Dongfeng Honda's new pure electric sequence e:N's first model, e:N, recently rolled off the production line, coinciding with the roll-off of the 7 millionth vehicle, and this new pure electric vehicle was officially given the expectation of "opening the 'post-7 million era'". At the same time, Honda e:NS1 officially opened pre-sale, pre-priced as high as 18-21 million yuan.
With the increasingly fierce development of electrification in the automotive market and the approaching "carbon neutrality" period, even Honda, which has profound achievements in the fuel vehicle market, will also have to transform in the direction of electrification. On October 13 last year, Honda China Electrification Strategy Conference was officially released, when the new energy vehicle launch plan and the pure electric concept car lineup were announced, so that Brother Reel saw Honda's determination to transform electrification.
However, the domestic new energy market has long been filled with major competitors, and joint venture brands have not had much say in this market segment. Dongfeng Honda is very popular in the domestic fuel vehicle market, from 2018 to 2021, with the 10th generation of Civic, Honda CR-V and other star models, Dongfeng Honda completed 697,000 units, 788,000 units, 850,000 units and 793,000 units of annual sales results, which also allowed Dongfeng Honda to quickly grow into a first-class joint venture with cumulative sales of 7 million units. However, this influence may not be useful in the new energy market. This can't help but raise questions: Is it too late to enter the game now?
Big boats are really not good to turn around
Friends who know Honda may know that honda has launched pure electric vehicle products in the Chinese market before Honda e:NS1 rolls off the production line. In 2018, Dongfeng Honda created a new sub-brand - "Siming" to expand the brand's market influence and claim that the technology, quality and service of its products are shared with the parent brand.
However, the two pure electric vehicles of Siming X-NV and Siming M-NV have not helped much to increase brand sales. On the one hand, the early 100,000 yuan can already buy models with longer battery life and more brilliant design in the domestic new energy market. On the other hand, there were many news of spontaneous combustion of new energy vehicles that year, most of which were "oil to electricity" models, which greatly reduced consumers' desire to buy. At the same time, in 2018, Dongfeng Honda is vigorously launching models equipped with i-MMD hybrid system, and the aura of the Siming brand is slightly dimmed.
However, the popularity of the domestic new energy vehicle market has made Dongfeng Honda realize that it is not enough to rely on hybrid models alone. In order to show the determination of the transformation, Honda unveiled five new cars at the Honda China Electrification Strategy Conference, including the Dongfeng Honda e:NS1 that recently rolled off the production line.
Honda's e:N, Volkswagen's ID.
Since its debut, many netizens have suspected that Honda e:NS1 is an "oil to electricity" model, based on the backdoor opening method and the same 2610mm wheelbase that is very similar to the Honda XR-V. However, this car is not, this car is based on Honda's latest e:N Architecture front-drive pure electric platform, which integrates high-efficiency and high-power drive motors, large-capacity and high-density batteries, exclusive frames for pure electric vehicles and chassis platforms, and officially said that its driving experience will far exceed that of pure electric vehicles of the same level.
Based on the advantages of exclusive pure electric architecture, Honda SENSING, Honda CONNECT and intelligent digital cockpit technology have made exclusive versions of pure electric vehicles on Honda e:NS1. From the information currently held by Brother Rudder, Honda SENSING and Honda CONNECT in the realization of functions, Honda e: NS1 and other Honda models are not too different, but the intelligent digital cockpit is a collection of 15.2-inch central control screen and 10.25-inch full LCD instrument panel, but also equipped with DMC driver status perception system for the first time, in the creation of a sense of technology gradually keep up with the mainstream rhythm of today's times.
In addition, the design language of Honda e:NS1 is completely different from other Honda models, and the symbolic new logo of the e:N series and the new Heart beat interactive light language show a strong sense of technology. It can be seen that the Dongfeng Honda e:NS1 is distinguishing it from other Honda models, and the Honda e:NS1 also shoulders the heavy responsibility of brand transformation and electrification.
The demotion of Honda e:NS1 reminds Brother Reel of the Volkswagen brand. The Volkswagen ID. series also shoulders the heavy responsibility of brand transformation electrification, and when it first enters the Chinese market, it also has to face the attack of traditional car companies such as BYD and new car-making forces such as Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal. Nowadays, the Volkswagen ID. series has gradually improved in the domestic market, according to the data released by the Association of Automobiles, in the first two months of this year, the top fifteen models with the highest sales volume in the first two months of this year, the two ID.4 models of Volkswagen have cumulative sales of 5,000 units, ranking twelfth and thirteenth respectively, but in order to grasp the same right to speak as in the fuel vehicle market, it can be said that it is impossible in a short period of time.
It can be said that the honda e:NS1 faces a worse market environment after listing than the Volkswagen ID. series. Considering the product pricing of about 200,000, Honda e: NS1 also faces the challenge of Song PLUS EV, Volkswagen ID.4, AION V and other products, these new cars have gained a good market reputation in the domestic market, which is not conducive to consumers to accept new models, and the old rival Toyota also has bZ4X and other new cars. Honda e: If the NS1 wants to break this situation, it needs to give full play to the advantages of its latecomers and make advantageous adjustments in the pricing and configuration of the final product as much as possible.
In the view of Brother Rudder, Dongfeng Honda e:NS1, as the first model of its new pure electric sequence e:N, is more to help the brand tap the new energy market. In addition, in the domestic new energy market, "survival" is more important than "living decently". According to the plan, Toyota also has three e:N series models (e:N Coupe concept, e:N SUV concept and e:N GT concept) will be launched within five years, and these models will play a very key role in the development of the e:N series.
Now, the counterattack war of joint venture brand electric vehicles has officially started, and we will see a number of joint venture new energy vehicles listed in the short term. On the Honda e:NS1, Brother Reel saw the product core and design innovations, refreshing the stereotype of domestic consumers on Honda products, which is expected to attract them to buy. However, from the perspective of the market, Honda e: NS1 to face the market is relatively bad, in order to let consumers accept this new pure electric product, it may need to give consumers more surprises in terms of product price, quality and marketing. As for whether it can stand out in the domestic market, we may wish to look forward to it.