With the continuous progress of the three-electric technology and the continuous expansion of the market scale, new energy vehicles are expected to occupy a larger share of the automobile market in the future.
In this context, almost everyone's focus is carried by public opinion, falling on the subdivision of car prices of more than 200,000. Even, many people will feel that today's Chinese auto market has become an emerging market that continues to develop on the back of high-premium products.
But the real situation is that, judging from the data, compared with the high-priced new energy vehicles that are loud outside, the entry-level products that focus on being close to the people and practicality still occupy the largest share of the market.
This means that, unlike those new car companies that are always thinking of holding high and yearning for the capital market, for most OEMs who are well aware of the background of the Chinese market, it is far more reliable to launch new cars that can target the majority of Chinese consumers in a timely manner than to paint a big pie for users and provide some high-priced products that cannot withstand scrutiny.
As early as during the Beijing Auto Show, Kia Motors brought the all-new SUV Sonet to China. Don't look at this small SUV with a price of only more than 80,000 yuan, there is no futuristic story to set off, and there is no brilliant black technology to reflect the so-called "inductance", from the user's point of view, such a cheap and high-quality joint venture SUV is very close to the end consumer.
To brand, Kia comes from the world's top three auto groups - South Korea's Hyundai-Kia Motors Group; Talking about the price, superimposed with a 7,000 yuan car trade-in subsidy, the limited-time smart selection of rights and interests of only 81,900 yuan Sonai is almost lower than similar competitors on the market; In terms of appearance, the sonai that adopts Kia's new design concept of "Bold & Wild" is not fashionable; Digital configuration, L2 intelligent driving assistance system, Baidu intelligent interconnection system 3.0 and other places that young people care about nowadays are readily available......
How long has it been since there has been such a sincere joint venture SUV in the Chinese market?
Kia's move this time, regardless of whether it was a choice made because of the impact of industry transformation, at least in the face of the majority of Chinese consumers, Kia's rational judgment of the market is still worthy of our affirmation.
Sonay, we must lower the threshold of intelligence
What kind of new car does China's auto market need? In many cases, the answer you can give is nothing more than a variety of new-era electric vehicles with their own traffic topics. Especially after Huawei, Xiaomi and other technology companies have left to build cars, such a situation is even more common.
At this time, Kia brought an SUV for only more than 80,000 yuan to Chinese consumers, why is it?
Actually, the reason is very simple. As we mentioned earlier, most Chinese car consumers still need a car that can live at home, rather than a high-priced Internet celebrity car.
To put it bluntly, the biggest purpose of many people buying a car is to solve the travel problem with low cost. If you can, it is undoubtedly more cost-effective and attractive to have some popular intelligent configurations without increasing the cost.
Based on this concept, Sonay, as a global car and adopting Kia's latest design techniques and R&D ideas, has already surpassed consumers' expectations for SUVs in this class at a glance. When it comes to the upgrade of intelligent equipment and the improvement of the car experience, it is completely a plus.
Indeed, since major car companies began to instill "intelligence" in consumers is the trend and future of automobile development, most consumers regard this condition as an inevitable choice when buying a car. But there is one thing that we need to see, but any new car can have a good intelligent configuration, especially high-end driving assistance systems, all of them will cost nearly 150,000 yuan, or even higher.
"How can intelligence be more accessible to the people", how many brands have thought about this question? Until now, I haven't seen too much.
The entire price range of Kia Sonai is 8~100,000 yuan, but it is directly equipped with L2 intelligent driving assistance system, which is visible to the naked eye to cover the higher consumer demand at the lowest cost.
Not only that, within the scope of functional realization, Sonay's system covers a richer range of intelligent driving assistance configurations, which can cope with a variety of road conditions including urban roads, elevated, high-speed, and rural roads.
Forward Collision Avoidance Assist (FCA), Forward Collision Warning (FCW), Lane Avoidance Departure Assist (LKA), Lane Keeping Assist (LFA), Vehicle Departure Warning (LDW), Intelligent Speed Limit Assist (ISLA), Driver Attention Warning (DAW), High Beam Assist (HBA) and other intelligent driving configurations that you can expect or unexpected can almost cover the emergencies we will encounter in daily travel.
The complexity of China's urban roads and the diversity of road conditions are always tangible for anyone who has ever driven a car. Then, Kia Sonai, which is only 100,000 on the road, can avoid road risks with intelligent equipment, which is undoubtedly very pleasant.
Of course, if you think that the intelligent experience provided by Sonai to consumers is only limited to the driving level, it is also one-sided. Kia's new car built with global resources will be full of sincerity in the right place no matter what.
No matter what the price is, the younger generation in China will always consider the in-vehicle system of a car, so Kia simply gave Kia Connect & Baidu Intelligent Interconnection System 3.0 to Sonai.
Specifically, if you don't want to use a physical key, you want to use your phone to unlock the car, or remotely control and view the information in the car, Kia Connect can do it.
I hate that the payment service is too cumbersome when parking, mind others to check the car machine information when using their own car, or dislike the built-in navigation always BUG, Baidu Intelligent Interconnection System 3.0 new or optimized ETCS parking lot automatic payment service, valet mode and new Baidu map, can also directly give us the most convenient and comfortable use state.
At this point, no matter how we look at the current situation of joint venture brands in the Chinese market, when dealing with Chinese consumers, a global car company like Kia still follows a consistent development logic - one day in China, it will show full sincerity to respond to all changes in demand in the market. And Sonai exemplifies this very well.
To implement equal rights in science and technology, Kia is the best to do
In fact, since the development focus of China's auto market has slowly shifted from the traditional market segment to all kinds of electric vehicles, for a long time in the past, car companies have chosen to slowly fade out of the market of some entry-level fuel vehicles. The small SUV market has undergone several changes and has also fallen into a shortage of new products.
The launch of Kia Sonai does not seem to be in line with this trend, but in terms of the current market situation, not to mention how large the mass base of products at this price is, for the topic of "how to redefine the new standard of 80,000-level SUV intelligence", if Kia can calm down and give a new blueprint with reference value, how to look at it is what Chinese consumers need.
A new car with a good intelligent experience has always had a good R&D cost. Kia, of course, knows it too. However, as the transition to electrification intensifies, a large number of new cars are moving further and further down the road to detachment from the masses. Many new technologies that seem to meet consumer needs are more like answers given to users to create needs first and then solve needs.
At this time, as a global car company, in addition to keeping up with the pace of development of the times, Kia should rely on its own global resources to implement equal rights in science and technology, and give more car users a truly intelligent experience close to daily use.
For vehicle intelligence, there have been several misunderstandings in everyone's cognition.
For example, only high-level intelligent driving at L3 level and above can be regarded as a part of the intelligent improvement; Only the intelligent equipment equipped with high-priced cars is what consumers need; Only related products produced by Chinese brands or technology companies are worthy of the title of "advanced intelligent driving......
Statements such as "one price is worth what you get" and "autonomous driving is the future" are certainly true. Compared with the continuous improvement and upgrading of the L2 driving assistance system, the development of higher-level intelligent driving also has a certain significance for the development of the industry.
But in fact, to evaluate whether a car's intelligent experience is excellent, to a large extent, lies in two words, that is, "easy to use".
In China's auto market, there are indeed many geeks, and even more, they yearn for cars to become their right-hand men like living beings. I hope that it is so good, then back to reality, I believe that more consumers will need products like Kia Sonai that can combine intelligent equipment and daily use scenarios to complement each other.
The lack of an improved L2 intelligent assistance system similar to the Kia Sonay in its class, coupled with the ability to deeply customize the interaction system with Chinese technology companies to suit consumers, is telling.
For example, some time ago, there was a lot of noise about AEB active brake control. In this regard, Sonay can recognize vehicles, pedestrians and two-wheeled vehicles at the same time, and realize active braking at a speed of 5-60km/h, especially at a minimum speed of 5km/h.
For another example, in the 80,000 yuan SUV camp, compared with the single-tone voice recognition that most models in the same class are equipped with, Sonay is equipped with a dual-tone voice recognition function that is rare in the same level, and the co-pilot can also control the intelligent car machine system by voice. The operation that greatly enhances the sense of experience is completely beyond consumers' expectations for the intelligent operation of this segmented model.
In short, Kia Sony, which adheres to Kia's new design concept of "Bold & Wild" and is equipped with a classic power combination of 1.5L Smartstream engine + IVT gearbox, has clearly given a self-standard of "smarter, better looking, and better driving" under this operation, not only out of response to the increasingly demanding consumer needs of Chinese users. From Sonet, we can see that as a veteran car company rooted in China for more than 20 years, Kia's sincerity to Chinese consumers has never weakened.