 2.0" strategy, it is not difficult to find that Ford attaches great importance to the Chinese market and localization, and even puts forward the concept of China's research and development and leading the world. As a joint venture brand, Ford China's localization boldness comes from Ford's pattern and vision. At Ford's headquarters overseas, it is difficult to understand the Chinese market better than the local team. In the ever-changing Chinese automotive industry, rather than firmly holding power in its hands, more intelligent empowerment and more autonomy for each market may inject more vitality and bring better opportunities to this century-old enterprise.
How will Ford China win the hearts and minds of consumers?
Today, global car companies are competing to enter the electrification and intelligence, and Ford's performance is even more eye-catching. Good products with the grand strategy, Ford Motor in the United States electrification, intelligence has begun to bear fruit, but also to investors to bring confidence, to promote the brand stock price rise, the market value exceeded 100 billion US dollars.
In terms of electrification layout, Ford Motor has made a plan, at the end of 2025, the company will invest more than 30 billion US dollars in the research and development and production of pure electric models and batteries; by the end of 2030, the company's pure electric models will account for 40% to 50% of global sales, while the luxury brand Lincoln will achieve global electrification.
Ford's pure electric SUV Mustang Mach-E enterprise courtesy of the company.
In terms of intelligence, Ford has hired Doug Field, a former apple automotive business program director, to develop advanced technologies and embedded systems. At the end of last year, Ford already had about 1 million Ford and Lincoln brand cars worldwide with OTA capabilities, and by the end of 2028, 33 million Ford and Lincoln brand cars are expected to achieve OTA upgrades worldwide.
In 2021, Ford's pure electric SUV Mustang Mach-E has become the second largest sales volume in the US pure electric SUV market; the F-150 Lightning pure electric pickup truck has received more than 200,000 orders so far; the E-Transit pure electric transit model has also been released and will be delivered this spring.
Under the leadership of the Group's global strategy Ford+, the "Ford China 2.0" strategy has also actively increased the three aspects of electrification, intelligence and customer experience.
In terms of electrification, the domestic pure electric SUV Mustang Mach-E has opened the official delivery, and synchronously launched the blue worry-free after-sales service, aiming to provide Chinese users with a value-added experience of worry-free appointment, worry-free maintenance and worry-free use of cars, and the future brand will launch more new energy vehicle products for Ford consumers.
In order to better support the electrification transformation, Ford has also made a lot of efforts in terms of sales model and energy replenishment experience. In terms of sales model, Ford launched ford select, an exclusive brand for electric vehicles, to create a direct sales channel for electric vehicles directly to consumers and create a differentiated user experience. The brand has opened 25 direct sales city showrooms for electric vehicles by the end of 2021, and plans to march towards 100 in the next five years.
In terms of energy replenishment, in order to improve the charging experience of users, Ford has established cooperation with 24 charging operators such as State Grid, Special Call, Star Charging, and China Southern Power Grid. Consumers can query the 400,000 public charging piles provided by charging operators through user APP, which covers more than 80% of public charging resources in 349 cities across the country.
In terms of intelligence, ford EVOS light chaser and the new Lincoln Z, which are led by the Chinese team and built around the needs of Chinese consumers, have applied a fairly advanced intelligent configuration in a targeted manner while inheriting the brand design style and ensuring a high-quality driving experience, showing the brand's leading scientific and technological strength.
FNV intelligent interconnection network-wide architecture gives vehicle OTA upgrade capabilities enterprise image.
At present, the SYNC+2.0 Intelligent Mobility Interconnection System and the new BlueCruise L2+ active driving assistance have been fully launched in the new model series. At the same time, the brand has created a "more understanding of you" intelligent cockpit and "more road-aware" intelligent driving based on the intelligent interconnection network architecture (FNV), and the new model series also supports the OTA function of the whole vehicle.
In the Chinese market, Ford has begun to invest in a new generation of products in preparation, whether it is electrified or intelligent, it is quite mature.
In addition to creating products that are closer to Chinese users, the Ford brand has taken service to a whole new level, proposing a full-time, all-round customer relationship experience. With the rapid changes in the consumption trend of China's auto market, the customer base has also shown the characteristics of high-end, family and diversification. Ford China integrates the brand spirit of "pioneering innovation" and the service concept of "hospitality as a family", and further improves the new customer relationship through upgrading dealer showrooms and services, integrating digital channels and experiences, and using technological innovation and family customer experience.
In addition, the "Lincoln Way" originating in China has also fully entered the 2.0 era. The Lincoln team insists on building a new customer experience ecosystem with "digital empowerment and experience co-creation", and gradually establishes a new type of customer relationship that is "always online". At the same time, the brand also innovates to create a new Lincoln Way Experience Center with the design concept of "American Luxury Club".
New Lincoln Way Experience Center Courtesy of the Company.
According to the official introduction, the new Lincoln Way Experience Center integrates the purest American luxury experience, vivid and rich integration of digital interconnection, diversified ecological customer co-creation experience space, making it a "trend vane" for architecture, experience and social networking, and by the end of 2021, five new Lincoln Way Experience Centers have been officially completed.
Summary: In the wave of electrification and intelligence, there are always voices questioning the boldness and ability of traditional car companies. Ford's forge ahead, the excellent sales results achieved on a global scale, the market value performance and the financial performance that far exceeded market expectations proved its strength.
In the Chinese market, the new Ford EVOS not only has an avant-garde exterior design, but also the intelligent cockpit of the interior has surprised many people; the Lincoln brand not only proves the purity of its luxury brand with real products, but also joins the sense of technology that is with the times to jointly promote brand sales to a new high. What kind of achievements can this brand that actively transforms and realizes localization in the future achieve? How will the "Ford China 2.0" strategy be better promoted? Let's wait and see.
Text/Bai Haotian Edited by Liu Baoqing