Observation chamber
Written by | Zhao Wenhua
The I Ching says: "The world is at any time, and then the times are great", this phrase has different understandings on different occasions, in layman's terms, it is to do the right thing at the right time.
There is no doubt that for all car companies, electrification is the most correct thing. As for the correct time, different car companies have different deduction logic. For example, Dongfeng Honda has set 2022 as the "first year of electric power".
On March 18, The first global strategic model on the Honda e:N Architecture intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture , Dongfeng Honda e: NS1, officially rolled off the production line, and its arrival also marked Dongfeng Honda's entry into the post-7 million era.
It was a clever milestone announcement. A few hours after the new car rolled off the production line, the author called several local dealer investors, who invariably said: "Dongfeng Honda is a fairly rigorous car company, in the new energy track, it is not necessarily the fastest, but it must be the most stable." ”
The legend of the era of fuel vehicles
Saying that Dongfeng Honda is a legend in the era of fuel vehicles, I am afraid that no one opposes it. "Honda Dafa", "Buy an engine and send a car", "One Japanese field, lifetime Honda", all include praise for Dongfeng Honda.
Among the first-line joint venture car companies, Dongfeng Honda, founded in 2003, belongs to the youngest batch, in the past 18 years, it has both enjoyed market dividends and experienced the pain of the consolidation period, but no matter how the market environment changes, Dongfeng Honda has always maintained a strong and steady growth trend.
Strong power comes from strong products. Objectively speaking, Dongfeng Honda's product line is not long, and the speed of new is not fast, but miraculously, it has cultivated three undisputed million-level benchmark models: CR-V is the first to bear the brunt of it, and the Chinese urban SUV pioneer has sold more than 2.4 million units so far; another legendary chariot Civic, known as the "first sample of domestic sportsmen's cars", countless opponents have copied its operations, but it cannot stop 1.8 million young users from favoring it; the small SUV fighter XR-V, which has accumulated sales of more than 1.1 million units, is also super capable Even in 2021, where the market segment has shrunk significantly and there is a serious shortage of chips, it is also stunned that it has stubbornly landed on the SUV retail Top 10 with a year-on-year increase of 17.8%.
In addition to the above three Taishan models, Dongfeng Honda has also cultivated two "potential stocks", one is Ai Lishen, whose annual sales and year-on-year growth exceeded the Odyssey for two consecutive years in 2020-2021, successfully entering the top five of MPV sales; the second is the Yingshipai, known as the "treasure car", successfully counterattacked after the reform, and won several monthly sales of more than 10,000 good results - IMHO, looking for the car circle, the explosive occupancy rate is as high as Dongfeng Honda.
The robustness stems from the innovative strength of Dongfeng Honda. As we all know, since 2019, China's auto market has entered a fission state, with its own brands frantically rolling inward, new energy crazy penetration, the strong rise of the houlang economy, her economy, and the meta-universe, and various novel and uncertain factors are constantly being accelerated by the epidemic and lack of core. In the face of unprecedented challenges, Dongfeng Honda has launched a series of changes in brand rejuvenation, marketing digitalization, product intelligent electric drive, and full cycle of user value, and under the comprehensive promotion of this set of efficient innovation methodologies, Dongfeng Honda has steadily stepped into the post-7 million era.
After 7 million eras, recreating legends?
Frost is solid to ice. As early as 2018, when the scale of new energy was still 1.2 million, Dongfeng Honda released the "seeing the future" new energy brand strategy, which was 3 years earlier than Honda's 2021 new energy strategy.
On the essence of this strategy, the author has extracted two points: first, no mileage anxiety, with car quality and energy saving and fuel saving i-MMD sharp hybrid will provide Dongfeng Honda with the most efficient transition solution for a long time, and therefore, Dongfeng Honda has become the industry's first car company to achieve heV oil-electric hybrid coverage of all categories; second, go all out to accelerate the electrification transformation, by 2025, the sales of electrified models will account for 50%.
Clearly, this is a dual insurance solution that can bring certain market results in uncertain times. Let's look at a set of data: from 2020 to 2021, the cumulative sales of Honda HEV hybrid models in China reached 435,000 units (the proportion of the two Hondas is basically equal). The basic scale is on the one hand, more importantly, compared to the pure electric or plug-in hybrid market where players are flocking, the oil-electric hybrid market can be described as a blue ocean, with few opponents but fast growth, the 2021 "two fields" hybrid models increased by up to 53% year-on-year, and in the first two months of this year, the sales of "two fields" hybrid models have exceeded 110,000 vehicles - at this rate, the annual sales of the two hybrid giants exceeded one million in just a few years.
The difference is that when the two Toyotas are still stuck in the hybrid field, Dongfeng Honda is holding the ace of e:NS1 and decisively stepping into the electrification track. How powerful is this trump card? We've got to have a good talk.
In 2021, Honda officially released a new e:N Architecture intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture, which has three hard core advantages of high ductility, high performance and high intelligence, as the first global strategic model on the architecture, e:NS1 has strong competitiveness:
Performance is the biggest competitive capital of e:NS1. The new car will be equipped with a drive motor with a maximum output of 150 kW (there is also a 134 kW power version), and the acceleration performance is worth looking forward to.
Not only that, it also integrates a set of extremely advanced electronic control programs, more than 20,000 kinds of scene algorithms, which is 40 times that of ordinary electric vehicles, and also applies Honda's aerodynamic control experience accumulated in F1 races, bringing more advanced driving pleasure to drivers by improving acceleration response and control pointing.
Intelligence is also the core highlight of e:NS1, which integrates the e:N OS Honda full-stack intelligent control ecosystem, integrating Honda SENSING safe driver assistance system, Honda CONNECT 3.0 exclusive version of pure electric vehicles, and intelligent digital cockpit. In addition to high-level driver assistance, it will also bring "human-level voice interaction" and active safety prevention that can perceive the driver's state and emotions in real time.
In terms of endurance, the parameters of e:NS1 mileage are not amazing, and the mileage under CLTC conditions is 420km/510km, but Honda is accustomed to reverse false bidding, so the actual endurance of e:NS1 will exceed many habitual virtual bidding competitor models.
In e: NS1, we can still smell the fragrance of "Honda Dafa", even in the electric age, Dongfeng Honda is still familiar with the "technical control", which is its absolute confidence in the new energy market - because most of the electric vehicles are fighting for intelligence, performance can play, control delicate no two.
In addition to the product being strong enough, the rapidly expanding market also provides an excellent opportunity for e:NS1 to enter. According to the forecast of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the sales of pure electric vehicles are expected to reach 4 million units this year. In the first two months, the sales of pure electric vehicles exceeded 480,000 units, an increase of 1.3 times year-on-year, and the growth trend was quite strong - at this time, when to stay?
What's more, even competitors are giving opportunities. In the top 15 new energy sales in 2021, 13 are independent brands, and the joint venture factory is only ONE FAW-Volkswagen (except Tesla), and Volkswagen is on the list because it launched the ID series on the MEB pure electric platform last year, while other first-line joint venture car companies have not put on the shelves in the true sense of pure electric models - is this not an opportunity for opponents in e: NS1?
It is worth mentioning that Dongfeng Honda is not only an e:NS1 ace, but a four-in-a-row king explosion, according to Honda's planning, within five years, it will also launch three other new cars in the e:N series, including Coupe and GT models. If you add the king fried on this side of the hybrid, the post-7 million era of Dongfeng Honda continues the legend of the fuel vehicle era, and there seems to be no suspense.
『 Final Remarks 』
As several dealer investors have said, on the new energy track, Dongfeng Honda is not necessarily the fastest, but it must be the most stable. This stability is a large factory pattern, from architecture to research and development, from channels to services, from the present to the future, every key point has been carefully planned; this stability is also the commitment of Dongfeng Honda to users and partners, "one Japanese field, lifelong Honda", so the era of fuel vehicles, and the era of new energy.
Finally, with all due respect, with rich experience in car-making and entering the new energy track, the new energy market will definitely reshuffle, and those new forces that are pushed by capital and rely on integration programs and user marketing to eat meat will most likely be eliminated.
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