2022 is the beginning of a new era, and behind Dongfeng Honda's steady progress as always is that it can always provide consumers with solid products, as well as warm brand tension, and customers also return with unique brand loyalty. In particular, in the face of the new era, its resolute courage to dare to fight and execute the new strategy of electrification is even more empathetic.
Text / "Autobot" Zhang Min
Just after the Spring Festival of 2022, the sales of major car companies in January have been released. Not surprisingly, Dongfeng Honda's sales hit another open, with January sales reaching 77,385 vehicles, an increase of 107% year-on-year, and the overall performance was very strong.
The market challenges brought about by the epidemic and chip shortage have not yet eased, but from the data point of view, the steady development of Dongben has become normalized.
Last year, in the supply chain crisis caused by the spread of the global epidemic, major multinational brands suffered heavy losses. With its stable product layout, strong brand power and rapid market response, Dongfeng Honda has successfully outperformed the market.
The strong are not afraid of crisis. The long-standing saying that "adversity looks at Japan" in the automotive industry has been verified. At the beginning of the year, the advantages of Dongfeng Honda's company system were presented and will continue into the whole year of 2022.
Strong product strength blessing, continue to make steady progress
In terms of sales of subdivided models in January, CR-V is still an important pillar, continuing the brilliant record of 2021, contributing 25,000 units to Dongfeng Honda in January. This is an old drama, no need to write a big book. Since 2006, the CR-V has accumulated more than 2.2 million subscribers and is historically one of the most successful SUV models.
In addition to the CR-V, the XR-V, which is also the "Gemini" of SUV, sold 17,000 units in a single month, an increase of 103% year-on-year, while the 11th generation Civic continued to perform well, achieving a monthly turnover of 16,000 units, an increase of 118% year-on-year.
The fuel vehicle business remains stable under the market wind and is the foundation of Dongfeng Honda's confidence in practicing its corporate strategy.
Dongfeng Honda, which has been established for 18 years, is not known for its product line length, but it has a fixed consumer group and fan base. At present, Dongfeng Honda's cumulative users in China have reached more than 6.85 million. The extent to which Honda temperament weighs in the minds of these people is well demonstrated in 2021, when the supply chain is plagued as never before.
Under the repeated impact of the epidemic and the lack of core, Dongfeng Honda's sales last year remained unshaken at the level of 800,000 vehicles, which is not easy. It should be known that this achievement is achieved by adjusting the production rhythm and optimizing the business process by responding quickly and actively.
The internal stability of the million scale tests the strength of the system. In the development context of Dongfeng Honda, no matter how severe the external environment is, Dongfeng Honda's strong system strength and the development idea of always adhering to product success can eliminate the crisis to the greatest extent and steadily move forward towards the set goal.
Consumers' evaluation of Dongfeng Honda's product strength is the retention rate of used cars released by third parties. This is not a used car guide price, but reflects consumers' perception of product quality and long-term stability.
In October 2021, J.D. Power released the "2021 China Automobile Retention Rate Research Report", and Dongfeng Honda won the first place in the manufacturer list with a three-year retention rate of 63.4%. At the same time, Dongfeng Honda's XR-V, CR-V, Civic and Elite models have won the first place in their respective market segments.
The first five episodes in one are really speechless. J.D. Power's list of retention rates is the ranking of reliability and brand power, and Dongfeng Honda Quality Control, endorsed by the second-hand market, is more convincing. The actual transaction amount of customers using second-hand cars reflected in the market survey data, and the willingness to trade approved by both parties to the transaction, are the "gold standard" of voting, which can not only be tampered with, but also have minimal distortion.
Dongfeng Honda's long-term product quality appeal has been transformed into the result of practical actions, which has not only won the recognition of "Honda powder", but also continuously expanded the audience range. This is the cornerstone of Dongfeng Honda's operations.
Technology-led, accelerated electrification
In 2022, Dongfeng Honda will continue to exert its strength in the new energy market.
Last year, Dongfeng Honda's hybrid product line was further improved, and honda's first PHEV model cr-V sharp hybrid e+ in China was officially launched after the completion of the construction of the CR-V, INSPIRE, and Elishen (SUV + sedan + MPV) hybrid family. Since then, Dongfeng Honda has entered the era of hybrid 2.0 in parallel heV and PHEV.
The industry has long been determined, the only thing that can confront the Toyota THS hybrid is Honda's i-MMD hybrid technology. The sharp hybrid e+ technology equipped with the CR-V is the latest generation of hybrid. Tests from third-party authoritative laboratories have shown that the SPORT HYBRID e+ system equipped with CR-V Sharp Hybrid e+ has a staggering fuel consumption of 1.3 liters per 100 kilometers.
The offensive play in the hybrid field was incorporated into the subsequent Honda "electrification strategy". Thanks to the deep technical accumulation in the field of hybrid power, Dongfeng Honda can seamlessly enter the era of electrification.
In October 2021, Honda China held the "Electrification Strategy Conference". In Honda's "Strategy 2030", which belongs to the Chinese market, the pace is faster and more aggressive. Dongfeng Honda's electrification progress is accelerating, which is in line with the "high expectations" in Honda's strategy.
However, no matter how fast the pace, the transition process is also gradual. During the transition period, Dongfeng Honda will not give up the market advantage of fuel vehicles, and at the same time vigorously update the hybrid and electric product sequences, forming a comprehensive attack on the power plan. Although the strategic direction of each enterprise is generally the same, the "sense of youth" of Dongfeng Honda's decisive killing and dedication is actually difficult to imitate.
It is worth noting that Honda's strategic launch was held in China, which not only attaches importance to the meaning of the Chinese market, but also requires specific technical cooperation from Chinese partners in the process of electrification. Dongfeng is continuing to make large investments in electrification.
On October 13, 2021, Honda released a new pure electric brand "e:N", along with the platform architecture, concept cars and new technologies attached to the brand, and marketing plans.
The name "e:N" has the meaning of energize and electric, as well as the meaning of new and next. From the creative naming method, we can see Honda's determination not to go the usual way.
Among the electric models planned by Dongfeng Honda, there are four models, including the e:NS1 mass production model. Among them, e:NS1 belongs to the e:N Architecture F intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture, which integrates high-efficiency and high-power drive motors, large-capacity and high-density batteries, exclusive frames for pure electric vehicles and chassis platforms, which is the core structure supporting the "e:N" series of "movements".
As Honda's first pure electric model in China, the e:NS1 is also equipped with the full-stack intelligent control ecosystem "e:N OS" that integrates Honda SENSING, Honda CONNECT, and intelligent digital cockpit.
The reason for the surprise in the industry is naturally that it does not understand that before the official release of Honda's electrification strategy, Dongfeng Honda has completed product landing, supply chain configuration, capacity planning and other work. It can be said that everything is ready only to owe the East Wind.
If there is no accident, in the spring of 2022, Dongfeng Honda may inadvertently create a new record, that is, from the landing of a new sub-brand to the delivery of the model, the shortest time, only half a year.
In half a year, there is only time to do the scheduling plan for mass production and do the whole process assessment of pre-production. This shows that the electrification rhythm of Dongfeng Honda is not moving like a mountain, and moving is like wind.
Do a brand with temperature
Under the trend of electrification, product electrification is only an external presentation, Dongfeng Honda takes marketing digitalization as the core advantage, and brand warmth through the whole process, and fully promotes the process of "three modernizations".
In the face of the current digital trend in full swing, Dongfeng Honda is already carrying out digital transformation, from marketing digitalization to digital intelligent manufacturing and other active exploration of the whole value chain, the future will create a super digital management system, so that digitalization for enterprises to fully empower.
The brand spirit is the traction of Dongfeng Honda. Dongfeng Honda will be under the banner "Stay Ahead." Guided by spirit, the first time to communicate with users about information and emotions, so that the brand becomes the user's first choice.
In the past year, Dongfeng Honda has made consumers feel the temperature of the brand through a series of marketing initiatives.
In May last year, the "Blessing Gabe" combination of Life + Sabine made its debut, with the highest number of online broadcasts reaching 13.74 million times, setting a new record for online marketing. This also means that Dongfeng Honda's first linkage with CCTV famous mouths and douyin platform live broadcasts to bring goods together has become a national screen brushing event.
A month later, Dongfeng Honda held a million-partner trend tour with the theme of "Witnessing Millions, Exploring More Than Ever". In the meantime, XR-V car owners, media friends and fashion ICON from all over the country witnessed the milestone moment of XR-V million delivery.
Subsequently, Dongfeng Honda celebrated its 18th anniversary, bringing together users, media, and supplier partners to "dare to go to the next journey".
Under the strong product force offensive, with the help of traffic and word-of-mouth marketing, Dongfeng Honda has realized from product-driven to brand-driven, so that the brand can continue to release warmth. With the gradual landing of pure electric products, dongfeng Honda, whose brand power is increasingly polished, is worth looking forward to in 2022.
2022 is the beginning of a new era, dongfeng Honda as always steady behind the fact that it can always provide consumers with solid products, as well as warm brand tension, customers also return with a unique brand identity.
Although Dongfeng Honda has only been operating for 18 years so far, it has basically not yet had time to achieve brand loyalty of "intergenerational inheritance", but the trend has been cast. In particular, in the face of the new era, its resolute courage to dare to fight and execute the new strategy of electrification is even more empathetic. After all, the future belongs to the brave and the activists. 【Copyright Notice】This article is the original manuscript of Automan Media, and may not be reproduced without authorization.