In recent years, automobile consumption has continued to converge on several mainstream brands, which has intensified the differentiation of car coils and brands. Nowadays, when consumers buy joint venture brand family cars, they always can't avoid the German Volkswagen and Japanese three males. Obviously, the Matthew effect is getting worse. In the author's view, the disparity in domestic sales is not that the product strength of other non-popular brand models is not enough, but often users are affected by the concept of herd consumption. In fact, looking at the entire competitive market, many models are undervalued or overlooked.
Taking the huge market volume of joint venture compact SUVs as an example, Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 Rongfang can be described as the best among them, ranking in the top ten of the sales list all year round, with average monthly sales of tens of thousands. Can you return to the strength of the product, are they really impeccable? It is true that models with competitive strength abound, among which the Chevrolet Explorer, who is also a joint venture camp, is no less than the two of them in terms of performance and even price in multiple product dimensions.
Household: Safety is king
As a family car, ordinary consumers are often more concerned about space, but with the improvement of user safety awareness, the vehicle safety problems that are usually not easy to perceive should not be underestimated. This includes two major aspects: material safety and configuration safety of vehicles. How can users be careless when it comes to the life safety of daily travel family members?
The Chevrolet Explorer body structure was designed with multiple optimizations and approximately 9.5 million hours of computation through computer-aided engineering (CAE) simulation tools, meeting the SUV five-star safety standard. The proportion of body high-strength steel and ultra-high-strength steel is as high as 82%, which achieves the goal of lightweighting and greatly strengthens the passive safety protection ability of the whole vehicle. For example, key parts such as the main driver and the passenger seat of the vehicle are introduced into the latest patented TRB variable section rolling technology of ultra-high-strength steel, which effectively improves bending resistance and effectively maintains the safety of users and passengers.
It is reported that the yield strength of the thermoformed steel can reach 1500Mpa in the parts including AB columns, roof beams, driver's foot guard plates and other parts. For comparison, the structural yield strength of CR-V and RAV4 similar sites is only about 780Mpa and 1310Mpa, respectively. It's no wonder that of the three 2022 test models sampled by the U.S. Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Explorer, CR-V and RAV4, only the Explorer received a safety rating of all 5 stars. It is undeniable that the strong, reliable and safe rigid body is the greatest reassurance of home SUV users.
In addition, in the list of equipment for active and passive safety configurations, the performance of the explorers is also uncompromising. Taking the flagship versions of their respective pure gasoline as an example, although the official guidance price of the Explorer is sandwiched between the CR-V and RAV4, from the actual terminal transaction price, the Explorer is much cheaper than the two of them. More critically, the terminal is affordable, and the security configuration is not discounted, even more conscientious than the CR-V and RAV4, which are priced higher.
For example, there is no absence of parallel assist, reversing side warning and steep slope mitigation on the top of the boundary explorer, and there is no cr-V or RAV4 on the same top configuration. Compared with the higher price of them, they are indeed not as thoughtful as the explorers in terms of the safety and care of consumers. A qualified home SUV should not have a half-step compromise on safety performance.
Motivation: Displacement is justice
The general demand for power of family cars will not be too high, but in the face of increasingly young household consumer groups, abundant power is indispensable at present.
Among the three cars, the explorer who inherited Chevrolet's innate sports genes is in a position of no comparison among the competitors. It's priced on par with the CR-V and RAV4, but it's powered by a 2.0T engine. A number of advanced power technologies allow the Explorer to have leading power parameters, while fuel consumption performance is on par with the 1.5T model.
The cr-V's power level is also relatively advanced, and Honda's performance squeeze for its own Earth Dream 1.5T engine can be described as quite in place, which is comparable to some competitors 2.0T low-power engines. In contrast, the RAV4 adheres to Toyota's conservative style in terms of power reserves, equipped with a 2.0L engine, and the bland data is difficult to impress young people.
The Explorer's excellent parameters and low fuel consumption are mainly due to the Chevrolet family's 2T9 power combination. Among them, the 2.0T engine does not distinguish between high and low power like the German system, but is directly adjusted to a high-end power level. Therefore, CR-V and RAV4, which have already suffered losses in terms of displacement, can only be obediently educated in terms of performance.
The engine uses GM's world-first Tripower three-stage variable cylinder technology, which can be smoothly switched between four-cylinder surging cylinder, four-cylinder high efficiency and two-cylinder free flow according to the actual situation, further reducing fuel consumption. With the blessing of the 48V light mix system, it can not only make the engine quieter in the initial stage, the power response is faster when accelerating, but also help increase a certain torque, and the fuel economy is further improved.
Therefore, the Zero Hundred acceleration performance of the Explorer 4WD edition only takes 8.1 seconds, which is rare in traditional fuel SUVs. For comparison, the CR-V 1.5T quad is 9.9 seconds, and the RAV4 2.0L quad is directly 10 seconds away. In terms of fuel consumption, the Four-Wheel Drive version of the Explorer has handed over the comprehensive fuel consumption of 7.39L of 7.39 liters per 100 kilometers of the WLC, which is comparable to the CR-V and RAV4, which are known for fuel saving. So it is Chevrolet's 2T9 golden power combination that is indispensable.
Configuration: Smart lead first
In addition to the comfortable configuration, in the current era when the network is king, the richness of the interconnection configuration can play a role in adding bricks to the experience of an SUV. Since it is a competition between the configurations of models, we may wish to look at their respective flagship versions, what are the housekeeping skills, which is more generous to consumers?
In terms of central control screen size, CR-V has the smallest screen size, only 7 inches, which is difficult to meet the needs of Chinese consumers. Both the Explorer and rav4 use a central control screen of about 10 inches, which is better than cr-V in terms of comfort. In addition, in the car-machine system, the Explorer uses a new generation of MyLink+ intelligent in-vehicle interconnection system, which underwent the third OTA remote upgrade last year, and the performance of both entertainment functions and voice control systems has reached a higher level.
For example, the voice control function customized by iFLYTEK in-depth cooperation with HKUST provides control of multimedia/navigation/telephone/air conditioning/information query, the response speed and recognition rate are in the industry-leading, and continuous dialogue and dialogue interruption can also be interrupted, and a variety of voice packages have been added after upgrading. At the same time, the upgraded car machine also provides more intelligent and personalized functions such as Himalayan children's version and smart home to meet the user's yearning for the life of the car connection.
The CR-V's locomotive system uses honda, Alibaba, and iFLYTEK, a second-generation Honda CONNECT, and the latest third-generation system is not given to this model. From the comparison table, we can also see that CR-V is missing all functions such as mobile phone interconnection, voice control, OTA upgrade, etc., which is really not like the performance that should be in this era.
Toyota RAV4 uses the "Toyota Chi Heng Interconnection" function, which can provide car owners with intelligent driving scores, remote control, air conditioning settings, map car search, health reports, negligence/fault reminders and other functions, similar to the functions of the explorer. However, RAV4, like CR-V, does not support mobile phone interconnection, which is quite inconvenient for many young car owners.
Asteron summary
Will the price be an effective action to change the sales trend of the Explorer next? After all, with cars like cr-V and RAV4, it's hard for consumers to get big deals in the end market. The explorers are different, and at present, the terminal market still gives the explorers a large number of car purchase discounts, including discounts, financial policies and so on. And from the comparison of safety, power, configuration and other aspects, the explorers also have an advantage.
For young people who are now seeking novelty, instead of driving CR-V, RAV4 and other bad STREET SUVs, it is better to have a fist product like The Explorer that is competitive and hardcore enough in appearance to alleviate the increasingly blind aesthetic fatigue.
Figure | Sourced from the web
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