■China Automotive News reporter Zhao Jianguo, China Energy News (2024-05-06 Edition 04)
"Traditional car companies are good at mechanical quality and vehicle safety, and new power car companies bring intelligent experience and insight into customer experience, which complement each other, cooperate and integrate to form new cars in order to adapt to the new era." At the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, Yang Dayong, Chairman and President of Changan Ford New Energy Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., expressed his views in a high-end interview with China Automotive News on "Walking to the New and Climbing Upwards - Talking about the New Trend of the Industry and Seeking New Paths for Innovation".
■ "We brought a few 'horses'"
"At the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, Ford will bring together the Changan Ford New Energy, Ford Zongheng and Mustang brands in one booth to jointly showcase the overall image of the Ford brand to Chinese consumers." Yang Dayong said that during the period, there will be a series of product releases, especially several "horses", including Ford Fierce Horse, Mustang and Electric Horse, to interpret the theme of the Beijing Auto Show.
He said that Changan Ford New Energy attaches great importance to this auto show, bringing the leading products Explorer, Edge L and Mondeo, these three products are familiar to Chinese consumers and particularly like the three products, especially the Explorer series, this time there are not only Ford Explorer, but also the Red Gold Edition and the Kunlun Peak Edition. The Edge L and Mondeo are high-horsepower E hybrids, which cater to the current trend of energy saving and new energy through hybridization, and meet the needs of consumers, and the lineup can be called luxurious.
For the characteristics and differences of Ford Explorer, Ford Explorer Red Gold Edition, and Ford Explorer Kunlun Peak Edition, Yang Dayong introduced that the Explorer is a very classic model, which is the sixth generation, which lasted 34 years and sold nearly 10 million units worldwide, which is a best-selling classic model. Among them, the biggest difference between the red gold version and the Ford Explorer is the addition of luxury configurations, such as the whole car seat fabric from the original leather fabric to full-grain semi-aniline leather, the fabric is often equipped with million-level luxury cars, its breathability, comfort, touch, environmental protection are very good, which makes the vehicle luxury sense further improved. In addition, the design of some interiors has also added a sense of luxury, which can be called more luxurious on top of the hardcore, which is the characteristic of the red gold version. The Explorer Kunlun Peak Edition is based on the Ford Explorer to increase off-road performance, including all-terrain tires, the ability to get out of trouble is very strong, and also adds a fully mechanical Torsen differential lock to the power system to ensure that it can quickly get out of trouble in any scene and road conditions, enhancing off-road performance.
■ "Fuel vehicles are also competitive"
Nowadays, fuel vehicles still occupy the majority share in the automobile market, and how to improve the competitiveness of fuel vehicles has attracted the attention of the industry.
"Under the general trend of new energy vehicle development, fuel vehicles have at least two advantages." Yang Dayong believes that on the one hand, it is differentiated positioning. Due to their battery performance, the application scenarios of electric vehicles are still limited, and they are more suitable as a means of transportation in the city. If you run long distances, or even want to go over mountains and mountains to experience different scenery, you will find that the application scenarios of electric vehicles are limited, so fuel vehicles can often play a role in places that electric vehicles cannot reach. Therefore, Ford not only has the explorer Kunlun pinnacle version, but also the Mustang and Lie Horse models, and Ford has found a differentiated and unique positioning of fuel vehicles in the current environment by using "wild" to fight against "volume". Ford's choice may be the direction of many fuel car companies, taking a differentiated path in layout, which is more suitable for the performance scenario of fuel vehicles. On the other hand, although the future development of new energy vehicles is the general trend, but new energy is subject to the constraints of the charging environment and conditions, in some cases some consumers are not convenient to install charging piles, may be more resistant to charging, so for traditional car companies, it has found this scene, the power system of traditional fuel vehicles and the battery system of new energy combined, made into a hybrid form, such as the recently launched Changan Ford new energy Edge L and Mondeo high-horsepower E hybrid, is a typical representative, Among them, the application of power split hybrid technology, combined with Ford's relatively advantageous high-horsepower engine, not only reflects the power, but also saves fuel consumption. In the latest test of the Mondeo, this medium and large sedan with a length of nearly 5 meters has a fuel consumption of only 3.81 liters per 100 kilometers with the blessing of the high-horsepower E hybrid, and the fuel consumption level and the converted cost level are comparable to those of new energy. Therefore, targeting those customer groups that are inconvenient to charge, providing car use scenarios that do not need to be charged, and reducing user anxiety, hybrid is also a direction for fuel vehicle companies to strive for in the future. Yang Dayong said that the above two routes are the goal of struggle.
■ How to look at "fancy involution"
At present, the competition in the automotive industry has seen a "fancy involution". How to look at "volumes" is a real topic.
"In fact, the 'volume' of the current market, I think it is everyone who strives for their future selves and fights for a place." Yang Dayong said that the annual sales of passenger cars in China are about more than 20 million, but how many car brands are there in China? More than 200. This is far more than the average number of car brands in developed countries. Faced with a market of more than 20 million vehicles, how many brands are suitable to survive? We think it's only about 20, so it's nearly 90% more now, and it may face huge challenges in the next 3-5 years. Therefore, it may be difficult to stop the "volume" in the short term until the market seeks a new balance.
In this "volume" situation, how should you deal with it as an OEM? Yang Dayong said that if enterprises cannot reasonably respond to the "volume" of the market, it will be a disaster for enterprises, because they have to sacrifice profits and R&D resources to deal with market competition, and enterprise innovation will be weak. If there is no innovation and we have to deal with the "volume", we can only reduce the price, and the price reduction will reduce the configuration, which will affect the performance and form a vicious circle, so Changan Ford New Energy will not go to the "volume". So far, Changan Ford New Energy has not followed the rhythm of the market "volume" on a large scale, but has reasonably matched products with customer needs, such as launching the Kunlun Peak Edition of the Explorer, binding the car scene with customers, so that the Explorer model can break away from the Red Ocean market and create a new blue ocean. In this way, the healthy "volume" can the enterprise develop healthily.
Yang Dayong said: "Traditional car companies and new energy car companies should complement each other, learn from each other, cooperate and integrate, and combine their own advantages with each other's advantages. Ultimately meet the needs of your customers, rather than treating each other as rivals. ”
China Energy News Tel: 010-65369450, E-mail: [email protected], Address: People's Daily, No. 2, Jintai West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing
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