Regarding the safety of vehicles, it should be the most concerned one for all car consumers. However, each country and region has its own safety crash test standards, and the scoring standards are also various, which will inevitably dazzle everyone.
Among them, the American Highway Safety Insurance Association (IIHS) is more authoritative, its back is backed by insurance companies, and for no profit, their test data is directly used in the insurance company's vehicle safety assessment. As an insurance company, it is natural to hope that the higher the safety of the model, the better, so that the amount of money they have to pay will be smaller. Therefore, IIHS vehicle crash testing is known for its strictness, and many brands that claim to be safe and reliable have not been able to resist its "ruler-like eyes".
This year's IIHS scoring criteria have not changed from last year, with more than 100 award-winning models in 2022 totaling 101 models. Among them, 65 models were awarded the "Best Safety Award +" in 2022, compared with last year, the total number of award-winning models increased by 11, and the number of models that won the "Best Safety Award +" increased by 6, which can be understood as the increasing control of safety by car companies.
Not only that, we will find that Japanese and Korean car companies occupy half of the list of pictures, especially Korean cars, and the domestic and foreign markets are divided into two completely different directions.
In recent years, Korean cars have been greatly recognized in the North American market, and the popularity has risen frequently, in addition to the IIHS crash test mentioned in this article, Korean cars are also a big winner in J.D.Power's 2022 vehicle reliability ranking. On the other hand, its performance in the domestic market has continued to decline and has gradually become marginalized. What is the reason for the bipolar reputation of Korean cars?
First of all, we all know that Korean cars have not always been sold well in China, and in the early years, the Chinese auto market was also full of "Korean Wave". Korean brands such as Hyundai and Kia cannot be said to be everywhere, at least they are household names. Until 2016, affected by a special event, Korean brands became the target of public criticism, and Korean cars "ate closed doors" in China, which was the background of the era of its sales decline.
However, the continuous downturn in sales of Korean brands in China does not seem to have attracted their attention, I do not know whether it is the Korean people's "iron bones" disdain the Chinese market, or the chinese people's resistance to Korean goods continues to rise, in recent years, Korean cars in the domestic market market is very little, the official does not seem to want to save the Korean car in China's reputation meaning. Ignoring and letting nature go, is it a kind of confidence in South Korean car companies' own strength?
Secondly, if the "inaction" in marketing is still mixed with our active resistance, then the "double standard" reduction of Korean cars is a fact that is difficult to prevaricate and uncompromising. In February 2021, Elantra was exposed to 25 "reductions", which greatly reduced the configuration of the car in the case of a small difference in prices at home and abroad, which led to the continuous decline in sales of Korean brands that could not be eaten in the domestic market.
Moreover, in recent years, the development of domestic independent brands is obvious to all, and the extremely high cost performance of domestic cars has seized the Korean car market in China, making the Korean car that was originally mainly focused on low-cost and high-end Korean cars lose the advantage of "high matching" and cannot take advantage of "low price", and the situation in China is naturally difficult to improve.
Write at the end
Even if the editor said so much, the strength of the Korean car is still beyond reproach, although its reputation in China has been declining, it is difficult to deny that it still occupies a high ground in the international market, and the successive hegemonic lists are the proof of their strength.
Therefore, whenever someone says that domestic production surpasses the Korean system, Xiaobian does not agree, from the sales data, domestic production is indeed better than the Korean system, but on the core technology, on the global competitiveness, independent brands still have a certain gap with the Korean system. Of course, we all hope that the independent camp will walk out of the global car companies as soon as possible and highlight the strength of China's automobile industry.
For the dilemma of the Korean system in China, in the case of some era factors can not be changed, can only rely on self-improvement breakthrough, in addition to guiding domestic consumers to form a correct brand recognition, but also to put an end to "double standard", "reduce" and other bad habits, so that it can return to the mainstream track.