Text/Hu Yao
Graph/from network
In April 2021, on the cold and windy Huangpu River, Ford's electrification of the pioneering work - Mustang MachE officially landed in the Chinese market, that night 26.5-37.99 million price was announced, almost all the media present exclaimed: ModelY's fierce enemy is coming! This price can put the Model3 also PK up! "Due to the large number of orders, the official website reservation system has almost exploded." This unverified rumor has also spread widely.
With the launch of the Mach-E, Ford China's specially established Electric Vehicle Division was also born, a new division responsible for the manufacturing, marketing, charging network and user experience of Ford Electric Vehicles in China. At the same time, the electric vehicle business unit makes full use of Ford's existing national service network to establish a supermarket experience store, which also began to open in June last year.
But after a stunning start, all kinds of surprises began. When everything was ready, everyone was looking forward to the opening of the ford China electrification curtain, and when the sales release was quickly achieved under the leadership of this pioneering work carrying the spirit of the Mustang, the process seemed to have been pressed the pause button: the time point of the first delivery of the first batch of the original plan in the middle of the year was postponed, and the small order to the large order began in October last year, and it was not until December that the delivery of the first batch of owners was expected to be completed by the end of February this year.
As of December last year, compared with the model Y's monthly sales of more than 30,000, Mach-E did not really run in the Chinese market, "as the world's largest electric vehicle market and an important part of Ford's global electrification strategy", in the heart of Ford China President Chen Anning, "as the world's largest electric vehicle market, it is an important part of Ford's global electrification strategy".
In contrast, Mach-E's performance in the US market: it was evaluated by the US media as a "real competitor of ModelY"; won the first annual electric vehicle award of "CarandDriver" in the United States; Morgan Stanley Research Report revealed that Tesla's sales share in the US pure electric vehicle market fell from 81% to 69%, and almost all of the lost share was robbed by Mach-E. The ready-to-market blockbuster has boosted Ford's confidence in the North American market, and it has planned to expand the Kuotitlán plant for Mach-E production to 200,000 units per year in 2023.
In China, the pressure on Mach-E is an external cause of chip shortages? Or is it the internal reason for the brand appeal, product power, and channel power? Or is it the only way to go through a key move to transform under pressure? On the weekend after the Year of the Tiger, the author walked into the Mustang City Exhibition Hall located in Hall C of Chongqing Times Tianjie Street, approaching the most sentient salesmen and the most authentic consumers.
Product: What's different about buying an Electric Horse or Tesla?
As early as last November, a good friend of the author ordered a rear-drive deluxe version (long endurance) priced at 309,900 yuan, although he later returned the order because he waited for a long time to pick up the car. When I asked him why he chose this car, he replied without hesitation: because of the brand and complex, for people who like cars, mustang itself is attractive.
The in-store sales consultant also said bluntly: Mach-E's three major advantages over Tesla are feelings, appearance, and vehicle manufacturing process and chassis tuning. Needless to say, the nearly 60-year history of the Mustang brand has left the new forces beyond their reach. Although the design of the appearance is different, but put The Mach-E and Model Y together, almost everyone will feel that the Mach-E design is more tense and more recognizable.
In terms of the traditional handling and dynamic characteristics of vehicles, in fact, traditional car companies such as Ford have a richer accumulation. After all, After a hundred years of car manufacturing history, Ford's characteristics in chassis and handling have long become its most characteristic DNA. On the Mach-E, Ford added electromagnetic suspension and combined the chassis tuning and handling advantages of the previous Mustang series, so that this car combined the acceleration pleasure of an electric vehicle with the chassis performance of a fuel performance car.
In addition to the chassis, it is even more dominant in terms of acceleration performance than the Model Y "electric horse". Taking the Mustang Mach-E GT, which is priced at 369,900 yuan, as an example, the combined maximum power is 359KW, the maximum torque is 860N.m, and the official zero hundred accelerates by 3.65 seconds. The Tesla Model Y Performance, priced at 387,900 yuan, has a comprehensive maximum power of 339kW, a maximum torque of 623N·m, and an official zero-hundred acceleration of 3.7 seconds.
In addition to the book differences, the author met a consumer who had just returned from a test drive in the store, and the real feeling he shared was: under the daily driving conditions in the city, the impression of the two cars is "very good to drive", the steering is light, the pointing is precise, and the girls can easily drive. Relatively speaking, the Mach-E's chassis is more tightly tuned, the road sense is clearer, and the body follows very quickly, while the Tesla Model Y is more "soft". If you pursue the driving experience of "people and vehicles in one", then the Mach-E advantage will be more obvious, after all, Ford's chassis tuning skills for performance cars are quite deep.
But for the new forces, the sense of science and technology has always been their biggest weapon to compete with traditional car companies. For example, Tesla FSD for its strong strength in automatic assisted driving, identify lane lines and other vehicles on the road, and ranging accurately, the monitoring of pedestrians is also very timely, and there is a major breakthrough in the identification of traffic lights, which is indeed incomparable to Mach-E.
From the perspective of product comparison alone, Mach-E and Model Y have their own strengths, but why is the gap between sales so large? The author believes that the first is that the awareness of Mustang itself is far lower than tesla, although the former has a group of loyal fans after 80-95, but the number is not large, after all, the Mustang sports car is only a niche model. When I was in the store, it was just a weekend, many people rushed past the store, and there were only 20-30 groups of people who actually entered the store all day, and they were asking: What is this car? Never seen it.
Secondly, Mach-E has a unsatisfactory place in the configuration: due to the very high degree of importation of Mach-E, leaving little room for later adjustments, so the entire series of models assembled at the Changan Ford factory are not equipped with a 360-degree panoramic image visualization system, although it can be installed by spending 15,000 yuan to install an upgrade package (including BlueCruise active driving assistance, side distance warning system, FAPA one-key parking assistance system, 360-degree panoramic image visual system), However, if consumers only need 360 panoramic images, but cannot be installed separately, this means that consumers must spend 15,000 yuan on the cost of 360 panoramas, which will also have an impact on the psychology of car purchase.
According to the sales consultant, last December after the manufacturer launched the optional package gift policy after the sales of the pull is very large, although Tesla also does not have a 360 panoramic image, but compared to Tesla's appeal in the electric vehicle market, if Mach-E has you no I have just need to configure, the sales effect will be more obvious, but unfortunately, the policy of giving away optional bags was cancelled in January this year.
At the end of the day, in the current situation where Mustang's brand and channel coverage is not as strong as Model Y's, there needs to be more places in the configuration that impress consumers.
Channel: Slow progress to ensure uniform quality?
By the end of 2021, nearly 30 independent channels for Ford electric vehicles have been built nationwide, and all of them are invested and built by the current Changan Ford system dealers, which cannot be called fast for Ford, which already has a huge dealer system in the country.
As early as the moment when Mustang Mach-E was about to be introduced to the Chinese market, some Changan Ford dealers had proposed: Why not put the electric horse directly into the Changan Ford showroom for sale? After all, Changan Ford's network layout is very wide, many of the old dealerships have a good regional footprint, and the fuel Mustang is also sold in some of Changan Ford's original channels.
For this question, as the only channel in Chongqing Mustang, the relevant person in charge of Chongqing Anfu said that after all, in addition to BYD, almost all new energy brands in the current market have chosen to enter the mall to build stores, like SAIC Volkswagen ID is also another channel to enter the mall for sales. The advantage of entering the mall is that it helps to build an image, the business hours are longer, the natural flow of people in the mall is taken advantage of, and the brands can also drive each other. At present, the only electric horse experience store invested by the store is located in the largest commercial area of Chongqing , Daping Times Tianjie C Hall, which has the exhibition hall of Xiaopeng Automobile on the same floor.
Mustang positioning high-end, so Ford only selected a dealer with a long history and strong strength in the Changan Ford system in one city to carry out new channel construction, but also to ensure the service quality of this high-end electric vehicle model. This line of thinking itself is blameless, but for a new brand, the slow expansion of the network does restrict the rapid increase in brand exposure and awareness. And time, often higher cost.
But entering 2022, the channel construction of electric horses seems to have begun to accelerate. According to the relevant person in charge of Anfu, in addition to the existing Times Tianjie Experience Store, the company is already preparing for the opening of a second experience store, and last December also transformed the Mustang Delivery Center in the Anfu Changan Ford Showroom, where Wild Horses and Electric Horses were placed for sale. That is to say, with the subsequent opening of the second experience store, there are actually three electric horse experience stores in Chongqing.
At the same time, the fuel Mustang and the electric Mustang are sold together, which connects the past and future of the Mustang brand, and is also quite symbolic. Maybe how to play the "Wild Horse" card well, "Electric Horse" should have more and more flexible ideas.
Driving value view
The reason why Mach-E, which had high hopes, did not run at the beginning of the listing, in my opinion, is not that the product and price are not channels, but that the entire Ford system is still in a period of adaptation and adjustment to the electrification transformation. Just like Tesla and Wei Xiaoli at the beginning, it took at least two or three years from entering the market to gaining a firm foothold. However, unlike these new forces, electric horses have feelings and brand blessings, and the starting point is Ford's transformation and pioneering work, and everyone should think that electric horses should run as soon as they are listed.
However, it turns out that the new track, the new way of playing, from the supply chain, production line to the sales end must be readjusted, for the traditional car companies this transformation is not easy, but also needs a process of reengineering. Just like the ramping capacity of electric horses needs the transformation of production lines, just like the initial import parts mainly caused many functions to be unable to be split and sold, urgent, but also urgent. From Volkswagen to Ford, it is not a coincidence that the traditional car companies that took the lead in opening the electrification transformation did not start successfully, or perhaps it is just that everyone's expectations are too high.
From the news learned from the manufacturers, from this year's Mach-E will begin to provide a user experience that is always online through direct user connection and vehicle OTA upgrades. With the increase in the number of deliveries, the owners' clubs across the country will be formed, and more new goods will be added to the mall of the Mini Program as the exchange of user points - so that people have a good time, not as if people do not have a long-term boredom. After the stunning opening appearance, how to face the relatively silent new era? The manufacturer's idea should still start from improving the user experience, step by step, step by step, and not in a hurry. From all aspects, the operation idea of electric horse and the overall strategic direction of Ford in the future should be consistent, that is, to take the boutique route rather than the popular route.
Using the successful experience of the US market to verify the Chinese market is not objective, after all, the influence and recognition of electric horses are not comparable to the domestic environment. But for its part, It hopes electric vehicles account for 40 percent of its global sales by 2030. To achieve this goal, the performance of the Chinese market will play a crucial role. Therefore, although the electric horse is slightly silent at the moment, sooner or later it still has to run!
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