On February 14, Ford Lingrui officially announced the pre-price, and the new car will launch three models, with a pre-price range of 158,880-18.88 million yuan. It is understood that Lingrui is a five-seat medium-sized SUV launched by Jiangling Ford after Lingjie and Lingyu, which debuted at the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, positioned lower than Lingyu, and is expected to be officially listed in the first quarter, and the arrival of Lingrui will further improve the matrix of Jiangling Ford passenger car products.
The English name of Lingrui is "Equator Sport", and "Equator" is the English name of Lingyu, but the official emphasis on Lingrui is not a sports version of Lingyu. From the appearance of the design, Lingrui adopts Ford's new family design, the overall style is somewhat similar to Ford Lingyu, its headlight group adopts a split design, the led daily running light above is combined with the front grille to form an integrated design, the lower far and near light integrated light group is integrated with the front surround, and the wide polygon front grille has adopted a visual impact of the middle net design inside, making the new car more sporty visual effect.
In the side part, the new car as a whole adopts a more youthful style design, and the chrome trim of the side window is very innovative, and the waist line below makes the new car very capable. From the rear point of view, Lingrui eliminated the through-type taillight group and bilateral double exhaust used by Lingyu, and added the Sport tail mark. At the same time, the rear bumper is decorated with A-type silver trim on both sides. According to the declaration information, the length, width and height of Lingrui are 4630/1935/1706mm, and the wheelbase is 2726mm. In contrast, the current lingyu for sale has a length, width and height of 4905/1930/1755mm and a wheelbase of 2865mm. From the above data, it is not difficult to see that the length and wheelbase of Lingrui are not as good as Lingyu, which can be regarded as a standard wheelbase model.
In terms of the interior, two 12.3-inch full LCD instruments and the central control screen design are connected together to form a continuous screen design, which looks more technological. In terms of configuration, the new car will be equipped with Ford Co-Pilot360 Intelligent Driving Assistance System and Tencent TAI4.0 Automotive Intelligent System, which can realize AR real-life navigation, Ford-Pai App mobile phone interconnection, OTA online upgrade, etc. In addition, the new car will also be equipped with the Ford Co-Pilot360 Intelligent Driving Assistance System as standard, which supports ACC adaptive cruise, blind spot monitoring, lane change assistance and other functions.
In terms of power, the new car is equipped with a Ford EcoBoost 170 (1.5T) engine, with a power of 170 horsepower and a peak torque of 260 Nm, matching the 7-speed wet dual-clutch transmission produced by Magna.
As one of Ford's joint ventures in China, Jiangling Ford's presence in the passenger car market is not strong. According to public data, Ford China's annual sales in 2021 were 624,800 units, an increase of 3.7% year-on-year, of which Changan Ford passenger car sales were 192,300 units, an increase of 4.7% year-on-year, while Jiangling Ford passenger car sales were 30,200 units, an increase of 6.2% year-on-year. From the perspective of brand development history, Jiangling and Ford became strategic partners in 1995, the starting point is not slower than other joint venture brands, due to more attention to the development of the commercial vehicle market, Jiangling Ford's presence in the passenger car market has been very low, although in 2016 has launched Ford Tourio, Collar and other passenger car products, but sales have not been optimistic.
It is understood that at present, Jiangling Ford passenger cars have Lingjie, Road Shakers, Lingyu, Toureo and other models for sale. Among them, Lingyu is a new model launched by Jiangling Ford in March 2021, positioning medium and large SUV, with a price range of 18.98-21.98 million yuan. In terms of power, the Ford field is equipped with a 2.0T engine with a power of 163 kW and a torque of 360 N·m, matching a 6-speed wet dual-clutch transmission. From the sales point of view, the collar is a good model, with retail sales of 43690 vehicles in 2021, while the road shakers only sold 1184 vehicles last year, and the sales of the newly launched Lingyu are also very average.
From the current point of view, jiangling ford passenger cars has only performed well in the collar, and the lingyu launched in March 2021 has been tragically "hit the street". Taking Lingyu as an example, although there are certain advantages over the joint venture car of the same level in terms of price, the product itself lacks competitiveness, as a medium-sized SUV based on The Ford 2.0, it uses a 6-speed wet dual-clutch transmission, which is criticized by many consumers, and the current monthly sales are maintained at a level of about 2,000 vehicles. In this context, Jiangling Ford launched a new model Lingrui to change the situation, equipped with a 1.5T engine and a 7-speed wet dual-clutch transmission, can the listing of Lingrui drive Jiangling Ford to usher in a turnaround?
In the past 2021, Jiangling Ford has made many changes, but the entire automotive industry is also undergoing tremendous changes. New energy models are rapidly rising, and Jiangling Ford, as one of the joint venture brands born early, the current product performance is still very general, and explosive products are urgently needed. Earlier, there were media reports that Jiangling Ford will import Ford Fist product F series pickups, and according to the official response, the new generation of F-150 pickup trucks will open reservations in the first quarter of this year.