Text | Automotive Review Editorial Department
Design | microcosm
In 2021, most car companies in the world will have poor production due to chip shortages, while Tesla's sales are still at the top of the list. But for now, Tesla is only a smooth transition on the surface, and in fact it has reduced some parts.
Recently, it was reported that due to the shortage of chip supply chains, Tesla has reduced the allocation of domestic Model 3 and Model Y, removing one of the two electronic control units in the bogie.
It is understood that the reason why the above-mentioned electronic control unit was removed was that Tesla's engineers thought it was redundant, it was mainly installed as a backup, and the reduction would not affect the use of most vehicles, so there was no need to notify customers at this stage.
In fact, if the owner wants to achieve the L3 automatic driving function, then the vehicle needs to have a dual electronic control unit system, and after removing one of them, it may be difficult to achieve automatic driving, and it needs to be reloaded.
Tesla's reduced vehicles in 2021, including the Model 3 and Model Y, are mostly sold in the Chinese market and some sold to other countries.
Being "reduced" by the explosion is not the first time, and it has not changed repeatedly.
On March 10, 2020, the First Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology interviewed Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. about the illegal reduction of HW2.5 components in some vehicles of Tesla Model 3 models, and ordered it to rectify it immediately, but Tesla obviously did not learn the lesson and repeated the same mistakes again.
For the matter of having to reduce the allocation because of the "lack of core", as long as the brand can make the information public and provide reasonable solutions, then consumers are not unable to understand and accept.
Although this action did not directly affect its sales, it was based on the loss of brand reputation. With China's independent brands releasing a strong curve overtaking signal in the new energy track, Tesla may be knocked off the altar.
Recently, South Korea's Kia Co., Ltd. signed an expansion investment agreement with Jiangsu Yueda Group. Kia and Yueda plan to form a new joint venture company, which plans to increase capital by 900 million US dollars, and strive to rapidly increase product sales and brand influence by expanding investment, introducing new models, developing new energy vehicles, and setting up export bases.
China is the world's largest new energy vehicle market, and the Yueda Kia joint venture will also accelerate the transformation of electrification. From 2023 until 2027, Yueda Kia will launch a new electrified model in the Chinese market every year starting from the Kia EV6 until the construction of a product matrix of six electric vehicles.
In addition, the joint venture will also build a new organizational structure, actively introduce local talents, and accelerate the construction of localization.
The road back is long and difficult, and $900 million is just the beginning.
Since 2002, Kia has been operating in China for 20 years, and in these 20 years, it has sold nearly 6 million vehicles, although the sales data is very impressive, but Kia's brand power has not been effectively established. Obviously, the stereotypes that were formed in the early years cannot be changed overnight.
Yueda Kia does not seem to be affected by the withdrawal of dongfeng group, but has more ambitious goals and attempts. In the next ten years of planning, its brand has set a target of more than 4 million units in China.
This ambition of Kia is certainly worthy of praise and affirmation. However, considering Kia's brand strength and market performance in China in recent years. The achievement of this goal will be fraught with many uncertainties.
Recently, Daimler AG officially announced that it will officially change its name to Mercedes-Benz Group AG on February 1, 2022, and its official website has already changed its new name and replaced it with the Mercedes-Benz logo.
At the same time, Daimler Greater China Investment Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Daimler Group in China, will also carry out the process of renaming at the same time, and is expected to officially change its name in the second half of 2022.
The main purpose of the name change is to convey to the public that the company will continue to focus on the automotive business in the future, and will focus on several sub-brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach, Mercedes-EQ and so on.
From Daimler's name change, we can glimpse the determination of brand transformation.
Under the wave of intelligence and electrification, if you want to keep up with the tide of the times, it is not enough to change the name of the head power. Relative to the new forces of car manufacturing, the fist product of traditional car companies is fuel vehicles, even if it is transformed into electric vehicles, the space given to the capital market is not as good as that of new car companies, which is an insurmountable gap.
The name change of Daimler Group, although it shows the determination of its brand electrification transformation, it is still difficult to change the inherent cognition of users. The author believes that instead of changing the name, it is better to find another way, at this time, China's independent car companies have launched high-end electric brands, such as Extreme Kr, Lantu, Zhiji, etc. have begun to emerge.
In this wave of the times, traditional car companies such as Mercedes-Benz can only occupy an advantage in the competition if they continue to increase research and development and master the innovation and development of core technologies.
Recently, the second plant of Dongfeng DPCA in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone has been taken over by Dongfeng Honda, which will be transformed from Dongfeng Honda into a new factory of pure electric vehicle type. In this way, the problem of insufficient production capacity of its brand is alleviated.
In 2021, DPCA increased by 100% year-on-year, with cumulative sales of about 101,000 units, doubling sales. However, the Dongfeng Citroen Versailles C5X, the main sales model, will have a cumulative sales volume of about 13,000 units in 2021, all of which will be manufactured by the DPCA No. 4 Plant in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
Compared with the overcapacity of DPCA, Dongfeng Honda has a significant lack of production capacity. In October 2021, Honda China announced a new pure electric vehicle brand e:N and electrification strategy.
Among them, the first model of dongfeng Honda e:N brand e:N1 special edition is expected to be launched in the spring of 2022. In the next five years, Dongfeng Honda will also launch three e:N brand models.
In order to effectively undertake its brand strategic goals, Dongfeng Honda will build a new pure electric vehicle factory and put into operation in 2024, while taking over the idle capacity of the second plant of Shenlong and transforming it, or becoming the optimal solution for Dongfeng Honda at present.
Hand over the factory, the production capacity is slimmed down, and the road ahead of DPCA is geometric.
At present, traditional car companies such as Dongfeng, FAW, and Changan are shrinking and adjusting their business, and have begun to make efforts toward electrification and intelligence. The gradual recovery of sales, sweeping away the years of decline of DPCA in China, and handing over the second factory with overcapacity to Dongfeng Honda, which has insufficient capacity, are the best of both worlds for both.