After the fox generation, it was not welcomed by the market, the limelight of Mazda Onksela was no longer popular, and the replacement Honda Civic also changed the ghost fire juvenile style and became more and more "mainstream". For a time, the joint venture sports car market gave people a feeling of decline. Are consumers not liking sports cars? Or is the group of young people buying cars starting to decline? In fact, it is not, but the joint venture brand model has deviated from the demand of the Chinese market, which can be seen in the self-priming power of Axela to the end, as well as Fox's three-cylinder engine.
However, the market gap made by the joint venture has given the opportunity for independent brands, and in recent years, it has made great achievements in the sports car market, and the reputation of Lynk & Co 03 has risen by virtue of racing to win the championship, and the popularity of MG 6 and Trumpchi Shadow Leopard in the 100,000-level market has not decreased, so that domestic car fans are full of reverie for their own brand sports car.
Other independent brands can do it, and Chang'an, which is also an independent first-line manufacturer, is naturally not far behind. A few days ago, the latter borrowed the high-end positioning of the UNI series to enter the sports car market and launched the UNI-V model, does it have the opportunity to further stir the domestic sports car market pattern?
Is the face value delicious enough?
First of all, for young consumers, especially those who love sports models, it is very important to have an impactful appearance. In order to understand the domestic consumers' own brands, in this regard, a lot of effort has been made, from the Lynk & Co 03 launched 03+ version, and then to the Cyan track version, from the exaggerated sports encirclement of the shadow leopard from head to toe, to the X power version launched by MG 6, the domestic models that flaunt sports and performance have made a lot of efforts in sports encirclement, wheel hub, tail wing, color matching and other aspects.
And Changan's UNI-V this time is no exception, the new car not only follows the borderless design of the UNI family, but also in order to show its own sports positioning, in front of the face added a huge wind shroud, side streamlined body, creating a slippery back image like the Audi A7's invigorating, the tail is the independent sports model Peugeot bilateral two out of the exhaust layout, in addition to an exaggerated shape of 25kg pressure electric lifting tail.
Perhaps Changan feels that the shaping of only the styling details is not enough, the manufacturer has also launched a special edition model with orange elements on the basis of UNI-V, equipped with a more exaggerated diffuser and four exhausts, which instantly fills the performance value and makes people adrenaline rush.
In short, from the positioning of the vehicle sports coupe, The styling style of Changan UNI-V is quite prominent, giving people an impression of "not like Changan" and not completely copying the UNI car system, which has made a good start for sports models that focus on personality.
Really sporty or good looking?
Performance is the weak link of the previous domestically advertised sports models. In addition to the appearance of the positioning movement, the more important thing is to be associated with the power and control.
In the past, the most difficult thing for domestic cars was undoubtedly the core components such as engines and gearboxes, because of the lack of manufacturing experience, there was still a big gap between them and those world-class manufacturers. However, with the continuous catch-up of the technical level, domestic cars are now very different, and they gradually dare to talk about performance.
The changan UNI-V is equipped with a combination of 1.5T Blue Whale engine + 7-speed wet dual-clutch transmission, with a maximum output of 188 ps and a peak torque of 300 N·m. In terms of pure book data, the power parameters of UNI-V have actually surpassed the Honda Civic, and even reached the level of 2.0T of some foreign brands, and the actual acceleration results can also be remarkable, to a certain extent, it can bring users a smoother driving experience.
However, no matter how good the motivation, there is no good control is incomplete. The so-called good or bad control, the most difficult is the embodiment of comprehensive performance.
Judging from the control performance of the sports and performance products of the previous independent brands, this may still be the weak place of domestic performance cars. Although as of press time, the author has not test-driven UNI-V, but with reference to the driving experience of previous products of the UNI series, it may not give people too many surprises.
After all, there are too many factors that affect the handling, including the ratio of the center of gravity in front of and behind the body, the adjustment level and form of the suspension, the performance of the tires and wheels, the quality of the body and the quality of the spring, the adjustment of the steering system, etc. Wanting to be outstanding in handling is a very large systematic project, and it is not something that can be understood in a year or two of developing a sports car.
We often think that a good driving experience is often made by those centuries-old car companies, precisely because they have accumulated enough experience with time. However, domestic performance cars, on the one hand, Chinese automotive engineers still lack the tuning and experience of handling, and Lynk & Co 03 can win the championship in the competition, which relies heavily on Volvo's team.
On the other hand, the price limits its imagination, most of the domestic sports cars are positioned at a price of more than 100,000, and it is certainly unrealistic to use all-aluminum accessories and air suspension like European performance cars and sports cars, and we cannot expect its control to reach the top level. They play more of a family car role, and it will still be difficult to get off the track.
There are many opponents, and the price of Changan UNI-V is slightly higher
It should be reminded that at present, in the independent brand sports car market, everyone is still standing on the same running line (the open hanging Lynk & Co is an exception) If Changan hopes that UNI-V can achieve sales soaring, the key behind it is inseparable from pricing.
No matter how good the self-owned brand models, from the current market environment, when consumers buy a car, the price is still one of the most important reference factors. Moreover, changan UNI-V's opponents usually have more affordable guidance prices, such as last year's hottest Trumpchi shadow leopard was 98,300 yuan, while the pre-sale starting price currently given by Changan UNI-V is 108,900 yuan, which will be slightly higher.
Associated with the initial release of the Changan UNI series, the starting price of more than 150,000 yuan led to its failure to become a hit, so the official follow-up in order to increase the volume, launched a 145,900 yuan version to reduce the threshold, which has more or less showed that Changan was overconfident in the high-end product line.
On the contrary, Lynk & Co 03, which holds aloft the CMA structure jointly developed by Volvo, in order to kill a bloody road in the car market dominated by the joint venture brand, it was only sold at a price of more than 110,000 yuan when it was first listed. To some extent, we can understand that it is the people-friendly pricing that lays the foundation for the excellent sales performance of the Lynk & Co 03 series in the future.
From this, it can be seen that UNI-V should take advantage of the opportunity of the official listing, the pricing should be lowered in a timely manner, and the regret of UNI-K should not be repeated. In case the first batch of consumers who purchased Changan UNI-V, word-of-mouth feedback did not feel that the product power was worthy of the high price, then it may have a certain impact on the future market performance of UNI-V.
Of course, Changan UNI-V is still worth affirming in some parts of the product level. To the majority of consumers to show the design skills of their own brands, the value of the line, in the current level of sports car market, is quite eye-catching. Although the mechanical part needs to be further dismantled, this point is actually a difficulty faced by most of the independent brand sports models, and to become a real sports model, it is necessary to precipitate and spend more effort on adjustment.
However, from Lynk & Co 03, MG 6, Trumpchi Shadow Leopard to Changan UNI-V, our own brands have at least begun to try sports, and even models that are related to the word performance, which is thankful. It is believed that under the continuous technical attack and catch-up, in the near future, the performance of domestic sports and performance vehicles that have accumulated more experience will be synchronized with the world like new energy vehicles.
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