Screenshot of part of an automobile complaint platform
The moment a car is delivered, it often means that it has withstood the strictest tests – both at the hardware and software level. In the past two years, the number of new EV brands has been increasing, and almost every brand has had to face a quality crisis after delivery. This includes crashes, design flaws, product reliability issues, and more. Some of these issues may seem minor, but they not only affect the customer experience, but can even be dangerous for all traffic participants. In the mainstream car companies that really have rich experience, this situation will not appear at all, because such products have no chance to roll off the assembly line and circulate in the market. The real mainstream auto companies never make beta products.
It can be seen that at present, some new brands blindly emphasize fast in product development, directly equate cars with electronic products, and even say that the life cycle of vehicles should be shortened to less than three years. But in fact, even mobile phones are replaced more frequently than three years, not to mention cars that are closely related to personal safety and cost much more than mobile phones. It is precisely because of the logic of advocating this fast-moving consumer car manufacturing that they have led to the extreme compression of the automotive product development cycle, and the overall product development cycle is less than two years. Although this seems to be fast, the product is very new, and the technology is very diligent, in fact, it is impossible to complete the most basic environmental and road durability test of the whole vehicle.
Before the new car leaves the factory, Guangqi Honda quality inspectors carefully check the details of the vehicle
In mainstream automotive brands, all products need to go through two complete winter and summer environments and road durability tests before going to market, and the whole cycle is at least 30 months. Especially for multinational car companies, this requirement is almost immovable, and it is necessary to fully verify it to ensure the quality of the whole vehicle. For example, Guangqi Honda, the complete product development + verification cycle has always been adhered to 48 months, and the product will complete two rounds of ET/PT environmental and road comprehensive durability tests in winter and summer to ensure that the product has no quality problems in design and manufacturing before it can be launched to the market.
Subjecting the product to a complete durability test is the most basic requirement to ensure the quality and reliability of the car. If the development time is greatly compressed, it seems that the product is fast, and the R&D capability is stronger and the mechanism is more flexible, but in fact, the reliability and durability of the product are reduced. For the consumer car experience, it means that the quality of the car is more fragile, which is a double-edged sword. Of course, some people will say that Nokia can still be used after several floors have fallen, but this function is no longer needed in the era of smartphones. However, the car is not a mobile phone, and the use of the car is directly related to the life safety of the driver and passengers.
Guangqi Honda won the first place among joint ventures in the 2023 China Automobile Retention Rate Billboard
The long product development cycle means that the pace of product replacement is slow, and it will be in a "weak" position in the short-term competition. However, the car is not a simple electronic product or fast-moving consumer goods, it is not a mobile phone that must be replaced after three or five years of use, it is a product that needs to be safely guaranteed and has a long service life, and a well-maintained model can be safely driven on the road for more than 20 years. In a first-tier city like Guangzhou, you can still see 7 generations of Accord on the road. Therefore, those models that are responsible for users and have undergone a complete durability test will have a long replacement cycle.
Let's take Guangqi Honda's Accord model as an example, this product has been born for 47 years, with an average replacement cycle of five years, and has now given birth to 11 generations. On the one hand, through intergenerational inheritance, it continues to consolidate product quality and provide users with excellent car reliability, and on the other hand, it has become a very popular B-class sedan all over the world. This is also the long-term car-making doctrine that mainstream car companies such as Guangqi and Honda have always adhered to.
广汽本田雅阁e:PHEV车型图
It only takes three or four years from the announcement of the car to the construction of the factory and the launch of the product, which is the so-called "speed" of the new car brand. In the short term, the rhythm of rapid product development of new car strength seems to be very advantageous, but this kind of gambling-style product development rhythm that violates the laws of physics may lead to a rapid decline in product quality and reputation, affecting the long-term development of the brand. Therefore, in the long run, "slow" car manufacturing is also a kind of "fast", and it is a kind of long-termism for brand development.
Electronic FMCG, a "safety hazard" under the development concept
New automotive brands have introduced a lot of electronic FMCG development concepts into product development, which has also affected the design and functional configuration of automobiles. For example, the size of the large touch screen in the car is getting larger and larger, and there are more and more integrated functions, which brings risks to the operation. Therefore, mainstream car companies are more rigorous in the use of cockpit screens.
广汽本田雅阁e:PHEV内饰图
Let's take a look at Guangqi Honda, has always maintained the principle of people-oriented, safe use of the car, without blindly pursuing the "sense of science and technology" brought by the large screen, insisting on the use of physical buttons for the functions commonly used by users on each model, such as the shift lever, air conditioning related, defrosting and defogging and other functional physical buttons to ensure the safety of the car, even if the screen is down, there are still physical buttons to ensure the normal use of functions such as gear shifting, air conditioning, defrosting and defogging, etc., and to achieve functional safety from the design.
In view of the safety risks brought by large touch screens, E-NCAP has even begun to formulate relevant safety evaluation standards, and in the future, vehicles with full touch screens will be used, which will lead to downgrading of safety evaluation.
In addition, the OTA mode of automotive software will also cause certain harm to the safety of the vehicle in some aspects. The original intention of vehicle OTA is to solve the software defects existing in the vehicle and upgrade some software functions to the vehicle. Especially after the launch of intelligent driving and other solutions, many new car brands are eager to attract users through the concept of "intelligent driving", and launch various radical prototypes of intelligent driving solutions - the so-called "beta" version. This is actually a version that has not been fully verified, and I hope that the software algorithm will continue to be improved in the future, and then OTA will be given to users. In the process, the user effectively becomes an "guinea pig".
For example, in Guangqi Honda's model development standards, if a function has obvious user safety risks, it will be prohibited from being used in the development process. There is simply no possibility of a "beta" version of the software being released to the market and misleading users through exaggerated propaganda about intelligent driving technology. So what we see is that in terms of intelligent driving, the technology of mainstream joint venture car companies such as Guangqi Honda seems to be conservative, in fact, they have maintained an industry-leading level in research, and the versions handed over to users are all technologies that can ensure the safety of the car.
For example, in 2021, Honda launched the world's first road-legal Level 3 autonomous production car (Honda Legend Hybrid EX), but in the face of the overall social environment and imperfect laws, Honda will still focus on improving reliability.
Honda SENSING 360
For example, the Honda SENSING 360 technology, which was unveiled last year, leverages Honda's knowledge and experience in the development of Level 3 autonomous driving technology. Compared with the new car, which focuses more on the research and development of pilot assisted driving capabilities, the upgrade of the Honda SENSING 360 system focuses on improving certain scenarios with a high accident rate, such as meeting cars at intersections with limited visibility, pedestrian avoidance behind the side, and improving the driving experience in corners. It can be seen that the focus of mainstream car companies is different.
The core function of Honda CONNECT 4.0, which was also released last year, is not to use multiple large screens and entertainment, but mainly through big data and artificial intelligence analysis, from the three dimensions of "monitoring of the surrounding environment", "protection of occupants in the car" and "diagnosis of vehicle status", to achieve "early perception and pre-protection", and further improve driving safety. Like the Honda SENSING 360 technology, the development of the Honda CONNECT 4.0 is carried out with one goal in mind: to achieve the goal of "zero fatalities in traffic accidents by 2050" and to focus on the research and development of safe and intelligent technologies.
Automobiles are products related to user safety, not electronic fast-moving consumer goods. The gap in concept is reflected in the product, and it also produces a great difference in the user experience. The products that really protect consumers are not the kind of fancy existence.
Electrification, mainstream car companies are the core force of technological innovation
In the current domestic market, although the new energy vehicle market is hot, and some new car brands are also "leading" in the marketing of the Internet, compared with mainstream car companies, the technical foundation is actually vain. Taking hybrid power technology as an example, some car companies, in order to quickly enter the new energy vehicle market, have chosen range extension, a hybrid technology with simple technology but early eliminated by the mainstream market, and have achieved certain success in sales in the short term. However, although the range extension technology makes up for some of the shortcomings of the technology itself with the blessing of large-capacity battery packs, in fact, when the vehicle loses power, the energy consumption, noise, and power of the vehicle will become worse, and the energy consumption and user experience are far inferior to other hybrid hybrid technologies.
From user experience to energy consumption and environmental protection considerations, many mainstream car companies have accumulated multiple sets of hybrid technologies to meet the needs of different models. Let's take Honda, for example, that they have developed four sets of hybrid technology. In 1997, the first generation of IMA was launched, which was applied to models such as Honda Insight and CR-Z, and later developed a total of 6 generations. Since then, based on the needs of energy consumption and user experience, three sets of hybrid technologies have been developed for different levels of vehicles, namely i-DCD, i-MMD and SH-AWD, which are suitable for small, mid-size and large vehicles, respectively.
Honda's fourth-generation i-MMD e:PHEV dual-motor two-speed plug-in hybrid system
At present, Guangqi Honda's Haoying, Accord and other PHEV/HEV models are applied to the fourth-generation i-MMD hybrid technology, the working mode of this system is mainly composed of pure electric drive mode, hybrid drive mode and engine drive mode, based on battery power and vehicle load to intelligently switch various driving modes, so that users can get a good electrification experience at the same time, but also to achieve the best energy consumption control, and there is no energy consumption and car comfort caused by power loss.
Even in the field of pure electric vehicles, although Honda and other car companies have put fewer models into the market, the actual technology accumulation is not lagging behind, and it can even be said to be leading. In 1997, Honda launched the first EV PLUS model based on nickel-metal hydride batteries, and has more than 20 years of experience in the field of electric vehicle development. With the enthusiasm of the domestic market for electric vehicle consumption, Guangqi Honda will continue to make efforts in the field of electric vehicles, and plans to launch a second electric vehicle model this year, e:NP2 pole 2, which inherits Guangqi Honda's car manufacturing concept well, and has made great efforts in driving experience and ride comfort. Next, Guangqi Honda will also launch a series of mature, reliable and interesting electrification products to bring consumers a "better driving", "more interesting" and "more stylish" electric life experience.
Guangqi Honda e:NP2 Pole 2 model image
From the perspective of Guangben's electrification layout, compared with the short-sighted behaviors such as blind launch and profit-seeking operation of some new car enterprise projects, Guangqi Honda's planning and development path is actually very clear. Compared with the development of all-in single power architecture, Guangqi Honda pays more attention to sustainable development. The development of electric vehicles is not a sprint, it requires a long-term race, and those who lack strength often want to fight fast. However, Guangqi Honda is more reliable in terms of R&D strength, quality assurance, and long-term after-sales guarantee.
In contrast, some new car brands have been cutting users leeks for a long time, and finally the company has closed down, making users complain. This is all the result of short-sightedness in development and lack of strength. Consumers also need to remain vigilant and guard against this risk.
Technology accumulation takes time, some new brands because of the short time to build a car, at this stage can only use the simplest technical packaging to achieve "far ahead", and as a mainstream car company, Honda, through years of technology precipitation, has accumulated various directions of new energy technology in the field of electrification, but in the volume of the Internet, marketing is too low-key and introverted, by some public opinion, misleading consumers about its technology accumulation of cognition.
In the current social consumption environment, many Internet celebrity consumer electronics, in vain for the reliability and safety of user use, through marketing and other means, occupy a certain position in the sales list in the short term, but because they cannot stand the long-term test of the market, they will soon become a cloud of the past. The car is a product related to the safety of users, and only enterprises that are truly "safe" in terms of products and enterprises can truly gain market recognition and sustainable development. Of course, in the current social consumption environment, mainstream car companies must accelerate their transformation to meet new consumption trends and needs, and on the other hand, they must adhere to the basic bottom line of car manufacturing. Building a car is a long-distance race, but also a new knockout race, and only by persevering to the end is victory.