There used to be a saying in the domestic car circle that "Di Silk X has three treasures, SobaK5 Mai RuiBao", they are Hyundai Sonata, Kia K5, Chevrolet Mai Rui Bao. Although there are elements of ridicule among netizens, from the actual sales point of view, during the period from 2010 to 2015, these three models can be sold more than 10,000 or even more than 20,000 per month, and can compete with The Accord, Camry, Tianlai and other models. In terms of brand influence and global sales, Hyundai Kia Motors Group' sales in the past decade have been ranked among the top ten popular car companies in the world with The Japanese Honda and the American Chevrolet, and the Sonata series has sold 9 million vehicles worldwide since its listing. In terms of specific sales, in the past 2021, Sonata has sold only 8321 vehicles in the whole year, compared with 104670 vehicles in 2013, a difference of 10 times from annual sales. Let's take a look at why Sonata can't sell today?
The first is the appearance
At present, the domestic sales is the tenth generation of Sonata, as a replacement model, the appearance of the shape can be described as an earth-shaking change, the front face grille is larger, more exaggerated, making the consumer group become polarized, for some young people, sexy, high recognition. However, for some home users, they feel that they will be more ostentatious, radical, and impatient, so they will lose a part of the potential user group. Of course, the value of appearance is only part of the reason for the impact on sales. In fact, the continuous fermentation of the "aluminum for steel incident" and "crash test incident" is the most important factor that caused the sales of the tenth generation of Sonata Waterloo. In fact, the tenth generation sonata just listed in China in 2020, after the listing of a few months to maintain the average monthly sales of 2,000 vehicles of the market heat, but with the 2021 "aluminum for steel incident", "crash test incident" exposure and continuous fermentation, it overwhelmed Sonata's last life-saving straw, to January this year, Sonata only sold 69 vehicles a month, sales are still showing a downward trend.
"Crash Test Events"
In the middle of 2021, the Sonata model selected by the C-NCAP Crash Lab was the 270TGDi DCT GLS Elite Edition, which was verified to be the second lowest in the series, and the official price was 171,800 yuan. In terms of safety configuration, sonata is equipped with 6 airbags and a relatively complete active safety configuration, including lane departure warning, lane centering, AEB active braking, etc. However, from the actual crash test, hyundai Sonata in the side and front 40% bias collision, the strength of the body steel is not satisfactory. First, in the side crash test, the mobile car had a mass of 1.4 tons and a crash speed of 50 km/h. After the collision, the back door intrusion of sonata was too large, and the sonata happened to be the back row without side airbags, and the dynamic potential energy in the collision was very likely to pose a potential risk of damage to the pelvis of the rear occupant.
In contrast, on the official website of IIHS in the United States, the 2020 Sonata has obtained TSP (Top Safety) results, especially the 25% small overlap offset collision, and the US version of Sonata has obtained excellent results in all green G. It is inevitable that domestic consumers will not doubt whether the replacement sonata materials are "treated differently" by consumers in the Chinese market.
"Aluminium for steel incident"
The tenth generation of Sonata as hyundai motor new architecture to create a model, not only the appearance of the new, power upgrades, and the body structure has also been upgraded, we can from the South Korea Hyundai Asan factory, the United States Alabama factory, the United States Highway Administration exposed (NHTSA) crash test photos, can clearly understand that the new generation of Sonata's front suspension swing arm is made of aluminum alloy, but in the Chinese market has become, single-layer steel plate, while the rear suspension hem arm of the plastic spoiler has not appeared. From the "crash test incident", it can be seen that the safety factor of the domestic version of the tenth generation Sonata is worrying; and the "aluminum for steel incident" is a good point that the models in the Chinese market are "treated differently"; what is not very good is "cutting corners".
In fact, the "aluminum steel replacement incident" does not only exist in the domestic version of the tenth generation Sonata this model, in the early years, as a replacement of the Mercedes-Benz E-class is also the existence of "aluminum for steel" phenomenon, domestic joint venture production of the E-class, the two four-door (engine cover, rear trunk cover and four doors) aluminum alloy material replaced with ordinary steel, resulting in a sharp increase in body weight of 200Kg.
So for us consumers, what is the impact of "aluminum for steel" on us?
Steel is heavier than aluminum, the greater the body mass, the greater the inertia, and the greater the inertia, the greater the force required to change the current state of motion, and the acceleration performance, braking distance, and fuel consumption will be affected.
Why is the sales impact of Mercedes-Benz E-class "aluminum steel exchange incident" not very large, while the sales impact of the tenth generation Sonata "aluminum steel exchange event" is a thousand miles?
From two levels, the first is that in the past ten years when the joint venture car dominated the world, domestic brands have not stopped catching up, and under the support of the state, the sales of domestic cars have not been the same, especially with Geely, Great Wall, BYD, Changan, Hongqi, Chery and other independent brands. Not only in the 100,000-level automobile market to attack the city, but also in the 150,000-200,000-level market has also made achievements, such as Hongqi H5, Geely Xingrui, Lynk & Co 03 These B-class cars or A+ class products are similar to the price of the entry-level modern Sonata after the discount, from the perspective of space, design, dimension is not inferior to Sonata, and in terms of configuration, under the premise of the same price, it is better than Sonata, which can be summarized in one sentence: domestic cars are rising, which poses a threat to sales of joint venture brands. And at the same price, there are too many substitutes for Sonata, whether joint ventures or domestic models.
After the Mercedes-Benz E-class "aluminum-for-steel incident" was exposed, although there was a downward trend in sales for several months, from the perspective of alternatives, 400,000 or so high-end cars did not have too much selectivity, and the layout of domestic cars has not really formed a great impact on the 400,000-500,000 car market, of course, the most critical question is: If the same price, will you choose Mercedes-Benz or Hyundai? Therefore, the brand effect is also a factor.
Full text summary:
Hyundai Sonata's sales in January this year is only 69 vehicles, "can't sell" is not simply because the brand is not hard enough, but combined: the design of the "water and soil dissatisfaction", "crash test event", "aluminum for steel incident", the rise of domestic cars "price blow", many factors affected. Of course, the tenth generation sonata is not useless, such as the model equipped with more than one, equipped with a 2.0T engine with a maximum power output of 240 horsepower, matching the 8AT gearbox, and reaching a body length of 4955mm, a wheelbase of 2890mm, space and power are still remarkable.