Every year, the joint venture brand will synchronize some global models for localization production and domestic sales, but considering the actual situation in the Chinese market, as well as the relationship between market demand and cost, most of these models are limited to the mainstream consumption area within 300,000. Some personality-rich, playful niche and high-end models are either imported into the country or simply not exported to the country, resulting in many enthusiastic "high-end players" being extinguished by the ruthless reality.
Affected by the continuous improvement of the consumption level of domestic consumers in recent years and the overall sales of passenger cars year by year, some joint venture car companies have insight into the increasing demand for high-end models in the domestic market. Therefore, in order to quickly meet the needs of consumers and arouse the desire to buy at attractive prices, the introduction and implementation of localization has become the best shortcut for car companies. The new atmosphere of the Year of the Tiger, in the spring of 2022, the car buyer learned from many sources that it has been determined that four models will be localized and listed this year, and today I will take you to take a sneak peek.
BMW Brilliance X5L
Since the second half of last year, there have been rumors about the domestic production of BMW X5, and with the latest batch of declaration information released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in December, the news of X5 localization has also been hammered. Once the car is mass-produced and listed, it will become the most high-end model among all the joint venture vehicles at present.
As one of the leaders of the luxury brand camp for many years, BMW's brand concept has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the Chinese people. X5 can achieve domestic production, its strength comes from a strong user base, and domestic consumers for the product force of the high recognition. In the face of fierce competition from mercedes-Benz GLE, Audi Q7 and other models of the same level, for BMW, the implementation of the X5 localization can save various unnecessary taxes and fees such as tariffs, thereby further reducing the price of new cars and enhancing the competitiveness of new cars in the market. It is worth mentioning that the domestic X5 will be produced at BMW Brilliance's Tiexi plant in Shenyang.
After all, they are all localized, and in the face of enthusiastic Chinese consumers, it is particularly necessary to add some localization elements. From the model point of view, the domestic version of X5 is no different from the imported version, but considering the actual needs of domestic users, BMW, which is good at playing with longer wheelbase, also adds "L" to the domestic version of X5. Judging from the declaration information, the height and width of the X5L remain unchanged, and the length and wheelbase are 130 mm more.
As for power, the new car is expected to still be equipped with the current imported version of the powertrain, providing 2.0T inline four-cylinder and 3.0T inline six-cylinder engines respectively, with a maximum power of 200 kW and 272 kW respectively, and the transmission system matches the 8-speed manual transmission.
Volvo Asia Pacific XC90
For the domestic production of the above-mentioned BMW X5, it is not the first in the luxury brand medium and large SUV level, before the Cadillac XT6 and Lincoln Aviator, the two American models, have taken the lead in achieving localization. However, in terms of influence, these two cars also have a big gap with the X5, so they have not driven other luxury brands to follow up and implement domestic production. In contrast, the X5 is different, less than two months after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's declaration information was released, the news that volvo XC90 will be domestically produced, but compared with bmw X5, the domestic production of XC90 is more natural.
On the one hand, with XC90 based on the SPA platform to build Lynk & Co 09, the current starting price is less than 270,000 yuan, the actual gap between the two in product strength is not large, XC90's greater advantage is to rely on the brand and import status to obtain the noble premium advantage, but the starting price of nearly 640,000 yuan is destined to make some potential consumers who do not reach the threshold prohibitive; on the other hand, together with the level of benchmark X5 are domestic, if XC90 still adheres to the existing price sales, it will usher in unprecedented pressure. In this way, the localization of XC90 is quite a necessity.
At the same time, XC90 and Lynk & Co 09 belong to the same platform products, once the implementation of domestic production, you can directly use the existing SPA platform for production, so that not only improve the utilization rate of the SPA platform, but also save a large amount of production line construction and time costs. Referring to the XT6 and aviators who are also in the second-tier luxury, the starting price of the domestic XC90 may drop to around 500,000 yuan. The domestic production of XC90 does not require the group to invest a lot of money, and can further reduce the price of the new car, which is undoubtedly the best of both worlds for Volvo.
Dongfeng Nissan Pathfinder Pathfinder
Whether it is the brand tone, product positioning or the current situation in the domestic market, Nissan and Ford have many similarities. Perhaps due to the impact of the ford explorer's implementation of localization and the relatively considerable sales performance, Nissan finally decided to introduce its own medium-sized SUV product, Pathfinder, into China and hand it over to Dongfeng Nissan for localization sales.
It is worth mentioning that the Pathfinder is not a brand new model of the Japanese product brand, this 7-seat SUV originally developed for the North American market, as early as 1985 began to produce and sell, its life cycle in 2021 has reached the fifth generation, that is to say, Dongfeng Nissan will produce the Pathfinder is this newly replaced fifth generation model.
From the appearance of the overseas version of the Pathfinder, the overall shape of the new car is very tough, especially similar to the Explorer's C-pillar folding design, which is very typical of the American style. However, from a market point of view, because pathfinder has never introduced domestic standard versions of sales through formal channels like explorers, the vast majority of domestic consumers are relatively unfamiliar with it, lack a certain user reputation, and also face the challenge of popular models such as Volkswagen Tuang and Toyota Highlander, and the pressure is obvious. But from another point of view, the arrival of the pathfinder will become the flagship model of Dongfeng Nissan, is the brand's elevated façade responsibility, manufacturers naturally attach great importance to the car, if there is excellent product power, but also has a people-friendly price, there is no lack of shoulder to shoulder Withang, Highlander possibility.
Dongfeng Honda Civic Type-R
Different from the previous three cars, the Civic Type-R with stronger play attributes has been localized, more to meet the enthusiasm of domestic players for performance cars. As one of the most representative models of the "JDM" performance car, the Civic Type-R has always gained a loyal embrace. Honda is no longer slack this time, directly bypassing the low-performance version of the Civic Si, and directly domestically producing the higher-voice Type-R high-performance version to reflect the importance that honda brands attach to domestic consumers.
As the eleventh generation of Civic Sedan Edition gradually moves closer to the mature and stable family car positioning, the young and sporty style of future products will be mainly inherited by Civic HatchBACK. Car buyer Jun believes that the Civic Type-R only chose domestic this year, but also the rational use of the Civic HATCHBACK first-mover advantage, seeing that the domestic market demand for hatchbacks is gradually expanding, while the Civic Type-R once localized, there will be no second challenge opponent for the time being, which is undoubtedly an excellent gospel for many fuel vehicle enthusiasts before the full advent of the electrification era.
Summary: What is the point of view, the more in this era of the spurt development of new energy vehicles, in this era of endless and frequent changes in household cars, high-end, niche products are more and more valuable, not only because of the relatively high price of these models, but also because of the full play of the experience and playability of the car itself.