Jiangling Ford has taken another important step on the road of passengerization.
Following The Collar and Lingyu, Jiangling Ford passenger car products added new Ding - on March 28, Lingrui launched four models, all equipped with Ford 1.5T Ecoboost engines, priced from 139,800 yuan to 1 65,800 yuan.
With the launch of Lingrui, Jiangling Ford has completed the full product layout from the compact SUV collar to the seven-seat medium and large SUV Lingyu in the SUV segment, and the newly listed Lingrui will play the role of "carrying on the top and starting down".
A serial family SUV product layout is slowly unfolding on the territory of Jiangling Ford. Under the gradual improvement of the SUV product layout strategy, the industrial layout of Jiangling Ford passenger cars and commercial vehicles has been formed.
In the context of many years of deep ploughing of commercial vehicles, it is undoubtedly a big move for Jiangling Ford to actively and rapidly deepen the passenger car market - especially under the trend of Changan Ford's unsatisfactory performance in the past few years.
Handles inside commercial vehicles
In Che Wenyi's view, the layout of Jiangling Ford's "business and ride" is far more worthy of "play" than Lingrui's car. In the domestic commercial vehicle market, Jiangling Ford is a first-line top brand in the field of light bus segmentation.
Compared with the passenger car market, the commercial vehicle market has such characteristics, and the market segments locked by each commercial vehicle company are highly concentrated, and under the social needs of economic construction, commercial vehicle companies have basically completed the market occupation more than ten years ago.
In the 1990s, Jiangling Motors introduced its strategic partner, Ford Motor, by issuing additional B shares. In 1997, the first product of the cooperation between the two parties, Ford Transit, was officially listed in China.
As a light passenger product created by Ford for the global market, Ford Transit also brought advanced modular concepts to the light passenger market at this time, and launched a variety of body combinations including short axle, long shaft, high top, flat top and so on the structure of the same model. In 1997, this advanced light passenger car instantly became a fragrant food in the market, and was widely used in the high-end passenger transport market and commercial market. The industry position of Jiangling Ford in the commercial vehicle market has also been determined.
As a commercial vehicle company, the cooperation between Jiangling Motors and Ford is based on the scope of the group-wide cooperation, rather than the establishment of an independent joint venture between the two parties like the passenger car joint venture. The cooperation model between Jiangling and Ford has greatly promoted the rapid improvement of Jiangling Motors' research and development capabilities in the next two decades.
Thanks to the improvement of research and development capabilities, Jiangling Motors has launched the JMC brand relying on Ford technology. Jiangling Ford has become a joint venture with both Ford and JMC brands.
To say that the joint venture is autonomous, Jiangling, who came from a commercial vehicle, is the real player.
The relative solidification and absolute superiority of the commercial vehicle market is the "basic disk" of Jiangling Ford, but from another level, this also restricts the further development of Jiangling Ford. Jiangling Ford is also an inevitable option to further achieve incremental and enter the passenger car market with a higher circulation rate.
Generally speaking, the automobile companies that started from commercial vehicles to do passenger cars, in addition to the fine work to be upgraded, the quality of the product will not have major problems.
In foreign markets, commercial vehicle companies are also keen to launch some instrumental hard-core SUVs to fill the market demand. These models, without exception, are typical representatives of high quality and low cost of use. For example, Jiangling Ford is a domestic roadbreaker, Toyota's Fortune based on Hilax, Mitsubishi's Pajero Sport and so on.
Jiangling Ford seems loose, but the highly concentrated research and development method allows its passenger car products to obtain a high degree of flexibility in the process of research and development.
A simple example, a few years ago, the JMC brand of Jiangling Ford officially launched the Yisheng S350 and its corresponding Yihu pickup truck, and these two models seem to be an independent brand, but in fact, they are the technical transformation of ford Ranger series models. After the official release, the models of the S350 series have gained a very good reputation in a specific customer group.
In other words, Jiangling Ford, a commercial vehicle background, is now making a purer passenger car, and will better grasp the basic demands of the product - lower long-term cost of use, and more stable product quality.
From the perspective of The Collar and Lingyu that Jiangling Ford has put on the market, Jiangling Ford has clearly locked in the entry-level product market with lower costs and higher brand premiums. Also a compact SUV, Changan Ford Ruiji will sell 32,000 units in 2021, while Jiangling Ford Frontier will sell nearly 34,000 units.
Another chess piece of "business multiplier"
The Lingrui, the third passenger SUV under the Jiangling Ford load-bearing body structure, adopts Ford's new generation of family design, and emphasizes the layering of its design through split headlights and polygonal grilles.
The same front styling is also "expressed" in the Changan Ford EVOS, which has already been listed, and the new generation of Ford Mondeo, which has been released for pre-sale. The starting point of this design was defined earlier by Jiangling Ford Lingyu. From this point of view, the family design of Jiangling Ford has become the starting point for Ford to start China's localization research and development.
Compared with Lingyu, the size of the lingrui vehicle has been compressed, and after shortening the size of the rear suspension, the lingrui also shows a body tightness of the long front. The large curved light and shadow design previously used on the Ford Sharp Edge has also been presented on the Lingrui. Compared with Changan Ford's Sharp Edge, Lingrui's design will be favored by many home users - beautiful, but not ostentatious. The design of the interior is mainly based on two large screens, which is a clean and simple scientific and technological style, which is more mainstream.
In terms of power, Lingrui is equipped with Ford's 1.5T Ecoboost turbocharged engine, with a maximum output of 170 horsepower and a maximum torque of 260 Nm, which matches the seven-speed wet dual-clutch transmission. Yes, Jiangling Ford's products are basically equipped with dual-clutch transmissions, and do not adopt the "over-tech" 8AT gearbox. But relatively speaking, the price of Jiangling Ford models is also lower.
Jiangling Ford's product positioning and product image are affected by the development of commercial vehicles. From the price point of view, Lingrui is locked in the positioning of the current mainstream entry-level home five-seat medium-sized SUV market, this market is currently the largest in the SUV field, but also the most balanced market - users will not pay too much attention to the dazzling configuration, but pay more attention to the flat product force.
Under the overall positioning of Jiangling Ford, lingrui "handed over" the product force of this market segment, that is, the product characteristics of long-term low-cost use, and took a pragmatic route.
Written in the end: At the beginning of this year, Jiangling Ford Automotive Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. was officially established, and the new company will be committed to accelerating the expansion of the passenger car business and accelerating the improvement of channel capabilities. With the improvement of the SUV product category and the launch of this series of Van models such as Toruiso, Jiangling Ford is running in a low-key fast car field in the passenger car field.
According to relevant news, the Ford F150 pickup truck will be domestically produced in Jiangling Ford. Jiangling Ford's strategy of "business and ride" has become clearer, and seeing this scene, the most anxious person should be Changan Ford.
Note: Images are from the Web