Text | Carry the pot to punch
At this point in time when the internal combustion engine and electrification intersect, the new generation of Mondeo is trying to maintain its presence between the two ethnic groups, the Americans who are obsessed with valuation and bent on being responsible for Wall Street investors have almost abandoned the product line of the internal combustion engine, and Ford China, which is responsible for consumers, has rejuvenated the product line.
After watching Martin's face for nine years, he finally gained freedom under the leadership of Changan Ford, and the Chinese design team entered a positive cycle, recruiting a local design team, emphasizing the localization of Ford Motors, and preferring the aesthetics of Chinese consumers to obtain sales, so as to gain a greater right to speak.
Twenty years ago, the ceiling of full responsibility faced by Chinese executives gradually disappeared with the growth of China's auto market and the improvement of national strength.
Every car company has some classic heritage, for Ford Mondeo, Martin Face has undoubtedly become the faith of a generation, and even become one of the code names of the entire brand.
Mondeo, Fox, Taurus, have all been because of the Martin face to get a lot of traffic, of which, at the peak of 2014, Mondeo's annual sales in the US market reached 306,860 vehicles, a moment of no difference, but four years later, that is, in 2018, sales only got 173,600 vehicles, coupled with Ford's own center of gravity to the SUV shift, resulting in Mondeo's importance in the product matrix is getting lower and lower.
This is a product line abandoned by Ford headquarters, but the Chinese team has retained it, two key reasons, one is that the Chinese market needs mid-level cars, even if the SUV momentum is good, but the Dinghaishen needle on the market is still a sedan. Second, the Chinese team has the confidence to retain the classic, upgrade the classic, and let the classic serve the Chinese car market.
"Mondeo" in addition to the high-end, but also has the meaning of "Mondial", that is, "the world", in 1986 Ford spent $6 billion to develop the first generation of Mondeo on the heart of the world, hoping to integrate its own product lines on all continents, reduce costs, this game in the 90s of the last century, everyone followed the humming "we are the world, we are the children", is a more avant-garde and natural idea.
Before Mondeo went to Europe, the American and Japanese mid-level cars in the European market recognition is not very good, Ford specially according to the European taste to create a sedan, five-door hatchback version and travel version to meet European consumers, the year of listing was rated as the European annual wind car, the initial foothold but not applauded, the strategic goal can only be said to be half completed.
The first generation of Mondeo is to show muscles, highlight the sense of existence, then the second generation of Mondeo will target the Volkswagen Passat, the body is lengthened, the performance is improved, the shape becomes more concise, the first year of listing sold 430,000 vehicles, by the way in the most exclusive British market, became the British royal car.
The third generation of Mondeo, which went public in 2007, did not have the desired effect, so Ford decided to launch the design elements derived from Aston Martin in 2012, of course, the family all went in the direction of this fashion classic, and by the way gave a new definition to the word Moneo Man.
Mondeo's positioning and level are not cheap, and the British middle class that can open Mondeo belongs to the small and successful group of its peers. But in any case, whether there is a Martin face or not, Mondeo is Mondeo, and the Martin face is just a "passer-by" in its design ideas. Too much emphasis on a simple design point, it is a bit of a distraction.
The Chinese team abandoned the Martin face design, which has to be said to be very bold. When you think about it, it's a matter of course.
Martin's face is good, but so what, which other Chinese consumer will be excited about Martin's face in 2022? Times have changed, preferences have changed, and fashion trends have changed a little.
So why go into the box for an outdated concept?
Rather than saying that the current society is fragmented, it is better to say that it is more subdivided, The taste of China, the taste of Japan, the taste of the United States, the taste of Germany, the taste of the United Kingdom are all very different, the Americans themselves define the current era of "diversification", fish and chips are good, but the Chinese stomach still likes hot pot.
These attitudes are difficult for American designers across the Pacific Ocean to understand, art is a thing without borders, but the understanding of art is divided into borders and regions, so luxury brands have flipped on Chinese elements so many times.
In my opinion, in the case of Ford's headquarters abandoning Mondeo, forcing a localized Mondeo is itself a move by the Chinese team, but because of this, there are many fewer constraints from overseas voices, and they can do their best to create a mid-level car that meets China's national conditions.
The first, second and third generation of Mondeo is a relatively moderate consumer product in the eyes of global consumers, the fourth generation emphasizes the youthfulness in styling, and after nine years, in the face of being abandoned by the headquarters, can Mondeo regain its youth in China?
The Chinese team never doubted it.
From it, we can see many elements that are respected by young Chinese consumers.
Compared with the previous roundness, the new generation of Mondeo emphasizes sharpness, and abandoning martin's face is a successful adventure, showing stronger lines and elements that bring more visual stimulation, such as penetrating wind blade lamps, larger scale grille inspiration, slender hood proportions, and sharp A-pillar inclinations, all of which are the aura emphasized by the "potential energy aesthetic".
This is precisely where the determination of the new generation of Mondeo lies, it simply and neatly cuts with its own former global car era, arming itself with a new concept, but if it can get positive feedback from Ford, it is also willing to absorb it, such as the vertical light source inside the taillight cavity, which looks like a Mustang after lighting, and the young people are good at this.
The ST-Line version will provide a more sporty exclusive front guard and skirt bracketing, the fenders add the ST-Line logo, with exclusive red brake calipers, and the flying wing shape design embedded in the rear under the rear surround, further emphasizing its youthful vision.
On the basis of the original sense of technology, the car adds exclusive door panel trim and stitching, when you pull open the hidden door handle into the car, the atmosphere lights are lit in turn, and the Danish national treasure B&O audio echo wall transmits the electric melody, you will definitely feel that you have made the right choice.
In my humble opinion, this time Ford Mondeo's development idea is bigier than bigger, so that the extended version of things that can shock Chinese consumers is presented in the car at one time.
The new generation of Mondeo, led by a Chinese design team, has elongated the wheelbase for the first time, the previous generation of Mondeo has a wheelbase of 2850mm, and this generation directly dried to 2945mm. Demand determines everything, and extending the wheelbase may not necessarily sell well in China, but the car that sells well must have a large wheelbase. Of course, there are also a small group of people who feel that the wheelbase is too long to control, which is a new topic.
The 1.1-meter ultra-wide-area giant screen integrates a 12.3-inch full-color digital LCD dashboard and a 27-inch ultra-large true 4K central control screen, which basically makes use of every inch of the layout available in the car. The screen is getting bigger and bigger is the current style, in a sense, whether it is Ford or Mercedes-Benz BMW, or the ideal Weilai, with the current demand for car technology, it is difficult to use functional software to cover such a large screen.
This is a bit like the time when Apple's iPhone generation was released, the full touch screen after the cancellation of the keyboard is very good from aesthetics to functionality, but Apple does not have enough APP to support this screen, and the real take-off is still the emergence of the fourth generation of products.
The current flexible screen is the same, after opening the display area of two screens, there is no sufficient APP to use the screen, we will more as the same screen display two working windows, similar to the computer Windows multi-window work mode to treat.
Now the folding screen is a pit, does not mean that the future is also a pit.
This giant screen of Mondeo is indeed a bit of a big deal, I prefer to understand it as an investment for the future, the iteration speed of software will be faster than the hardware, not to mention the replacement of automotive products for at least five or six years, and the medium-term modification will have to jump in three years.
It doesn't matter, the future matter, to the future design team to solve, the current team needs to do, is to design a technology cockpit in line with the Chinese aesthetic, first win the Chinese consumers' hearts and then think of others.
This step is risky, but successful, and the next step is to spend enough time polishing an interesting soul.
As far as the current technology is concerned, Mondeo's latest generation of Ford car machine system SYNC+2.0 Zhixing interconnection system still did not jump out of the current common functions, after all, the new forces of car-making born on the Internet have gathered more young people, with more jumpy ideas, traditional OEMs are in the era of catching up, the current Ford car machine can support multi-dimensional interactive methods including Baidu artificial intelligence technology, multi-touch, AI speech recognition, gesture control, facial recognition, etc., which is not a new trick. After removing the entity button as much as possible, being able to do enough logic is success.
Ford's world's first visual virtual artificial intelligence assistant VPA Zhixing partner is one of the "Easter eggs", the first two years of industry recognition of the function is through the remote OTA function to make a car's various indicators "commonly used and constantly new", and now Ford has kept up with the first echelon of the Internet, emphasizing that the artificial intelligence in the car has the ability to learn.
The current official saying is "with different animations and anthropomorphic expressions with different driving scenes", I think this should be more than a display function, the foundation of independent learning here, the biggest possibility in the future is to become a "shadow driver", through continuous learning and summary to imitate the owner's operating habits and take the initiative to correct the driving trajectory, so that the car's driving more casual, in order to achieve the real leap driving control.
BlueCruise active driver assistance function and vehicle-road collaboration system based on cellular vehicle networking (C-V2X) technology correspond to the future of smart cities, and whether it can fully apply its functions depends on infrastructure, which is another long-term problem.
At least, in the face of technical iteration, the new generation of Mondeo has hardware to quickly follow up, which is also its competitive confidence.
Mondeo is ford's façade. The mid-range car market is also a position that Ford China cannot back down.
In the past, Mondeo had lost many markets due to aging, and the new generation of Mondeo, which was built by the Chinese, vowed to grab back its share.
This is a very difficult thing, not to mention the current Japanese mid-level car is extremely strong, the new generation of Mondeo just right to find the weakness of the Japanese mid-level car - intelligent, in the Internet era this is precisely a pain point, young mid-level car users also want to have a new energy vehicle general intelligent experience, good-looking face everyone has, the shape of the change is not unusual, the ultra-long wheelbase and ample space is the cornerstone of competition, interesting and intelligent soul will determine the life and death of the new generation of Mondeo.
Perhaps, this time, Ford China will change the way of travel like the T-model car, and it is not necessary to change the pattern of the mid-level car market with unique intelligence.