Changan Ford's sales continued to decline during this period, and its protracted product iteration speed, disordered team and management, confused strategy, coupled with the "broken shaft" incident, were all the reasons for its failure in China.
Author | Blue-shirted brother
Editor-in-Chief | Chris
Since Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, General Motors, Nissan, Ford, Kia, Hyundai and other automobile brands entered China, they have indeed brought great progress to China's automobile industry and technological development, and have also created independent automobile brands such as Great Wall, Geely, Chery, and BYD. With the rapid progress of China's local car companies, the advantages of joint venture brands are gradually weakening. The general environment of China's auto market has also quietly changed.
Changan Ford has been around for 21 years since its establishment in 2001 and currently has three production bases and seven factories in Chongqing, Hangzhou and Harbin. Changan Ford was once a joint venture car brand widely loved by the Chinese people, especially Changan Ford Focus, Wing Tiger and Mondeo have achieved brilliant sales in China.
01
Continuous sales plummeted fatally
In 2016, Changan Ford achieved high-speed growth like Korean cars, with a sales increase of 14% to 957,500 units, setting a record high since entering China; and proposed to target annual sales of 1 million vehicles the following year, it can be said that Changan Ford at that time was immersed in joy. Its best-selling sedan, the Fox, has sold more than 2.5 million units. Since 2017, Changan Ford has bid farewell to the momentum of soaring, and sales have fallen all the way, from 958,000 vehicles per year to 184,000 vehicles in 2019; Changan Ford has gone from heaven to hell in just 3 years.
Since the decline in sales in 2017, Changan Ford has been one of the targets of unsuccessful cases and media criticism in the automotive industry for a long time. In 2018, Changan Ford's sales continued to show a sharp decline, and the product iteration speed could not keep up with joint venture brands such as North-South Volkswagen, North-South Toyota, North-South Honda, and Dongfeng Nissan, and the "three-cylinder" engine was also the key to affecting sales. In 2019, Changan Ford set a small target of "sprinting 200,000 vehicles"; until 2020, Changan Ford's sales rebounded slightly; in 2021, Changan Ford's sales volume was 304,600 vehicles, although there was an increase, but this figure was completely incomparable with nearly one million vehicles at the peak.
02
Marriage with football sinks together
Chinese football (men's football) has always been called the unsupportable Adou by fans. Among many sports, men's football is the sport with the largest audience and the most disappointing project; people love and hate, hate iron is not steel. Every time the fans are full of hope for it, it makes you how disappointed, Xiaobian as a fan but every time you watch the game, you have to vomit blood and call out chest pain.
In 2015, Changan Ford signed a contract with the Chinese Football Association and officially became the main sponsor of the Chinese team; Ma Ruilin, then president of Changan Ford Automobile Co., Ltd., said: "Changan Ford is very honored to be the main sponsor of the Chinese Football Association China team (in fact, it is tied to the "devil"). The Ford brand's investment in football in sports has a profound impact, and Changan Ford's investment in Chinese football has just begun (which is the beginning of the nightmare).
Previously, Changan Ford has become a senior partner of the Chinese Super League and the exclusive title sponsor of the FA Cup. Changan Ford promises to enhance the brand image of the Chinese team and contribute to the overall development of Chinese football. I firmly believe that Changan Ford is a strong backing for China to realize its football dream. ”
Since Changan Ford's marriage with Chinese football, a large amount of funds have transferred event sponsorship, resulting in a sharp decline in traditional offline activities. In the memory of the editor, the last time I participated in the activities of Changan Ford was the listing of the distant Taurus in 2019. Changan Ford had hoped that it would attract more consumers' attention through football with a wide audience, but it knew that the performance of the Chinese men's football team had never disappointed people for so many years, and it was always on the road to losing, repeatedly brewing "tragedies". There is no good impression in the hearts of fans at all, which invisibly lowers the brand image of Changan Ford, so that it is not worth the loss, it can be said that this cooperation is to lose the wife and fold the soldiers.
03
Wing Tiger disconnects frequently and product iterations are delayed
Yihu was listed on January 22, 2013, and in less than a year, Yihu has successively appeared short-axis incidents in Anyang, Henan, Aksu, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, Shenzhen, Guangdong and other places, and more than 30 pterodactyl broken axle incidents have occurred across the country, pushing this "god car" to the cusp of the storm.
At the end of the year, Changan Ford had to announce the voluntary recall of 80,857 Ekowers (KUGA), which even included all domesticAlly produced Ekowers, including the first batch of test vehicles on September 21, 2012. This means that the ford impreza front knuckles (horns) produced before November 2013 are potentially defective. From market anticipation to product recalls, from obscurity to candor, Ford Impreza is paying for its mistakes.
It is reported that some batches of front knuckle production materials for vehicles covered by this recall failed to meet Ford's global material strength standards for the material. If the vehicle is hit with considerable intensity, the front knuckle may break, which is a safety hazard.
Changan Ford's sales continued to decline during this period, and its slow product iteration speed, disordered team and management, and confused strategy were all the reasons for its failure in China. On top of these own problems, Changan Ford's decline is actually a "historical choice" to some extent. When Changan Ford achieved rapid growth around 2016, most models were in the golden stage of the product cycle, and several models such as Yihu, Yibo, Mondeo, and Forres were launched during the period of 2013-2015, which became a strong growth engine of Changan Ford to a large extent. Because of this, the intensive launch of new cars at this stage led to the launch of no new models and replacement products in the next few years for Changan Ford, coupled with the "broken shaft" incident that led consumers to vote with their feet, resulting in an avalanche of overall sales.
The long window period after 2015 reflects the management ills between Changan Ford and Ford China. In the period from 2006 to 2008, due to the deterioration of performance and the impact of the global financial crisis, Ford put forward the "one Ford" business policy, successively sold several of its luxury brands, and refocused resources on Ford, which successfully ensured Ford through the difficult period at that time.
04
Build the Ford China 2.0 bet on the new Mondeo
Ford's management still looks at the continuous decline of the Ford brand in China, the world's largest automotive market, and in October 2018, Ford China upgraded to an independently operated business unit, reporting directly to the global headquarters. Ford China's status improvement and decentralization, borrowing a sentence from Chen Anning - "Ford's China business I can decide"!
Chen Anning, president and CEO of Ford (China), once said: "In the past, Ford China did not have a complete business unit, lacked a complete planning of localized products, and a department for continuous brand promotion, which belonged to the state of 'lack of arms and legs'. ”
Obviously, the "one Ford" strategy has already laid the groundwork for Changan Ford's decline. Under the leadership of Chen Anning, in recent years, Ford China's "Ford China 2.0" transformation plan with the mission of "More Ford, More China" has been released, which includes "Five Plans" and "Four Centers". Localization not only refers to the launch of new models, but also to provide a series of full-time, all-round intelligent service content, so in recent years, Ford Chen Anning has been focusing on electrification development.
31 months after the release of the Ford China 2.0, Ford unveiled three truly local products – the new Ford EVOS Light Chaser, the Lincoln Z and the new Mondeo. Chen Anning said that these models are products that truly embody "more Ford, more China", and are also strategic models that are truly developed by the Chinese team.
The Mondeo is Ford's first global model, the first model was launched in 1993, and has undergone four generations until now, with a history of nearly 30 years. 2004 began to enter the domestic market, when the introduction of the official second generation of models, the current market on the market for sale for the fourth generation of August 2013 listed, due to its face "Martin face" has become one of the most successful American sports mid-level cars in the market, due to years of non-replacement, its product strength and design aesthetics have not kept up with the development of the times, sales have fallen to the bottom.
As a popular choice in the B-segment sedan market, Mondeo is a household name, but with the rapid development of automotive products in the domestic market, Mondeo's sales in recent years have not been optimistic. According to the data, Changan Ford Mondeo sold 101035 vehicles in 2016 and 112158 in 2017, which can be said to have reached its peak. However, since the beginning of 2018, its sales have suddenly plummeted to 45,405 units, with only 17,642 units sold in 2019 and 25,027 units and 34,345 units in 2020-2021, respectively. However, as competitors of the same class, the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Volkswagen Magotan, Nissan Tianlai and other models sell more than 100,000 units a year, while Mondeo is not a fraction of the above models.
After the unveiling of the new Mondeo released in the first quarter of this year, the excellent product strength and cost performance have attracted the attention of many consumers, and the new Mondeo has decided to go public on April 13, can this product created by the Chinese team become the hope of Changan Ford's rise? First of all, from the price point of view, the new Mondeo pre-price of 159,800-21.98 million yuan, the whole series is equipped with a powertrain of 2.0T + 8AT, in the field of joint venture medium-sized cars, the new Mondeo has a certain advantage over competitors in terms of price.
The new Mondeo's product strength is still extremely strong, space, power, technology and intelligent configuration have performed well, and technology and intelligent configuration have been delegated to the lower version. With the domestic B-class car market has completed a round of product iteration, the tenth generation honda accord mid-term redesign, the ninth generation Toyota Camry, the seventh generation Nissan Tianlai has been fully listed, the new Mondeo replacement, whether it can seize the market initiative and inject new vitality into the B-class car market remains to be tested by the market.
Auto market independent evaluation: since the 2013 Wing Tiger axle break incident, as well as the launch of the three-cylinder Focus, coupled with continuous sales plunge and other unfavorable factors; in the past decade, the brand image of Changan Ford has not been as good as before, and this decade is the decade when the traditional B-class car brands Honda, Toyota and Nissan have steadily occupied the market segment, and it is also a decade of the rise of independent car brands. In the past two years, although Changan Ford has launched new models such as Ruiji, EVOS, and domestic explorers, sales have picked up, but the total amount is too small compared with other joint venture brands, and it needs a blockbuster model like Dongfeng Citroen Versailles to save the brand; perhaps inspired by the success of Lincoln adventurers, Changan Ford has launched such a localized new Mondeo. In today's situation, Changan Ford can only bet on the new Mondeo!
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