A few days ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the latest 353rd batch of new car declaration catalogs, and the highly anticipated new Ford Focus was listed.
The new car still retains both hatchback and sedan versions, but moves closer to the new Mondeo and EVOS in terms of design language. Crucially, the new car will be equipped with a 1.5T four-cylinder engine, which is also the first time that this classic sedan has returned to four cylinders in recent years.
After the news came out, many netizens shouted "Finally waiting for you". How competitive are new cars? Let the kung fu car take everyone to see it together.
What is the highlight of the new Focus in implementing the "Ford China 2.0" strategy?
In the early years, In fact, Ford was one of the few international car companies in China that paid attention to "global synchronization". When other car companies are engaged in "special supply" and simple matching, Ford actually does not have this stall of muddy water, and most models are "original" introduced. But judging from the results, the evaluation does not seem to be so good.
Taking the Focus as an example, it was actually developed by Ford's European research and development center, which is an American car with a strong European pedigree, and the biggest feature is that it has excellent chassis quality and handling. For a family car of this level, its handling experience is absolutely first-class.
However, European cars have the characteristics of European cars, and due to extremely high emission regulations, Fox has replaced 1.5L/1.5T three-cylinder engines in Europe early. And European cars have always paid less attention to space optimization, after all, it is a paradise for cars. Fox also introduced these designs into the country, and as a result, it was met with a huge backlash from domestic consumers.
The Chinese people are naturally very repulsive to the three-cylinder engine, especially in the case of a large number of four-cylinder engines available in China. At a time when opponents are lengthening and increasing, although Fox has the foundation of a mid-level car, its spatial performance is not outstanding. As soon as it came and went, it was marginalized by the domestic market.
In the second half of last year, the overseas version of the 2022 Fox was released, and the design is still a small and rounded route that Europeans like, and even looks a bit like an electric car. At that time, Kung Fu Auto decided that if it was introduced again "originally", it was very likely to cause a devastating blow to this classic model. Unexpectedly, this time, Ford itself prejudged this point and made appropriate Chinese improvements to the new car.
Starting in 2020, Ford began to implement the "Ford China 2.0" strategic plan for the Chinese market. It is to take the Chinese market as the largest single market of Ford overseas and set up a special complete product design center in China. Look at Ford's recent new cars, Sharp, Explorer, Sharp World PLUS, New Mondeo, EVOS, is it so interesting? Basically, they are more in line with the tastes of the Chinese people.
Large cars with prototypes overseas such as Explorer and Sharp World PLUS, and SUVs with the style of American muscle cars, chose the original version to introduce. Models that tend to be used at home, such as Mondeo and Ruiji, pay attention to space creation, and pay attention to design aesthetics to meet the needs of the Chinese people.
Obviously, the new Fox is taking this route. For example, its front face uses breathing 3D "kinetic scales", which is very different from overseas models, but it is very sporty and delicate. Its body size reached 4664 * 1824 * 1467mm (sedan), 22mm wider than the A-class benchmark such as the Civic, making the ride more comfortable, and this localization improvement will affect the choice of consumers in the follow-up.
The new 1.5T four-cylinder machine is in place, just to make up for the disadvantages of the past?
There is also a very important point, that is, the overseas version of the Focus uses a 1.6L/1.6T four-cylinder engine, while the new domestic model only declares a 1.5T four-cylinder engine for the time being, which is actually a well-thought-out performance for Ford.
First of all, do you know why there are so few domestic 1.6L and 1.8L engines? In fact, in the early years, they were the absolute mainstream of the market, of course, there are various 2.2L, 2.4L models. But with the introduction of the domestic displacement tax regulations, the 1.6L engine tax is significantly higher than 1.5L, so many classic 1.6L engines have been "killed". For example, Volkswagen's 1.6L, the performance is also better than the current EA211 1.5L, Toyota's 1.6T+6AT, hyundai's 1.6L+6AT, basically have been replaced by 1.5L machines.
"Head iron" is still insisting on using 1.6L engines, the most typical is Nissan Xuanyi, but it is a veritable god car, the whole series only has this kind of power, super high sales amortize the cost. And Fox is obviously difficult to achieve Xuanyi's sales, abandon 1.6T, switch to 1.5T, although there is a slight concession in performance, but can save about 2,000 yuan in costs, do not underestimate this gap, which allows it to have higher flexibility in the market.
There is another point, that is, where ford's 1.5T four-cylinder engine came from, and there were rumors that Ford was going to introduce Changan's Blue Whale 1.5T engine. Judging from the declaration information of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the model of Ford's engine is CAF479WQ6, which should be an upgraded version of the previous Wing Tiger engine. The output power of 130kW is also remarkable, for comparison, the maximum output of the new Civic 1.5T high-power engine is 134kW, and the maximum output of the Golf 1.4T engine is 110kW.
It can be seen that the performance of Ford's engine is still good, reaching the first-line level of the same level.
In terms of gearbox, the new Fox will match the 8AT hand automatic transmission. This gearbox is jointly developed by GM and Ford, and it is not too outstanding in terms of shift logic and speed, the advantage is that the efficiency is good, and the reliability is quite good, after all, it is an 8-speed AT transmission, and the long-term use advantage is still obvious.
With the blessing of this new 1.5T four-cylinder engine and 8AT transmission, Fox has made up for its former disadvantages and can finally compete with the Civic and Golf in the same plane.
The interior is still kept secret, fearing a combination of Central Europe and China?
Although the appearance, size, and power configuration of the new car were announced, and the release was confirmed in the second quarter of this year, the interior of the new Focus remained confidential. However, we can guess through ford's current market strategy.
First of all, we take a look at the interior of the European version of the new Focus, it is indeed replaced by a large-size dashboard and a central control screen, but the mechanical gear rod is particularly eye-catching, the overall layout is not delicate enough, Europeans may be able to accept, but it is indeed not in line with the aesthetics of the Chinese, it is expected that the domestic version will not be 100% used. Instead, it will adopt a new large screen in the overseas version, or an EVOS-style screen design, coupled with a knob shift that is relatively popular among the Chinese.
In terms of intelligent configuration, it is expected that it will also be appropriately increased, after all, the Chinese people are good at this mouth, and now the intelligent configuration of domestic models is basically the highest in the world. It is estimated that the new Focus will be equipped with L2+ grade BlueCruise active driving assistance function, which can achieve "quasi-automatic driving assistance" in the speed range of 0-130km/h in specific sections, and then equipped with the latest Ford Vehicle Road Coordination System (V2I), with traffic light reminders and other functions, making driving easier.
The online upgrade function of the vehicle OTA is naturally also essential, of course, the latest SYNC 4 system and advanced intelligent voice control functions are expected to be installed on the new Focus. After all, there are signs that the new Focus is considered one of Ford's most important replacements in recent years.
In short, to win back the hearts of consumers, Ford China needs to make more efforts.
Kung Fu shoots
From four cylinders to three cylinders to four cylinders, Fox suffered a lot of losses. From the former national god car, to being marginalized by the market, and now starting again. Judging from the information from the new Fox, the kung fu car has smelled the explosive model. After all, the shortcomings of performance and space have been made up, and the appearance value is also higher.
Many consumers are still looking forward to Fox, after all, its driving experience is fascinating, safety is also remarkable, it should be the best wave on the market.