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Friends who are interested may have discovered that the marketing of many car companies has begun to "hug" back recently.
Whether it is the well-known "far ahead" in the industry, or the delivery ranking of models in subdivided fields that will be released every month or even once a week, there has been a trend of dying down in recent times.
Things seem to be changing.
Compared with the "world's first" publicity style in previous years, car brands, including new cars, are now returning to caution and rationality. Obviously, with the continuous improvement of new energy vehicle sales and penetration, consumers' perception of new things is becoming more comprehensive and pragmatic. In such an increasingly mature market, if car companies blindly adopt the method of "breaking the earth and bragging", it is obviously not conducive to winning the market and users.
After all, quality and safety are the bottom line and criterion of the automotive industry.
We can't let consumers become the price of innovation
For a long time, domestic and foreign new car manufacturers have been focusing on promoting the latest technology on the car, in order to reflect the pioneering and leading nature of their own technology. As the majority of Chinese auto brands have switched to the new category of new energy and intelligence, many new car brands have also begun to join this track.
Admittedly, this has led to a world-leading and cost-effective car product for Chinese consumers, but it also has two undesirable consequences.
First, some new functions and technologies that have been developed quickly have not been fully tested and verified for functional safety and reliability. One new car after another rolled off the assembly line at a rapid pace, falling into the misunderstanding of "disappearing quickly to make cars", and the industry was overly prosperous. The phenomenon of consumers buying "semi-finished products" frequently appears in the Chinese auto market.
According to the information in the "Notice on the Recall of National Automobiles and Consumer Goods in 2023" issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation in early March, in 2023, the mainland will implement a total of 72 new energy vehicle recalls, involving 1.603 million vehicles, accounting for 23.8% of the total number of recalls in the year. The number of new energy vehicle recalls increased by 32.3% year-on-year, reaching a record high.
You must know that in 2023, there will only be about 9.5 million new energy vehicles in the mainland.
Second, the increasing marketing enthusiasm around new technologies and high-configuration has led to rapid inflation of communication skills. In addition to the "far ahead" mentioned above, descriptions such as "the best within 5 million", "the best within 10 million", "the best within 500,000", etc., which are at the "highest level" but have "no proof of death", have begun to be frequently used in the promotion of new cars.
In this regard, the central media can't stand it. On January 26, the Economic Daily pointed out in the article "New Energy Vehicle Industry Should Avoid Chaos":
"Under the traffic priority mechanism, in order to attract traffic to their own brands, many new cars have become like to talk big and ruthless. It is undeniable that the current competitive pressure of enterprises is high, but exaggerated marketing or bottom-line marketing will deteriorate the competitive ecology of the industry. ”
Since the beginning of this year, some car companies that were previously keen on talk marketing have encountered orders or deliveries that fall short of expectations when blockbuster new cars are launched. These car companies have not only encountered a backlash from public opinion, but have also been forced to lower their sales guidance.
Obviously, consumers are gradually sensible, no longer being "fooled" by new technologies and new words to become guinea pigs, but beginning to think about what kind of new energy and smart cars they need. In particular, whether the brand has sufficient accumulation and reliable quality.
From this point of view, Guangqi Honda meets such a requirement. As one of the most familiar car brands among Chinese consumers, the Honda brand's quality, reliability, and product strength labels have been widely recognized by consumers around the world.
In particular, Guangqi Honda, which has successively launched classic models such as Accord, Odyssey, Fit and Guandao in China, is a benchmark player in the Chinese auto market. Now, with the advent of the wave of new energy and intelligent vehicles, this relatively young joint venture in China is launching a series of competitive products.
Consumers need more reliable technology than "influencer" cars
With the gradual mass production of various hybrid systems and high-end intelligent driving functions, the pace of new car function updates and iterations has become faster and faster in the past two years. Some even suggested that the user replacement cycle will be shortened rapidly, and "cars will become more and more similar to consumer electronics".
However, in the author's opinion, as a commodity with a price of more than 100,000 yuan, the car is second only to the "big item" in the minds of many people, and its asset attributes must be far greater than the consumption attributes, and the car is closely related to the safety of all traffic participants. Therefore, whether a car is worth choosing depends on whether its functional safety is in place and whether its reliability is high enough, and on the other hand, whether its value retention rate can lead the industry.
When it comes to "Guangben", in addition to the classic models mentioned above, the most impressive thing in the author's mind is that this is a brand that is the first to launch a locally produced hybrid car in China. As early as 2013, Guangqi Honda mass-produced the i-MMD hybrid system on the ninth-generation Accord.
Compared with other hybrid systems, the i-MMD tended to use electric motors to meet most of the usage scenarios at that time, except for high-speed driving, most of the time the hybrid Accord was driven by electric motors, which can be called the originator of electric drive hybrids. At the time, it may have been just a route difference, but now it has become the standard for many domestic brands of multi-speed hybrid systems.
Obviously, the hybrid system, which is still a new technology for many domestic brands, was a "traditional product" that Honda had mass-produced as early as 11 years ago. After more than ten years of full verification and iteration, Guangqi Honda has launched a new generation of products according to the needs of users in the Chinese automobile market.
On the 11th-generation Accord launched last year, Hiromoto equipped it with a fourth-generation i-MMD hybrid system. With a 17.7 kWh battery pack, the vehicle has an NEDC range of 106 km. Combined with the blessing of the 2.0L Atkinson engine, the fuel consumption of the Accord e:PHEV has reached the level of 4 liters per 100 kilometers, and the range of the Accord e:PHEV has exceeded 1,000 kilometers in the state of full fuel and full charge, and it has run an amazing result of more than 2,000 kilometers in the previous measurement. And compared with other plug-in hybrid technologies currently on the market, Honda's fourth-generation i-MMD hybrid system has better driving pleasure and is sportier on top of performance.
In the author's opinion, this is the hard power brought by technological accumulation. In contrast, many cars with larger batteries and fuel tanks than the Accord do not have a range of up to this level. At present, Guangben has launched models equipped with different power forms for users with different charging conditions, including "traditional hybrid" HEV models that do not require charging, PHEV models that can be supplemented by home charging piles, and BEC models that can be fully electrified.
In the field of intelligent driving, Guangben is also at the forefront of joint venture brands, and the pace even exceeds that of German luxury brands. In 2022, Hiromoto will equip the all-new Haoying with Honda SENSING 360 technology. The technology enables a range of Level 2 intelligent driving assistance functions, including adaptive cruise control, lane keeping, and lane change with lights on. At present, the above functions have completed the security verification covering various user scenarios, and have been implemented as standard on all models of Accord and Haoying. In the future, Guangqi Honda will also realize that this function will be installed on 100% of all its models.
In terms of the intelligence of the cockpit, Guangqi Honda's focus is different from that of many new cars. Compared to the size of the functional gimmick, the brand prefers to provide convenience and entertainment experience on the basis of ensuring the safety of the occupants in the car. For example, the first feature of the Honda CONNECT 4.0 system is the DMC Driver Awareness System.
According to reports, the system can perceive the driver's status through the camera, and remind and persuade fatigue driving behavior. At the same time, the system can also monitor the status of rear passengers to avoid accidents such as forgetting children in the car.
In addition, the Honda CONNECT 4.0 can also provide a series of intelligent cockpit functions, including AI recommendation applets, accident hazard prediction of common routes, and smartphone/watch connectivity, most of which are standard on the Accord and Haoying.
It is precisely with the above-mentioned types of well-proven functions and technologies that Honda has achieved the No. 1 retention rate among joint venture brand automakers in the 2023 China Automobile Retention Rate List. This not only reflects the market's recognition of the reliability of Guangqi Honda's models, but also shows that consumers recognize the value attributes of the brand.
Trustworthy companies not only build good cars, but also be responsible for society
At present, consumers are more focused on the product itself. But for the majority of ordinary car users, the quality and reliability of a car that we can perceive is actually determined by a large number of details that cannot be seen. It is reflected in all aspects of manufacturing, supply chain management, safety verification and corporate social responsibility, etc., which is the real "conscience" of an automobile company.
Especially for new energy vehicles, a product that integrates a large number of emerging technologies, whether a car company can insist on quality first and reliability first determines whether it can launch reliable products. In contrast, it is easier to "pile up" new technologies that have not been fully proven on the model products.
This is even more true for a global automotive group like Honda. After all, the company's products are geared towards consumers around the world, and any vehicle that is flawed in terms of design and functionality can be catastrophic. Therefore, Guangqi Honda has always emphasized the drive of reverence for life at the level of product creation and brand operation, and created safe, high-quality and mobile fun models for users.
In terms of quality, the brand proposed the "Hiromoto Characteristic Quality Management System (GHQS)" and the "Double Limit Verification", that is, on the basis of the development and verification in Japan, the design verification of "extreme environment + extreme working conditions" in the field in China was additionally carried out, and large-scale tests were carried out at test sites in Northeast China, Xinjiang and Hainan to fully consider the extreme environmental tests that may be encountered in the Chinese market.
In fact, Guangqi Honda's Zhizai e:HEV and Odyssey have been reverse-exported to Japan and Europe. This means that the company's excellent manufacturing and quality control capabilities have been recognized by users in the global market.
At the upstream + supply chain level of automobile factories, Guangqi Honda relies on Honda's global supply chain system to ensure the quality and reliability of parts from the source. During the production process, Guangqi Honda conducts quality assurance visits to suppliers to ensure that quality standards are in place. This unscheduled "spot check" helps to ensure the consistency, reliability and stability of the quality of the parts. In addition, for new suppliers included in the system, Guangqi Honda will send specialist lecturers to provide regular training to help them improve their quality assurance capabilities.
Finally, in terms of social responsibility, Guangqi Honda follows the national "dual carbon" strategy implementation roadmap, and proposes to strive to achieve carbon neutrality in the whole life cycle of products by 2045 by 2040, covering the raw material acquisition stage, vehicle production stage, and carbon emission reduction planning in the vehicle use stage. In particular, in terms of electric vehicles, Guangqi Honda will build a new zero-carbon electric vehicle factory this year and put it into production, in order to gradually increase the proportion of electrified products in Guangben's products.
At present, Guangqi Honda has launched two pure electric models of the e:NP series, and the label on its body is the "ultimate driving pleasure" of "Honda flavor". With the completion of the new plant, we will soon be able to welcome more models that are reliable and proven in the global market.
Write at the end
During each period of major iteration of automotive technology, there are always active innovators emerging in the market. These new brands and companies often present as disruptors, competing for a place in the market with new products and eye-catching marketing gimmicks.
At this time, mainstream auto giants often have two choices: follow the rhythm of innovators and "roll" marketing, configuration and cost performance, or keep their bottom line and advantages, and insist on providing users with real value after the market bubble has faded.
Obviously, Guangqi Honda, which has been established for 26 years, chose the latter rather than following the wind to build an Internet celebrity car. After all, for an automobile company, making quick money for a while is not a responsible behavior for itself, users or society.
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