Since recent years, the domestic automobile market has entered the stage of stock competition. Starting from the new energy market, the increasingly fierce price war is spreading to the entire market, redefining the pricing system of each market segment. Of course, this also includes the mainstream B-segment sedans. A few years ago, the main price range of B-class fuel cars was still concentrated at about 200,000 yuan, but now, the main sales range of this class has dropped to 170,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan.
Can this price point meet the psychological expectations of the majority of users and make the B-segment sedan better face the challenges in all aspects? Hyundai Motor believes that the answer is no. Only with more competitive prices and continued improvement of product strength can the quality-price ratio of B-class sedans be more fully reflected.
Hyundai Motor is about to bring a new generation of the main B-segment sedan, the 11th-generation Sonata, and the previously announced pre-sale price starts at 150,000 yuan. According to recent news, the guide price of the 11th-generation Sonata may start from 140,000 yuan, which is about 10,000 yuan lower than the pre-sale price, and there is no similar pricing precedent in the previous joint venture fuel products.
Lowering the bar doesn't mean you need to compromise on vehicle quality, quality or configuration. Entering the 11th generation, the Sonata will still bring a total of 46 product enhancements, covering the aesthetic design, vehicle intelligence, power driving control and the most core vehicle quality.
The 11th-generation Sonata is built based on the i-GMP platform, using the global ONE MODEL design language, and is available in standard and N line versions, bringing a more sporty and youthful first feeling. In line with this, the 11th-generation Sonata offers a 2.0-liter engine with a maximum power of 250 hp in the N line model, paired with a 1.5-liter engine with 170 hp paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission, giving it a more dynamic aesthetic.
At the same time, the intelligence aspect cannot be left behind. The 11th-generation Sonata will be equipped with a next-generation cockpit system that has been improved for the Chinese market. The ccNC intelligent network architecture is paired with NVIDIA's cockpit SoC to enable the 11th generation Sonata to have wireless FOTA capabilities. Independent dual-tone voice recognition adopts Baidu's intelligent solution, which can realize partition wake-up and instructions. Through the NFC+BLE+UWB triple digital key solution, users can control vehicle functions on smart devices to achieve non-inductive entry and exit.
It is easier to get started and more configured, and for some enterprises that are trapped in price wars, they need to compress the development and testing process to deal with it. Hyundai Group, which built the 11th-generation Sonata, as the world's top 3 automaker, will sell more than 7.3 million vehicles globally in 2023, with a year-on-year increase of 14.4% in total revenue and a 54% year-on-year increase in annual operating profit. The long-term accumulation has enabled Hyundai Motor to have a globally unified R&D, design and production process to ensure that the products have better quality colleagues, and can still achieve better cost control results through the integration of technological innovation and large-scale production. These will give the 11th generation Sonata advantages in terms of product competitiveness and quality-price ratio.