In July 1956, the first car in New China, the Jiefang brand car, drove out of the assembly line of Changchun FAW, marking the end of the history of Chinese could not build cars. With the birth of Jiefang brand cars, China's auto industry began to take off rapidly. Since 2009, the mainland has won the "double material champion" in the world's automobile production and sales for 13 consecutive years. Production and sales have gone up, so what about the quality of domestic cars?
Previously, in a program, the host asked Dong Mingzhu's views on domestic cars, and Dong Mingzhu unabashedly pointed out that domestic cars were "quality is not guaranteed" and "shoddy". After the program was broadcast, Zhu Yanfeng, chairman of Dongfeng Motor, defended himself: "Today, China's automobile manufacturing is the world's first. ”
Then, after 66 years of development, whether domestic cars are "shoddy" or "the world's first", we talk about the three common diseases that domestic cars are often "talked about" by Chinese people.
First, the quality barrier can not be reached
The first domestic car that has been criticized is the quality problem.
In 2007, the German Automobile Club conducted a new car crash test on the Brilliance Zunchi BS6 sold in Germany, and the result was only 1 star. The Germans concluded that "brilliance BS6 is a pile of broken copper and rotten iron." Also nailed to the "column of shame" was Chery Qiyun, which hit a new low in the 3 years since it was tested in the collision test of the Russian evaluation agency. The Russian local media even commented relentlessly: "I have never seen such a terrible car wreck." ”
But even so, domestic cars insist on "zero recall". Because at the time, a recall was tantamount to poor product quality. Therefore, for the sake of face, even if domestic cars really encounter problems, they can hide, hide, and hide. The quality of cars sold abroad is still the same, and the quality of the cars sold to Chinese people can be imagined.
The same brand, the same model of car, sold to foreign accessories is higher than sold to domestic accessories, which is the open secret of the domestic automotive industry. For example, the "chip door" of the great wall motor Euler good cat before is a typical case of such an incident. Obviously, domestic cars and exporting countries are the same brand and the same model, but there is a big difference in performance, and even sometimes domestic cars are much more expensive than foreign cars of the same brand. Such a price difference and poor quality have greatly reduced consumers' good feelings for domestic cars. Reflected in the capital market, that is, investors have sold the stocks of "shot" car companies. For example, in less than half a year, Great Wall Motors has fallen by more than 50%.
The strength is not enough to make up for the appearance, and many car companies have played the banner of "the most beautiful model" to make up for the hard damage in quality. Unfortunately, today's Chinese people are not as good as they used to be. After all, which car a person buys is most concerned not with the model, but with safety.
Second, the retention rate that is difficult to guarantee
The second domestic car that has been criticized is that domestic cars do not maintain their value.
Most consumers buy a car, knowing that it is a consumable, but still expect some degree of value preservation. For example, the Japanese car Toyota Highlander, the retention rate of 3 years can reach 70%, the new energy vehicle brand Tesla retention rate can also be 63.1%, but how many domestic cars can be used for 3 years, maintain more than 60%?
At present, most domestic cars belong to the so-called "seasonal new models". After the introduction of a series of models by car companies, only the best-selling model can continue to be produced and maintained. If consumers are unlucky enough to buy a relatively unpopular model, not only can not maintain the value, it may be difficult to guarantee even the most basic after-sales service.
"Buy is a loss" and "buy is discontinued", these rotten routines used in joint venture cars decades ago are now being carefully played by domestic car companies.
Third, the high fuel consumption
The third domestic car that has been criticized is high fuel consumption.
Domestic cars start late and backward technology are objective facts. Although domestic car companies continue to learn the technology of American and Japanese car companies through reverse research and development, they still cannot complete the core components and operations of the car independently. For example, core components such as engines and gearboxes rely on imports, and the tuning of automobiles also needs to be outsourced to foreign teams. In the process of adjustment, increasing power and reducing fuel consumption can only be one or the other.
At present, in order to improve the power of domestic cars, the parameters are beautiful, often sacrificing the performance of the car in terms of fuel consumption. The fuel consumption is high, and the cost of using the car naturally increases. Novice drivers may care about model, comfort, and power, while old drivers only care about whether a car is economical and practical.
With the landing of the "limited license" and "limited number" policies in major cities today, the status quo of "no. 1 is difficult to find" makes consumers reluctant to buy domestic fuel vehicles with higher fuel consumption when buying cars. On the contrary, the domestic new energy vehicles that do not consume fuel and can be listed without shaking the number have been warmly welcomed by new and old drivers. For example, in 2021, the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in China were 2.989 million units, an increase of 169.1% year-on-year. Its Chinese-made brand BYD leads the industry with sales of 603,800 vehicles. However, looking at the entire Chinese automobile sales list, the top 10 are all joint venture cars and foreign cars.
4. Summary
Indeed, at present, from the data of production and sales and other dimensions, it is rare for domestic automobiles to complete the road of 200 years of western automobile industry development in just half a century. However, in this leap forward process, domestic car companies will inevitably have some places that need to be made up and improved.
Dong Mingzhu's criticism of domestic cars, although sharply worded, also pointed to the problem. With the rise of DOMESTIC CARS SUCH ASD and Geely, we see that domestic cars have not fallen behind in the competition with international auto giants, but it is still too early to say "the world's first" to the chairman of Dongfeng Motor.