Introduction: Ford China-led design, which can be called the "replacement" of the "China Special Edition" Mondeo, has shown certain advantages compared with the joint venture B-class car competitors such as Accord and Camry; but at the same time, factors such as impure pedigree, weakened brand appeal, and still ungrounded pricing system will also greatly weaken the market competitiveness of this car.
After 9 years, Mondeo is finally going to "replace" the new one.
Mondeo on the new, North America discontinued Production China Special Supply
Of course, the "replacement" here needs to be put in quotation marks.
Because in a sense, the new car can not be called a replacement product of Mondeo, but more like a "China Special Edition" model designed by Ford China and tailored for the Chinese market.
After all, with the previous Mondeo North America and European R & D and design, Chinese manufacturing identity is completely different, today's replacement of Mondeo, in the North American base camp has long been in the state of "discontinuation" fragments.
North America "discontinued" the last generation of Mondeo
American consumers have no feeling for cars, Most of Ford's sales and profits are derived from rugged pickup trucks and SUV models, and the Mondeo car project has been officially announced by the US headquarters "Game Over".
Americans do not intend to continue to invest, since the Chinese market still has demand, then "Mondeo" this classic car name, "you take it to play by yourself."
In this way, last year, the industry also once expressed deep regret for the official announcement of Mondeo's "suspension of production", and this year's "special edition" with Chinese characteristics came quickly.
A few days ago, Changan Ford has launched a variety of warm-up offensives before the launch of new cars, if there is no accident, it will open pre-sale in mid-March, and the Beijing Auto Show will be officially launched in April.
Along with the new Mondeo, there are a series of questions about whether it can revitalize the ford brand B-class car and lead Changan Ford to play a real "turnaround battle" in 2022.
After all, Ford China and Changan Ford, in China, the world's largest auto market, have been "dormant" for a long time, and if they do not turn over, they will be completely marginalized.
Wang Jinhai moved to Avita, and Chen Xiaobo + Lu Yi formed a new partner
To answer the above questions, we must first return to the "replacement" product itself.
After all, the product is the ship, marketing is the sail, the product itself is not enough to be competitive in the market, marketing and other dimensions of the force, everything is in vain.
Moreover, to be fair, in the past two years, the personnel structure of Changan Ford's executives has changed one stubble after another like a marquee, and many other necessary elements for success such as branding, marketing, and channels have also been done poorly.
Take the line in Uncle Ge's movie, "People's hearts are scattered, and the team is not good to bring."
Chen Xiaobo succeeded Wang Jinhai as executive vice president of Changan Ford NDSD
In line with the spirit and principle of "not abandoning, not giving up, and not one less", Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, the beginning of the Year of the Tiger, made a big deal.
For the joint venture and independent sections, including Changan Ford, all senior executives and leading cadres have carried out a "big reshuffle".
Taking Changan Ford as an example, Chen Xiaobo, former vice president of the NDSD sales network management center, succeeded Wang Jinhai and was promoted to executive vice president of Changan Ford NDSD, forming a new partner with Lu Yi.
The position vacated by Chen Xiaobo was taken over by Qin Hong, assistant general manager of Changan Automobile's passenger car marketing division.
It can be seen that while continuously accelerating the introduction of new products, Changan Ford seems to follow the instructions of Zhu Huarong, chairman of the group, and strengthen the layout of the brand marketing end.
The so-called "when the product is not working, it is necessary to rely on marketing tactics", when the product line, it is more necessary for the marketing side to cooperate well.
So this "replacement" Mondeo designed by the Ford China team, is the product force itself ok or not?
Lu Yi, president of Changan Ford NDSD, warmed up the new car
We may wish to divide into two and analyze from the following two aspects.
The "Special Edition" replaces the advantages of Mondeo
First, let's talk about the advantages.
According to the author's observation and analysis, it is not difficult to see that the new Mondeo mainly has several great core advantages and highlights:
First, the overall size level is large enough, nearly 5 meters long and fast 3 meters wheelbase, compared with accord, Camry, Passat and other joint venture brand B-class car competitors, the new Mondeo has a "bigger, more spacious" size space advantage.
This may be closely related to the inextricable "blood" relationship between Changan Ford's existing medium and large sedan, Taurus, and the two medium and large products launched last year, EVOS.
In fact, once the new Mondeo was unveiled, the intuitive impression from the outside to the inside was "like a 'flattened' EVOS".
When Chinese people buy B-class cars, a big psychological demand is that "big is beautiful", and it is very important to lengthen and increase.
At the same time, although the new Mondeo's styling design is controversial, there is no "Martin face", but the overall design style is still in line with the young design trend.
Second, continue the "exaggerated interior" like EVOS, and the sense of visual technology and in-vehicle intelligent network connection are the same level ahead;
The new Mondeo has a long central control display of 1.1 meters in length, with a size of up to 27 inches and a resolution of 4032 * 756, which looks full of technology.
Thanks to the SYNC+2.0 Intelligent Mobility Interconnection System and the L2+ level assisted driving system, the performance of the new car in terms of intelligence far exceeds that of the competitors of the same level of joint ventures.
Third, the powertrain of 2.0T+8AT, as well as Ford's more prominent chassis control nature, the dynamics of the new Mondeo and the dynamic driving texture of the chassis, should also be at a high level in the same level.
In a word, the new "replacement" Mondeo, designed by the Ford China team and built based on EVOS, is still "quite fragrant" from the visual point of view and dynamic texture.
The "Special Edition" replaces Mondeo's disadvantages
Let's talk about the disadvantages.
Although the new Mondeo looks quite fragrant, as long as the pricing is reasonable, it still has a certain competitive advantage compared with the joint venture B-class car competitors such as Accord and Camry.
However, objectively speaking, from the product, brand to pricing, the new Mondeo also has obvious disadvantages.
First, the product level, the above also mentioned that the North American headquarters has stopped the research and development of the Mondeo car project, so from a technical point of view, Ford China-led design of the replacement of Mondeo, the reliability of the vehicle technology, the maturity and stability of the product, still need to be tested by the market.
To put it bluntly, don't look at the name Mondeo and the car series has a long history, during which it has also undergone several times of replacement (in 2013, the domestic production is the fourth generation of Mondeo), but now this so-called "fifth generation" Mondeo, in addition to the name is still continuing, is not the fifth generation in the true sense.
Second, at the brand level, ten years ago or even five years ago, the appeal of the Ford brand in the Chinese market was still very strong.
When Wing Tiger and Mondeo were at their strongest, Ford's brand appeal and premium power could be completely positive with Volkswagen, and even half a cut higher than Japanese joint venture brands such as Toyota Honda Nissan.
However, in the past five years, Ford's Chinese passenger car business with Changan Ford as the core carrier has become worse and worse, and Changan Ford's market sales have fallen from nearly one million at its peak to a level of 200,000 or so.
During the period, due to the quality of the whole vehicle, the quality of core components such as the engine gearbox, etc., it also went to the 315 evening party several times, and was publicly named and exposed by CCTV, and the reputation of the owner and user was swept away.
Changan Ford must realize that today's ford's brand image and market appeal in China are not as good as before.
You see last year, Changan Ford's blockbuster new car - EVOS, which seems to be very powerful, but more than 200,000 pricing consumers obviously do not buy it. Monthly sales are as low as a few hundred units, which is quite bleak!
Third, the pricing level, with reference to the EVOS launched last year, Ford is obviously still somewhat "honey juice confident" in its own brand premium, and the overall price is significantly higher than that of the Accord, Camry, Passat and other joint venture B-class car competitors.
It is true that whether it is EVOS or the replacement of Mondeo, the size level positioning is a little higher than that of the Accords, but Changan Ford's current brand influence and appeal cannot support such pricing.
You see in the market in the first two years such as Peugeot 508L, Kia K5 Kaiku, the product force is also very strong and completely worthy of its pricing...
However, practice has proved that the appeal of Peugeot and Kia in the Chinese market today is not enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with Toyota Honda Volkswagen, and Changan Ford is the same.
Le Tease Observation:
Needless to say, Changan Ford's "replacement" Mondeo, the blood is not pure, and it can even be said that it is not directly related to the previous generations of global models.
Ford China-led design, based on the Chinese market for Chinese consumers "tailor-made transformation", "replacement" Mondeo, whether it is the size of the space, or the intelligent field that young Chinese consumers value, has shown a "super-expected" level.
Especially compared with accord, Camry and other joint venture competitors that are still developed by foreign parties.
But because of this, there are also many risks and uncertainties behind its advantages, especially the mature reliability of the technology and quality of the whole vehicle, and it is difficult to make people completely reassured and boldly "taste the early".
Although the Ford brand and Changan Ford have achieved certain results and signs of recovery in some levels and fields in the past two years through Chen Anning's series of changes, the overall situation is still facing greater pressure and challenges.
Especially in the Changan autonomous plate, which has risen strongly in recent years, changan ford that is viciously pressed on the ground and rubbed, the product lineup and market competitiveness are not optimistic.
Whether the "replacement" Mondeo, which will be launched this year, can be a hit will be directly related to Changan Ford's right to speak in the B-class car market and the overall trend of this year.
Mondeo has become, will be able to greatly lead Changan Ford to reshape the brand influence, and if it loses, it will be like that, and continue to struggle at the level of second-rate joint venture brands.
Can the new Mondeo be resurrected in the name of Mondeo? See.