With the launch of e:NP Polar Pan, GUANGQI Honda is more closely integrating the national strategy, industry trends and user needs, only in this way can it continue to lead the trend of China's auto market.
China's new energy vehicle market has entered a period of rapid popularization mainly driven by market forces from the introduction period driven by government subsidies that began 10 years ago, and a large number of joint ventures have begun to enter in addition to the early independent brands and new car-making forces in recent years.
In the era of traditional fuel vehicles, the joint venture brand once occupied 2/3 of the market share of China's passenger car market, which can be described as the mainstay. In the era of new energy vehicles, can the dominant position of joint venture brands continue? Compared with independent brands and new car-making forces, can joint venture brands that enter the new energy vehicle market late catch up? GAC Honda's new electric vehicle brand e:NP and its first pure electric SUV, the 1, released on March 29, gave the industry a chance to observe.
e: NP Polar Pan: GAC Honda's Battle of Ascension
Since its establishment in 1998, GUANGC Honda has been at the forefront of China's automotive joint venture wave. Whether it is the introduction of the first global synchronous model Accord at the beginning of its establishment, the creation of a 4S sales and after-sales service model, or the introduction of Honda's proud i-MMD hybrid technology, GUANGQI Honda has continued to lead the development of China's automotive industry in the past 24 years since its establishment.
The birth of e:NP polar pan marks that GUANGC Honda has officially entered the era of intelligent electric vehicles, taking the e:NP polar turbulence as an opportunity, GAC Honda will achieve comprehensive upgrading from the four levels of power, driving fun, system and user.
In terms of power and driving fun, the new brand's first product, Ji Pan 1, is based on Honda's new intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture e:N Architecture F, which integrates the "three-in-one" high-efficiency and high-power electric drive system, high-capacity high-density power battery, high-rigidity exclusive chassis and frame for pure electric vehicles. Ensure that pure electric vehicles developed based on this architecture are at the leading level in the industry in terms of power performance, driving experience, safety and intelligence.
To enhance the thrill of driving, the Pole 1 adds Honda EV sound to sport mode, and the acceleration sound of the vehicle when you press down on the accelerator pedal will make you feel passionate. In fact, the "P" in the name e:NP refers to "Prime", which means the "exhilarating (extreme) driving pleasure" brought by electric vehicles.
While pursuing driving pleasure, GUANGC Honda also does its best to improve the rear seating experience of the Pole 1 to take into account the experience of all occupants in the car. Drive motor instantaneous output of high torque will lead to the occupants of the car to produce a sense of vertigo, in order to avoid this discomfort, Polar Pan 1 through the continuous adjustment of pedal response and power output characteristics, as well as the seat system and suspension system repeated adjustment, the user's body posture and line of sight changes can always be integrated with the vehicle attitude changes, so as to achieve silky and accurate driving experience without motion sickness.
So far, almost all pure electric vehicles with main performance have emphasized how short the acceleration time of 100 kilometers is, completely disregarding whether the rear passengers can stand it or can't stand it, which also makes it difficult for some users to accept pure electric vehicles. The development idea of Ji pan 1 allows us to see the return of the concept of user first.
Polar Pan 1 is also equipped with DMC driver status perception system, the camera installed on the A-pillar recognizes user expressions, and the car machine system conducts some interesting and warm interactions with the driver on this basis, even if it is a long-distance driving, it will not feel boring, and you can also experience the fun of human-computer interaction.
The birth of e:NP polar turbulence has also enabled GUANGC Honda to achieve an upgraded dimension of the entire system. In terms of research and development, Honda Technology (China) Co., Ltd. and Guangqi Honda Automobile Research and Development Co., Ltd. two local technology incubation bases to ensure that new car research and development closely follow the needs of users; in terms of production, the new energy exclusive factory ensures that product quality and quality control meet the special requirements of electric vehicles; in terms of channels, the dual channels integrated online (Guangqi Honda APP, vehicle intelligent guidance interconnection system) offline (special stores, electrified sales service stores and supermarket stores) fully meet the needs of users in the four scenarios of "seeing, selecting, buying and using".
GUANGQI Honda's comprehensive upgrade and maintenance closely follow the industry trend - power, driving fun and system upgrade will eventually bring user value and user experience upgrade. After the first few years of "early adopters", the current electric vehicle users are more mature, rational, and more aware of electric vehicles and various cutting-edge technologies, their needs for electric vehicles are more diversified and personalized, and there are more expectations and requirements for the services of car companies. The rise of these users is changing the business model of the automotive industry, driving automotive companies from product-centric to user-centric: everything is determined by the user, everything is for the user, and all innovation is to improve the user experience. This is also the concept conveyed by the e:NP polar pan brand "Boundless by You".
The competition in the new energy market has reached the middle game, and the traditional forces and the new forces have entered a stage of stalemate
At the time of the entry of NP Pole, 10 years have passed since the cultivation and rapid development of China's new energy vehicle market, and the current competitive situation, market pattern and public opinion atmosphere are not very favorable for joint venture brands.
First of all, the new car-making forces started early, without distraction, concentrated all resources and energy to develop new energy vehicles, and achieved remarkable results in user demand analysis, user pain point grasp, product design concept, product core selling point creation, user relationship reconstruction, etc., leading the development trend of the domestic new energy vehicle market in the past few years.
Secondly, the "low price and high matching" strategy that some traditional Chinese brands have adhered to for many years has begun to enter the harvest period, and with the help of the electric vehicle wave, they have successfully achieved brand and product upwards, squeezing the market share of some joint venture brands. According to the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the market share of Chinese brand passenger cars reached 45.9% in the first quarter of this year, which is higher than the combined market share of German and Japanese brands.
In the new energy vehicle market, especially in the field of pure electric vehicles, it is basically the new car-making forces and traditional Chinese brands that play the leading role.
But that's changing. With the acceleration of new energy vehicles to replace traditional fuel vehicles, joint venture brands have begun to go down. After the initial test, a large number of new energy models of joint venture brands have been launched, and the market share has begun to expand. From the perspective of competition, joint venture brands are shifting from defensive to offensive, and traditional forces and new forces are beginning to enter a stalemate stage.
So, can the joint venture brand new energy vehicles be played in the end? According to the statistics of the National Passenger Car Joint Association, the proportion of mainstream joint venture brands in the pure electric vehicle market in 2018 was only 1.3%, and it will increase to 4.7% in 2021. The mainstream joint venture brand accounted for 3.8% of the plug-in hybrid market in 2018 and increased to 12.1% in 2021. Judging from the sales data, the market share of joint venture brand new energy vehicles in the past few years has been steadily increasing, especially the rapid growth of plug-in hybrid models, which shows that many consumers still favor joint venture brand new energy vehicles.
It should be pointed out that the number of new energy models launched by the joint venture brand in the past few years is small, and many models are not very competitive in terms of mileage or intelligent driving. With the intensive launch of more new models based on the development of the new pure electric platform, the market share of joint venture brand new energy vehicles still has a lot of room for growth.
How can joint venture brands catch up with the competitiveness of the system?
In the era of smart electric vehicles, how can joint venture brands catch up? It is generally believed that compared with the new forces of car manufacturing, joint venture brands have generally experienced two or three decades of development and accumulated extremely comprehensive and perfect system competitiveness, which will be the key to winning the protracted battle in the new energy vehicle market.
However, the competitiveness of the system will not be automatically transformed into the market share of the joint venture brand, and how to maximize the competitiveness of the system is the key. For example, at the product design level, how to combine the global R&D resources and leading technologies of multinational car companies with the preferences and needs of young Chinese consumers? In terms of building the core selling points of the product, how to catch up with the new forces in terms of intelligence, while giving full play to the advantages of traditional car companies in safety and driving control, and guiding users to pay attention to these core values as the most basic and authentic core values of the car, rather than allowing the new forces to define. In terms of user service, how to innovate the service model on top of its huge sales and after-sales service system, etc.
Taking e:NP polar pan as an example, although Honda Motor has many years of technology accumulation in the field of electric vehicles and a native pure electric architecture as the basis, in order to meet the needs of Chinese users to the greatest extent, a large number of Chinese developers have joined the development team composed of Honda Jiyan Technology (China) Co., Ltd. and Guangqi Honda Automobile Research and Development Co., Ltd. In order to adapt to China's complex road scenes, the motor control program of Ji pan 1 integrates more than 20,000 kinds of scene algorithms, which is unmatched in the current domestic automobile market.
Similarly, Ji Pan 1's pursuit of a precise silky and motion-free driving experience and the improvement of the ride experience of rear passengers also reflects guangqi Honda's ability to carry out special adjustments for the characteristics of electric vehicles while inheriting its traditional driving control advantages. These capabilities require long-term accumulation of technology, which is not available to the new car-making forces that have only been established for a few years. And these excellent driving experiences will eventually be recognized by users, so as to realize the value return of electric vehicles.
In terms of production, Guangqi Honda is building a dedicated new energy vehicle factory to fully apply 5G technology, and introduce a number of advanced intelligent equipment and systems, and also through the "intelligent" innovation of the production end such as parts inventory, assembly site and logistics correspondence, so that traditional manufacturing can be upgraded to intelligent manufacturing, so as to meet the needs of users for more personalized customized models.
User service experience is not only the area where the gap between the joint venture brand and the new car-making forces is the largest, but also the promising area of the joint venture brand. Although GUANGQI Honda has more than 600 special stores across the country, in order to give users a better experience, GUANGQI Honda will build new electrified sales service stores and supermarket stores, seamlessly connect product display, new car delivery, and after-sales service with users' shopping and social needs, and strive to maximize its channel advantages.
With the help of these channel resources, GUANGQI Honda will be more closely connected with users. Online will be through the circle, car owner co-creation and other content sections, combined with the membership point system and car friends association and other interest co-creation with users, offline based on the electrified sales service store, around the fans, the same city club, etc. to carry out community operations, and emotional co-creation with users.
System competitiveness is the root cause of the long-term prosperity of joint venture brands in China's auto market in the past few decades, as the industry enters the era of electrification and intelligence, we see that the entire system of joint venture brands is constantly upgrading, and strive to form a new system competitiveness in a higher dimension, and continue to lead the development of the industry while adapting to new trends.
Summary: The rise of new energy vehicles and the proposal of the "3060 double carbon" goal not only put pressure on car companies, but also become a corporate citizen who accelerates the transformation of car companies to environmentally friendly, user-oriented and actively assume social responsibility.
The history of joint ventures in China's automotive industry has exceeded 30 years, and the joint venture companies have made great contributions to the development of China's automotive industry, technological progress and market maturity. Even with the rapid development of Chinese brands, joint venture brands still occupy more than half of the market share.
For GUANGC Honda, the wave of new energy vehicles is a challenge and an opportunity, and it is actively adjusting its strategy according to changes in the situation. With the launch of e:NP Polar Pan, GUANGQI Honda is more closely integrating the national strategy, industry trends and user needs, only in this way can it continue to lead the trend of China's auto market.