Text | Joey
In my heart, Mondeo has always been the driver of a successful person.
Although the Chinese auto market has long been a hundred flowers, in my heart Mondeo is such a positioning. Why?
One day twelve years ago, I suddenly lost my job, depressed, and found my good friend, hoping that he would have dinner with me and get drunk. He said come on, I'm buying a car at the Ford 4S store on XX Road. On that very day, he swiped his card in front of me and bought a Ford Mondeo to win. That night, we were indeed drunk, he drank festively, I drank sadly.
Since then, Mondeo has been thoroughly characterized in my impression. It symbolizes success, it symbolizes satisfiedness, and basically I see it as a milestone in the success of a certain stage of life. In fact, this is also very much in line with Ford's positioning of Mondeo.
High society + global car
In 1986, Ford began working on an automotive product built for everyone in the world. The total investment in this program is about $6 billion. You know, in the 80s of the last century, the actual market value of the US dollar was very high.
Take the public welfare song "WE ARE THE WORLD" that Michael Jackson invited 45 American singers to record together, for example, the song had a final market revenue of $50 million at that time, which can reach $300 million today according to the equivalent conversion. From this, you can also see how much Ford expects from Mondeo.
The name "World Car" is derived from the French words "Monde" and "Mondial", which means high society and the whole world. Because of this name and positioning, Mondeo was very different from what we see today at the beginning of its birth.
According to the overall positioning of the original Mondeo, Ford hopes that it will focus on the C-class and even the D-class sedan market. According to its positioning as the "world car", Ford has also developed many versions of it around the world for consumers in different markets to choose.
The original Mondeo launched a worldwide presence that included Sierra, which was sold in Europe and Telstar, which was sold in Asia. In the North American market, Contour and Mercury brand Mystique are also launched.
The benefits of this are undoubtedly not only that Ford's expectations for the "global car" of the Mondeo model can be used, but also that it can be used to complete the replacement and integration of the ford brand's various similar cars. In addition, the cost in a series of commercial links such as design, sales, and after-sales service will also rely on this new idea to fully unify and reduce. Obviously, this may also be influenced by the global unified strategic thinking that Japanese cars often engage in.
Of course, the development of China's auto market is still out of sync with the entire Asian market. Chinese consumers may have to start to recognize Mondeo in 2004 when Changan Ford officially localized the second generation of Mondeo. Since then, Ford Mondeo has officially begun its journey in China.
The domestically produced model is based on the European version of Mondeo and has been adapted based on Ford's understanding of the Chinese market. For example, the front face uses a chrome grille, replacing the stripe design, the sense of integrity is stronger, and the exterior mirrors are increased by 20mm to expand the external field of view.
In addition, there is a slight difference in the shape of the taillights, and the triangular taillights further enhance the visual effect of the whole vehicle. At the same time, the domestic Mondeo has rearranged the buttons of the center console according to the usage habits of Chinese consumers.
The domestically produced Mondeo is equipped with multi-disc CDs, 7 speakers, electric folding mirrors, reversing radar, window anti-pinch handle and electric sunroof, which enhances the convenience and comfort of the vehicle. From today's point of view, these configurations may be very mediocre, but in those days, you could have regarded them as today's intelligent interactive cockpits. So you can also understand why Mondeo could set a price of 209,800-229,800 yuan at that time (this is also the price of a good house in China when the house price has not yet taken off).
There is no doubt that in that year, the emergence of such a technologically advanced and huge model product gave Santana a big impact on the Chinese market at that time. However, car brands and products that were on par with Mondeo in that era already existed.
Earlier, SAIC Volkswagen (then known as Shanghai Volkswagen) launched the Passat model and won very good feedback from the market. At the same time, Toyota's Camry and Honda's Accord have also set off sales booms in the same market.
Mondeo's performance in such a market environment has always been quite good, but it can also maintain the monthly sales of 10,000 vehicles for a certain period of time. Even today, such achievements can still be used by automobile manufacturers as an important publicity selling point.
The climax of Mondeo sales came in 2015, when Mondeo's sales exceeded 120,000 for the whole year, and the monthly sales exceeded 14,300 units. In the eyes of many people, this is inseparable from its very good, resembling the front face design of a British super luxury car brand.
But such a good situation did not last long.
Silence and change
After 2015, Mondeo faced its own challenges, and the source of the challenge was still its old rivals. In 2016, China's B-segment car market ushered in a wave of changes, and Mondeo's old rivals Honda Accord and Toyota Camry were replaced.
And Mondeo has not been replaced, coupled with Changan Ford's product strategy has been adjusted, in 2015 launched a higher positioning, but the response is general Ford Taurus. As a result, Mondeo was squeezed by the space from the same door, and his position became more embarrassing.
But at that time, the change in Mondeo's status did not attract high attention, because Changan Ford's sales remained high. In 2016, The cumulative sales volume of Changan Ford's entire range of products reached 957,000 units, and in 2017, although it decreased slightly, it reached 828,000 units. Obviously, in such an environment where the annual sales of more than one million vehicles are about to be sold, the fluctuation of sales of a single model seems harmless. Therefore, Mondeo still relies on small changes to stabilize market sales.
Later, we all know that since 2018, Changan Ford's sales have begun to decline. From 337,800 units in 2018 to 184,000 units in 2019, when we look at Mondeo's sales, it has fallen to a minimum of 17,938 units for the whole year. In just four years, the decline was almost 90 percent.
At this time, it is no longer a model of Mondeo that needs to be adjusted, but the entire Changan Ford product line. Around the end of last year, I had noticed that spy photos of the new Mondeo began to leak out. Until now, the new Mondeo finally met with us, and we found that this Mondeo has been completely localized and does not introduce European or American models. You can also understand that because of the strength of the Chinese market, Ford has confirmed that the Chinese Mondeo is no longer a "world car", but a Chinese car.
Yes, Ford used a Chinese design team to design the new Mondeo, and the EVOS design that can read Chinese consumers was ported. Split headlight design, through the taillights, a large number of polyline design; with the 2.0T+8AT powertrain system, the acceleration time of 6.5s of 0-100km/h is undoubtedly what Ford thinks, Chinese consumers like it.
Of course, the same is true on the interior. You can see that the new Mondeo adopts the same interior structure as EVOS. The 2945mm longer wheelbase and the resulting large rear space, as well as the construction of the ford FNV intelligent interconnection network-wide architecture, includes SYNC+ 2.0 intelligent travel interconnection system, Ford Co-Pilot360 intelligent driving assistance, and Ford V2I vehicle-to-road coordination system of the vehicle machine system, all of which make Mondeo once again have Ford's most advanced technology.
A huge through-screen has become an important symbol of the new generation of Mondeo (in fact, Lincoln has now used such a through-screen oversized screen). Some people may think that this is a completely flattering design language that permeates the strong style of its own brand. But for car brands, pleasing consumers is more important, isn't it?
After all, Ford has long recognized the market demand and launched a strategic plan of "more Ford, more China".
Recognize the market and seize the market
Of course, if we are still struggling with the positioning of Mondeo as a C-Class or D-Class car when it was first born, it may have been behind the times. Although it may still be parametrically the same today, it is widely associated with the B-Class in terms of actual market position. This connection is reflected in its selling price.
In fact, as early as the previous generation of Mondeo, we can no longer compare it with the price of the whole line at more than 200,000 yuan when it was just born. The price of the previous generation of Mondeo can be lowered to more than 170,000 yuan. Combined with the overall inflation rate of the renminbi at the time and in 2004, we can see that the value of Mondeo is constantly declining.
But in this generation, maybe Mondeo will take the road a little more desperately. The price of the new Mondeo directly came to the selling price range of 159,800 to 219,800 yuan. Obviously, this is the fight for survival at a price.
Although its old rivals such as the Camry and Accord have dropped in price. But both models still maintain their traditional price range. Therefore, if Changan Ford's distribution channels give some preferential treatment, the consequences of this will be devastating.
I'm not talking about destroying Changan Ford or Mondeo, but destroying the lower-priced and lower-positioned A-Segment market. If we compare carefully, we will find that the price of the eighth-generation Golf, the benchmark model of the A-class car, is basically maintained in the range of 129,800-165,800 yuan. For ordinary consumers, basically do not have to shiver, do not have to bite their teeth, you can buy a higher level, a larger body, a newer technology Mondeo, who can not be moved?
Therefore, such pricing will undoubtedly produce a big advantage, that is, to maintain an advantage over competitors at the same level upwards and a dimensionality reduction blow to lower opponents downwards. There is no doubt that Changan Ford's method of sacrificing himself to Mondeo is to pull sales back and regain the infinite scenery of the brand a few years ago.
Of course, in fact, Ford, which recognizes the market demand and adjusts its strategy, has actually shown signs of slow recovery. In 2020, Changan Ford's sales rose back to more than 210,000 vehicles, while in 2021 it broke through 300,000 vehicles. But if we really want to make great strides, good products and good strategies are clearly a constant need and essential.
And this is obviously a huge advantage of the new Mondeo. The only thing to see is whether the market can get Changan Ford's good intentions. Of course, it is now certain that the days of the A-Class, especially the A-Class without features, should be a little more difficult because of the arrival of this Mondeo.