The new Mondeo, Volkswagen Lingdu L, etc., "special car" is the quick-acting heart-saving pill of the joint venture brand?

Nowadays, the market position of the Chinese market has become more and more prominent, especially affected by multiple factors such as the spread of the global epidemic, major foreign brands are more aware of the importance of the Chinese market, and how to curry favor with Chinese consumers has become the key to the breakthrough of joint venture brands.

The competitiveness of joint ventures has declined, and fringe brands need to save themselves

As the automobile market enters the era of stock, the annual sales growth rate of domestic automobiles declines, the market competition becomes more and more intense, and the overall pattern of the automobile market has gradually changed. Especially for many joint venture brands, they are facing a situation of being attacked from the belly.

Although the overall auto market shows a downward trend, it is not difficult to find that luxury car sales have been rising continuously in recent years, from less than 2 million in 2016 to 4 million in 2021, China's luxury car market has achieved positive growth for the fifth consecutive year. Behind the sales growth of the luxury car market, in addition to the upgrading of national consumption, it is also related to the price war harvesting market in luxury cars in recent years.

Relevant data show that the average sales price of luxury brands has dropped from 350,000 yuan in 2017 to about 330,000 yuan today, although the overall decline is not too large, but the entry and access door luxury models with a large terminal discount, the price range has actually penetrated into the territory of the mainstream models of the joint venture. In terms of competitiveness, luxury brands undoubtedly have more brand advantages.

On the other hand, China's own brands have also made good achievements in the upward breakthrough battle, especially in 2021, the market share of Chinese brand cars exceeded 44%, setting a new high in the past decade. At the same time, the average sales price of new self-owned brand cars has also risen from 80,000 yuan in 2017 to 93,000 yuan in 2020, and the average selling price of mainstream independent brands such as BYD, Geely, Changan, and Haval has basically exceeded 100,000 yuan, of which BYD still surpassed Volkswagen with an average price of 151,800 yuan in the first seven months of last year.

It can be seen that with the improvement of China's automobile manufacturing level, independent brands are increasingly recognized by consumers. But this is not good news for the joint venture brand.

For example, Ford and Peugeot Citroen, which were once the mainstream joint venture car brands in the Chinese market, once sold nearly one million and 700,000 vehicles a year ago, but now the former has fallen to a level of about 200,000 vehicles, and the latter has been repeatedly rumored to withdraw from the Chinese market.

Even Volkswagen, China's earliest and best-selling vehicle, has seen a sharp decline in recent years, with sales figures falling from 3.85 million units delivered in 2020 to 3.3 million units in 2021, down 14.1% year-on-year, with SAIC Volkswagen's sales falling year-on-year for three consecutive years. Although a large part of this is due to the impact of the epidemic shutdown and chip supply, the continuous decline in sales also shows that the brand competitiveness is gradually fading to a certain extent.

However, in the face of the new era, the joint venture brand naturally cannot sit still.

"Special car" into a quick-acting heart-saving pill?

Although it is currently facing the back and forth attack of luxury and independent brands, as a traditional joint venture automobile brand that has been deeply involved in the Chinese market for many years, it still knows how to pinch the preferences of Chinese consumers.

"Special supply car" is an effective means for joint venture brands to enhance their competitiveness.

In the early years, Chinese consumers could be said to have heard of the discoloration of special cars, and even now, there are still many people who do not want to see special cars. The main reason for this is that in the early years of the barbaric growth of the automobile market, many joint venture brands in order to expand profits, through the old platform and allocation reduction to cut costs, compared with the global model treatment, people have to question this is fooling domestic consumers.

But nowadays, "special car" is no longer synonymous with low-end reduction, but a powerful model that fully caters to the preferences of the Chinese people and has obvious price advantages. For example, Volkswagen Langyi, which occupies the top two of the car sales list for many years, is a special model that fully considers the localized market demand, and the average monthly sales of more than 30,000 vehicles show that Chinese consumers recognize it.

However, with the continuous rise of young consumer groups in recent years and the change of consumption concepts, the demand for the automobile market has also undergone tremendous changes. In particular, the demand for youthfulness and intelligence can be said to be one can not be less. As a result, the market has also ushered in a new batch of joint venture "special vehicles".

One of the most impressive is the Citroën Versailles C5X, which is precisely a global model for China's debut, but the domestic production and sales to Europe also fully demonstrate its high attention to the needs of the Chinese market. With its unique crossover shape, as well as the comfortable space of the A+ class, coupled with the consistent excellent chassis tuning, the Versailles C5X has also received considerable attention, and was once hailed as the turnaround of the French car.

From January to February this year, the cumulative sales volume of DPCA reached 20,633 units, an increase of 154% year-on-year in February. Among them, the Versailles C5X is not small. The car sold 2,215 units and 3,188 units in January and February this year, respectively.

However, compared with its sales of 5,000 vehicles in November and December last year, there was a significant decline, and last year's peak seemed to become a "flash in the pan".

Similar to the joint venture "special car" with high attention, there are changan ford's new generation mondeo and SAIC Volkswagen Lingdu L.

Among them, the new generation of Mondeo with the B+ class body size, the new high-value sports appearance, the whole series of 2.0T power and 1.1 meters of ultra-long central control screen, bringing a sense of impact that does not lose the brand of new power at all. In terms of chassis tuning, the new generation of Mondeo also inherits the sports gene of the Ford brand very well. What is even more surprising is the pre-price of the new generation of Mondeo, such a strong product force, the starting price is less than 160,000, which is difficult to find in the joint venture B-class car market.

The same is true of saic-volkswagen Lingdu L, with further lengthened body size, the only borderless door and hatchback shape in the same class, plus personalized color matching, full of gimmicks. And from the suspected price of Lingdu L 16.25-206,600 yuan, the competitiveness can be said to be quite in place.

Although these two cars are in the stage of just being listed and about to be launched, with the current attention and product strength, the probability of explosion is very high. However, how to maintain the prosperity and hot sales situation and continue to enhance the competitiveness of the brand is the real challenge of the joint venture brand.

Although the joint venture brand is now suffering from the enemy, we obviously do not have to worry about the development of mainstream joint venture brands, and constantly tap the needs of consumers to cope with the rapidly changing market demand, which is what the mainstream joint venture brand is good at. As for marginal joint venture brands, the changes in the new era have also brought new opportunities, of course, to regain consumer confidence, far more than "special cars".