Author: Guan Hongye
China's auto market is showing a temporary imbalance: Japanese car sales led by Honda and Toyota are rising, compared with the overall decline of multinational brands, Honda bucked the trend of 9.8% in the first quarter of this year; but on the other hand, in the booming electric vehicle market, Japanese cars have almost no sound.
This dilemma could be rewritten since last night. That night, Honda's first pure electric vehicle in China, Dongfeng Honda e:NS1, was announced. The new car is positioned as a "smart driving fun pure electric SUV", a total of 4 models have been launched, and the price after subsidies is 175,000 yuan to 218,000 yuan.
It is worth noting that this is also the first model among the Chinese and Japanese car companies to explicitly announce the price of new electric vehicles, and e:NS1 may thus determine a value benchmark.
Although there have been public opinion doubts before, to this moment Honda's pure electric vehicle is only late, but the author believes that it is better to come early than to happen, Dongfeng Honda e: NS1 is likely to catch up with the electric vehicle from the entry to the outbreak of a good time.
In the first quarter of this year, domestic automobile production and sales were 6.484 million units and 6.509 million units, up 2.0% and 0.2% year-on-year, respectively, and the growth rate was 6.8 percentage points and 7.3 percentage points lower than that of January and February. The overall market is under obvious pressure, but the growth of new energy vehicles is unambiguous.
In the first quarter, the production and sales of domestic new energy vehicles reached 1.293 million units and 1.257 million units, respectively, an increase of 1.4 times year-on-year, and the market share reached 19.3%, and the strategic leading role of new energy vehicles was further highlighted.
According to research and analysis, when the market penetration rate of a new thing exceeds 15%, the market will enter a mature growth stage. According to the IDC Internet Data Center forecast, China's new energy vehicle market size will reach 5.225 million units in 2022, and the new energy vehicle market size is expected to reach about 12.99 million units by 2025, with an annual compound growth rate (CAGR) of about 38%.
Not only is it in line with the general trend of the industry, the listing of e:NS1 is also a small universe with Dongfeng Honda's own development.
On the one hand, as Honda's first pure electric vehicle, e:NS1 unveiled the prelude to the electrification transformation of Dongfeng Honda, and also launched the starting gun of Honda's full electrification in China; on the other hand, more symbolically, e:NS1 marked another milestone in the development history of Dongfeng Honda: since its establishment in 2003, the cumulative production has reached 7 million vehicles, building a first-class full-value chain system for domestic car companies.
Stepping on the torrent of the times and accurately targeting its own rhythm, Dongfeng Honda e:NS1 was listed with full power.
Objectively speaking, Dongfeng Honda's electric vehicles did not come early, but latecomers have the confidence to catch up later. Just as e:NS1 is positioned: "smart driving fun pure electric SUV", the focus is not only on pure electricity, but also on "smart" and "driving fun".
The person in charge of Dongfeng Honda told me that from the beginning of research and development, e:NS1 is based on the actual needs of consumers, not only perfectly inheriting Honda's more than 70 years of car manufacturing genes, but also integrating China's most advanced electrification and intelligent technology, thus bringing a new pure electric travel experience that integrates the three core values of "movement", "wisdom" and "beauty".
The engineers did not put the parameters first, but focused more on improving the user's driving experience, and developed a pure electric vehicle with a distinct Honda style. In their view, electric and driving should not stand on the opposite side in inertial thinking. When most people have not yet got rid of fuel vehicles, let them gradually accept electric vehicles, which may be the key to longer-term and sustainable development.
Starting with the product, but not only the product, user-centric, through the "aim to be the first" marketing fully renewed, has the ability to promote e:NS1 on the road of counterattack to go further.
Taking the e:NS1 listing conference as an example, Dongfeng Honda for the first time rolled out the "meta-universe" of science and technology as the scene, through the virtual digital people through time and space, to create an immersive science and technology audio-visual feast, leading users to perceive the product charm of e:NS1.
In order to bring users a different car purchase experience in the era of electrification, Dongfeng Honda linkage online and offline, through the Dongfeng Honda e-mobile mini program, Dongfeng Honda App and e:NS1 space city tour exhibition to carry out global marketing.
The reason why a product is successful is never just the prominence of a certain dimension, but from marketing to service, there is no shortcoming in the whole product life cycle, which is particularly obvious in Dongfeng Honda. According to J.D. Power's "2021 China Automobile Retention Rate Research Report", Dongfeng Honda not only won the first place in the manufacturer's retention rate, but also won the TOP1 position in 4 of its models; not long ago, Civic won the honor of "Best Handled Car" at the 2021 China Automobile Awards, achieving a rare Grand Slam in the industry.
In 2022, as a sprint year for the "Challenge 1+" medium-term business plan and the achievement of production and sales targets for one million vehicles, Dongfeng Honda is focusing on promoting the strategic integration of the consensus of the whole value chain and "creating the future" in the ability of the million vehicle system.
Zheng Chunkai, Executive Deputy General Manager of Dongfeng Honda
"Looking back, we created a legend of the fuel age." Zheng Chunkai, executive deputy general manager of Dongfeng Honda, proudly said that standing at a new starting point of the last 7 million vehicles, with the vision of "reform, new life and future creation", Dongfeng Honda is determined to transform into a new electrified corporate physique.
This means that on the electrification track, Dongfeng Honda officially entered the game.
In the past few years, new car companies have attacked the city with innovative marketing and service concepts, but with the full strength of established car companies, the competition of electric vehicles will also return to more essential attributes such as products, technology and safety.
It's a counterattack, and it's a comeback.