Wen | Li Haoxian
The new generation of Mondeo pre-sale price: 15.98 ~ 219,800 yuan, surprised or not surprised?
Before that, no one dared to price a joint venture B-class sedan equipped with a 2.0T engine and nearly 5 meters long below 180,000, Hyundai and Kia could not do it, Chevrolet, Buick could not do it, but no one expected Ford to become the first car company to break the "bottom line", it is conceivable that Changan Ford needs this car too much to reverse the situation.
In the industry's view, this is the consciousness of Changan Ford in the post-joint venture era.
Special offerings are not necessarily a bad thing
In the previous article, it was mentioned that the styling design of the new generation of Mondeo is handled by the Ford China Design Center, and from the exaggerated size of the car and the intelligent level of the level, it is not too much to say that it is tailored for Chinese consumers, and the new generation of Mondeo has no plans to sell outside China for the time being.
This means that the new generation of Mondeo is a "China Special Supply Car" without compromise. Seeing this, I believe that many keyboard car gods have been unable to sit still and spray, but we think that at least for Mondeo, "special offering" is not necessarily a bad thing.
We may wish to compare horizontally, the non-luxury brand B-class car market has been almost divided by The Japanese and volkswagens, and there is an American electric car above the head that occupies more than 15% of the share. Then it is conceivable that if you want to squeeze into this form, in addition to first beating your own fractures to show sincerity, you must also know how to grasp the weakness of competitors and create differentiation.
For the Japanese system, intelligence and power are weak ribs, for volkswagen design is a soft underbelly, for the United States space is a soft underbelly, these should be no dispute, this is also an inevitable big problem of global cars, there are too many factors to consider when designing, there are a large number of similar problems in Ford's global body, such as the global unified three-cylinder Focus.
But since the new Mondeo only supplies the Chinese market, then Ford can target Chinese consumers to create a nearly "zero soft rib" special product.
So in the new Mondeo we can see that the details are in place, the design of nearly 5 meters long + super 2.9 meters wheelbase, 1.1 meters ultra-wide area HD giant screen, SYNC + 2.0 Zhixing interconnection system, Co-Pilot360 Zhixing driving assistance, 6.5 seconds "breaking 100" 2.0T+8AT. For a B-class car with less than 200,000, is this product positioning not fresh enough and not conscious enough?
At least for the opponents who are also joint venture brands, in some aspects, they can even be described as pioneering. Without the participation of the Chinese team, the new generation of Mondeo would never be what it is today, nor would it have the attention it has today, so why it is not necessarily a bad thing to say that Mondeo is specially supplied.
If the new generation of Mondeo is still developed according to the thinking of European Fords, with crowded rear rows, backward entertainment systems, and dark interiors, then the new Mondeo really does not need to continue to exist.
Don't think that China's local research and development is a shameful thing, judging from the recent voices of European car companies, this must be a major trend. For example, Porsche announced at the earnings conference that it will develop vehicles according to the needs of Chinese consumers, and Volkswagen (Anhui) also has research and development work on related localized models, and special cars are no longer synonymous with cutting corners.
Moreover, the new Mondeo only lost the shape of Ford, and Ford's soul, that is, the chassis control, did not fall. The research and development of the new Mondeo chassis machinery is responsible for by the Ford Overseas Technical Center, and it is transported to overseas research and development and then returned to fine-tune the domestic road conditions, in fact, EVOS is also like this, and the actual experience of the control still has the taste of Ford.
So you don't have to be too shy about whether the new Mondeo is a special car, think the price is appropriate, the big screen is fun, and the space is big enough to shoot it.
Brand sinking
After talking about the product, let's talk about the significance and impact of the new Mondeo on the Ford brand.
The new Mondeo gives such a price, which is undoubtedly beneficial and harmless to consumers, but for the Ford brand, it can be said that it is a thousand self-inflicted losses of eight hundred. Because since then, the entire Changan Ford pricing system will be reshuffled, and once the price is down, it will be difficult to pull up again, similar situations can refer to SAIC-GM, which is also a U.S. brand.
Specifically, 160,000 start-up Mondeo, in fact, feel the greatest pressure is not the same level of competitors, but its brother Fox, after the installation of a four-cylinder engine, the cost of Fox will inevitably rise, but the price increase is impossible to increase the price, can only further compress the profit margins of the car, and even the official reduction, Ford only has the luxury of expecting sales to improve after the engine is replaced.
Looking up, EVOS and new Mondeo on the same platform have opened up a difference of 40,000 yuan, which makes EVOS have no cost performance at all, so in the terminal market EVOS is not necessary to "express it"? Then will the sharp world and the sharp world also keep up?
Overall, with new Mondeo as the center, Ford product pricing may usher in an adjustment in the terminal market, which is sooner or later, after all, Ford's brand power can no longer support the existing pricing system. It's time to recognize the facts and be honest with consumers.
According to the data disclosed by Changan Automobile, Changan Ford's sales in 2021 were 304,600 vehicles, an increase of 20.29% year-on-year, which is a rare thing for Changan Ford, after all, this is the first year-on-year increase in Changan Ford since the collapse of nearly one million sales in 2016.
However, Changan Ford was able to achieve growth in large part because of the growth of Changan Lincoln. According to the number of insurances, the cumulative sales of Changan Ford in 2021 were 204084 vehicles, an increase of 1.14% year-on-year, and Changan Lincoln was 82531 vehicles, an increase of 110.76% year-on-year. That is to say, if you rely solely on the Ford brand, Changan Ford's performance in 2021 is not eye-catching.
Of course, there is Lincoln "on top" above Ford, and Lincoln's performance has a trend of getting better and better, so Ford does not have to worry too much about the decline in brand value, and surviving is the first priority at present.
Whether New Mondeo and New Focus can jointly bring the Ford sedan business back on track is one of the highlights of this year. Judging from the market reaction, consumers also seem to want to "make friends" with Ford again. According to the data released by Changan Ford, the new Mondeo has received more than 7,000 orders, and there are not a few people who pay for it, it should be known that the previous generation of Mondeo only sold 34,000 units last year.
Perhaps starting from the new Mondeo, Chang'an Fu will gradually return to everyone's vision.