For two consecutive years, The best model of the year was selected by Europe from brands outside Europe.
In the 2022 European Car of the Year awards, the Kia EV6 stood out from seven candidate models with 279 votes and 12 individual votes (1475 votes) to win the Car of the Year Award, which is also the first time Kia has won this award. A year ago, the European car of the year 2021 was the Toyota Yaris.
On the surface, the "European taste" of the European annual car seems to be getting weaker and weaker, but the deep meaning behind it is that the consumption trend of the mainstream European car market is undergoing a drastic change.
The European car selection becomes the electric car selection
Looking at the models first, the 2022 European car of the year shortlist is Seat Cupra Born, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, Peugeot 308, Renault Megana E-Tech and Skoda Enyaq iV, 7 models in addition to the Peugeot 308 is still equipped with internal combustion engine power, the rest are all composed of pure electric vehicles.
The average CO2 emission limit of 95g/km of new cars in 2021 (equivalent fuel consumption is 4.12L/100km), the CO2 emissions of new cars in 2030 will be reduced by 55% compared with 2021, and the sale of any new car equipped with an internal combustion engine will be substantially banned in 2035. When the EU's strict emission reduction bill is about to drive all European car companies crazy, the annual car selection as the vane of European cars naturally becomes the selection of electric vehicles.
The 58-year-old European Car of the Year selection, a jury of automotive media magazines from different European countries voted to select new cars that have been released in the past 12 months, and the participating models will be sold in at least 5 European countries and have at least 5,000 units sold.
As Europeans, And Europe as the birthplace of the car, the judges will emotionally identify with the European car. But in the end, these veteran auto editors with decades of experience in the industry chose an electric car of a foreign brand.
Frank Janssen, Chairman of the Car of the Year Jury, said: "The 7 finalists reflect the current amazing shift towards electrification in the automotive industry. ”
Not only that, but even pure European oil trucks are becoming more and more marginalized. Models such as the Peugeot 208 and renault Clio, which were once loved by Europeans, are turning to such exquisite and practical models as the Toyota Yaris, and the station wagons that are highly respected by Europeans are gradually being replaced by SUVs with more global capabilities.
Electrification is the trend of the automotive industry in the future, but in this regard, Europe is no longer the leader, and even the most stubborn media people have begun to change their thinking, and the local barriers of European car companies are no longer impregnable. It is a crisis for European car companies, and it is a rare opportunity for other car companies, especially Chinese car companies.
When the minds of Europeans were breached
In the past, Most of China's automobile exports were developing countries such as Southeast Asia, South America and Eastern Europe, and the core advantage was cost performance. However, in the era of intelligent electric vehicles, Chinese cars have begun to penetrate into developed countries. Norway has become a must for the new forces of Weilai and Xiaopeng, the European headquarters of the Great Wall is built in Germany, and SAIC has a considerable volume in the Uk.
The high recognition of Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 in Europe has provided more confidence to Chinese car companies. The vehicle intelligence, internet of vehicle ecology and user operation plan provided by Chinese automobiles in Europe are very fresh experiences for European consumers.
On the other hand, the product managers and engineers of European car companies are still carrying out the "vehicle engineering" that they are best at, of course, this is very important, but hardware thinking is a necessary condition in the era of intelligent electric vehicles, and it is an element that has touched the ceiling. European values do not support making electric vehicles a new category different from fuel vehicles. When the current electric vehicle has entered the era of winning with wisdom, European car companies have lagged behind in terms of electronic and electrical architecture, human-computer interaction, and artificial intelligence. They will not do very aggressive intelligent driving functions, there is no sound intelligent network ecology, and most car companies can not get OTAs.
Once the minds of European local consumers are broken by smart electric vehicles that experience better, those European car companies that are still using fuel vehicle thinking to build electric vehicles will inevitably become regional car companies, only for those conservative consumers of the "ancient era" to build cars. The selection of the European car of the year is the embodiment of the voice of consumers.
According to the data compiled by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, under the background of a 4% increase in total global automobile sales in 2021, China's total automobile exports reached 2.015 million units, doubling the growth year-on-year. It is worth mentioning that the top ten countries in China's automobile exports include Belgium and the United Kingdom, indicating that Chinese automobiles are accelerating the pace of entering overseas markets, and export objects have gradually entered the first-tier developed countries in Europe from Southeast Asia, north and south, and the Middle East.
Of course, the purpose of Chinese automobiles going out, in addition to establishing a positive image for Chinese auto products, there is also an important purpose is to digest production capacity. Last year, the national passenger car production capacity totaled 40.89 million units, with a capacity utilization rate of 52.47%, while the new energy vehicle production capacity was 5.995 million units, and the capacity utilization rate was 58.4%. Huge production capacity needs to be digested by a larger market, and now that China's average annual cumulative sales volume is stable at about 25 million, only "going out" can alleviate the negative impact of overcapacity.
Moreover, since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the global automotive industry chain has been hit intermittently, but the Chinese market has been the first to resume production after experiencing brief twists and turns. On the one hand, foreign automobile production capacity is limited, on the other hand, domestic automobile manufacturers have excess capacity, and China's automobile industry is facing two major trends of capacity concentration and capacity output. Therefore, in the era of intelligent electric vehicles, China is very likely to give birth to a few multinational giants, and this giant, not only production and manufacturing all over the world, but also with the integration of software and hardware thinking, with regional ecological building capabilities.
Moreover, once this ability is available, it means that the "round robin" competition between car companies can be turned into a "knockout" competition, and the advantage of the leader will be fundamentally stable.
Write at the end
Behind a list, perhaps Europeans have "opened their eyes to the world".
Europeans are not a traditional conservative group, and when the latest, coolest and most subversive electric vehicles from outside Europe enter Europe, who can guarantee that they will not be impressed? The traditional mindset of European car companies has made European cars lose their market opportunity for automobile electrification, and they do not even have the opportunity to give birth to a "new European force". The European car of the year selection is a signal, a signal that European consumers are calling for good products.