Listing date: March 28
Brand: Jiangling Ford
Guidance price: 13.98-16.58 million yuan
Level of Attention: ★★★★ (More important new models)
Keywords: new joint venture model, Lingyu short-axis version, entry is high allocation, China's industrial chain, high degree of intelligence, positioning between traditional joint venture and autonomy, breakthrough
Ford Lingrui, a new joint venture "medium-sized" SUV, which starts at less than 140,000 yuan, is more or less surprising. And that's not all. If you look at the configuration together, the "surprise" may be more.
For example, its 139,800 yuan entry model is not a "beggar version", but a standard panoramic sunroof, leather seat, power seat, 12.3-inch intelligent car machine (with voice control, Internet of Vehicles, OTA), as well as automatic air conditioning, full LED headlights and so on. In short, although it is not a top-of-the-line configuration, the starting configuration has surpassed the mainstream models of many joint venture SUVs.
For example, in horizontal comparison, Lingrui's entry-level model has been configured to exceed the Tucson L Elite Edition of 170,800 yuan, and also exceeded the 184,900 yuan Explorer 1.5T Chi Edition. This also means that the price of Lingrui, even compared with the main cost-effective products in the joint venture, there is still a price difference of 30,000 or 40,000 yuan.
Surprise? Don't get excited. It is precisely this price difference that shows that Lingrui's real competitor is not these joint venture SUVs. Of course, since it is a Ford car, its competitors will not be those self-owned brand SUVs. It is more like opening up a new category, that is, a positioning interval between conventional joint venture products and independent products.
People who know Jiangling Ford should know that this positioning method is not the first of Lingrui - it has been trying to do this since Jiangling Ford launched The Collar. And this kind of attempt is likely to achieve greater breakthroughs and success in Lingrui.
Why?
Unlike the previous joint venture products, which were either imported from the original overseas models or developed locally based on the three major pieces of overseas manufacturers, Jiangling Ford has been trying to develop models based on the technical basis of the Chinese side of the joint venture and integrating the technological upgrading, overall quality control and adjustment of overseas manufacturers from the collar. Although this practice has never been done in the past, it does not mean that it is unreasonable. Especially at a time when China's automotive industry chain is becoming more and more perfect, it is possible to form an innovative model by making full use of this advantage and superimposing the experience of foreign manufacturers.
The early frontier did not make much of a splash in the market because it was more like a heavily redesigned version of Jiangling Victory.
The subsequent launch of Lingyu should be regarded as a new product in this mode - although the basic technology is still more derived from Jiangling, the design is completely new and incorporates a lot of Ford family elements. In terms of product characteristics, it also shows more Ford characteristics. At the same time, it also shows the advantages of China's industrial chain, such as the layout of central control, intelligent applications and so on.
So why is it that when it comes to Lingrui, it is possible to achieve a greater breakthrough? On the one hand, Lingyu is facing a relatively "difficult" market for joint venture seven-seat medium-sized SUVs, while Lingrui is not. On the other hand, from the perspective of product strategy, Lingrui is also obviously more attractive than Lingyu.
Lingrui can be generally regarded as a short-axis version of Lingyu, but based on the difference in load-bearing, the structure of the rear suspension is different - Lingrui uses more hanging parts of the collar.
In this way, if you don't care much about the body length (trunk space) and 2.0T power, the difference between Lingrui and (five-seat version) Lingyu is not so big. The resulting spread is enormous. Note that their price difference can be more than 30,000 yuan - in the case of the same five elite type, Lingrui also needs many "just needed" configurations such as panoramic sunroofs, leather seats, and power seats, which is roughly close to the level of the five platinum collar types (185,800 yuan).
The two cars that are basically the same are the same as the five seats, but the trunk space is worse, the engine displacement is smaller, and the price is 40,000 yuan + lower - the cost-effective advantage of Lingrui compared to the field is obvious.
In fact, if you compare lingrui with some mainstream large-size autonomous compact SUVs (such as Tiggo 8 PLUS, Hoshigoe L, Trumpchi GS5, etc.), the price difference between them is not large. Even if we can't think that Lingrui is necessarily stronger than these independent SUVs, for consumers who like foreign brands, this attraction is indeed not to be underestimated.
Therefore, no matter what you think of Jiangling Ford's product development model, combined with the product configuration and price of Lingrui, Uncle Ka believes that at least from the sales level will be reliable. This is also the reason why we think that Lingrui is likely to achieve a bigger breakthrough.