Inscription: "I'm not a singer, I'm a car seller." ”
This is the joke he made with the auto dealer when they first met last year.
With the korean singer of the year "I Am a Singer", he has the same surname, but he is not so tall and handsome, and he does not have the beautiful voice of the singer.
Simple, humorous, humble and dedicated. He is Zheng Chunyuan, deputy general manager and sales director of Dongfeng Yueda Kia
July 2, on the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai.
Although the epidemic has not yet been completely lifted, Zheng Chunyuan still chose to communicate with reporters face-to-face because of a blockbuster model - ALL NEW K5 Kaiku's technical analysis meeting. Because this model carries the historical responsibility of whether the Kia brand can regain its strength in the Chinese market.
"Although I usually use my Chinese to chat with you, on this very important and formal occasion, I still choose to use my mother tongue, Korean, to answer your questions."
This is the opening statement made by Zheng Chunyuan, deputy general manager and sales director of Dongfeng Yueda Kia, in an interview with Chinese media.
As a veteran autobot, Zheng Chunyuan has the same name as the singer who once became a hit, but he is completely different from the artist, but has the precision and caution of an engineer. Working in China for more than ten years, he is a moderate "WeChat control", often "circled" and "liked", can be described as "China Pass" - daily Chinese dialogue is no problem, and even accurately say "a hundred heard is not as good as a see", "the road knows horsepower" and other common Chinese idioms.
However, in the face of K5 Kaiku, a product of great significance to Dongfeng Yueda Kia, he still chose to use his native language to communicate with the Chinese media, and its purpose was only to accurately express his thoughts. In the interview, Mr. Chung constantly switches between Korean and Chinese, and even occasionally corrects "small mistakes" in the translation behind him.
"K5 Kaiku wants to become a changemaker in the B-class car market," this is Zheng Chunyuan's positioning of the K5 Kaiku heavy model. When he said this, the corners of his mouth rose slightly, calmly and confidently.
Zheng Chunyuan first briefly reviewed the ups and downs of Dongfeng Yueda Kia in the Chinese market for nearly 20 years to the on-site media.
"In 2002, the first product of Dongfeng Yueda Kia (DYK) was a hit, while the second model, Jiahua, and the third model, Yuanjian, were unexpectedly unsold. Fortunately, later, Cerato and Lion Run were warmly welcomed by Chinese consumers. ”
"In 2011, Dongfeng Yueda Kia entered its second peak. At that time, Peter Cyrell led the design of the first generation of K5 models, which surprised the entire automotive market with its sports car-style design and domineering tiger-howling family design language. The next K series K2, K3, K4, KX series KX3, KX5, KX7 have been launched, dongfeng Yueda Kia has run all the way at an astonishing speed, and sales have been red.
In 2016, after Dongfeng Yueda Kia reached the peak of sales with a result of 650,000, it suffered a "waist cut" the following year, and by 2019, it had jumped to the bottom, and only 280,000 vehicles were completed in the whole year.
In the face of past successes and failures, Zheng Chunyuan did not shy away, Mainly due to the large difference between the needs of new products and inherent consumer groups, and the lack of basic ability of dealers to obtain new users, which led to encountering a sudden Waterloo. He summed up the reasons for the defeat in this way.
In 2020, Dongfeng Yueda Kia will usher in a year of major changes, and the biggest changes will begin with B-class cars.
From compact cars to mid-to-high-end cars to the SUV market, the formation of users' cognition and consumption habits requires a certain stage of accumulation.
"Today, our hottest new generation of smart running and new generation of pride running are in the price range of 110,000 to 170,000, and we have accumulated rich market experience in this price range, so we have enough confidence to enter the B-class car market."
From Zheng Chunyuan's confident expression, it can be seen that ALL NEW K5 Kaiku will be the fulcrum of this confidence.
"It's so much like a sports car!" This is the evaluation of K5 Kaiku's appearance by almost all media. Needless to say, the design is one of the important product highlights of ALL NEW K5 Kaiku.
"The all-new K5 Kaiku design, which cannot be imitated by other models, has the favorite design of the young Z generation of customers." Zheng Chunyuan said, "This subversive design approach will once again lead the trend and comprehensively redefine the value standard of the market segment to which it belongs." ”
The design of all NEW K5 Kaiku is based entirely on the third-generation i-GMP platform. Zheng Chunyuan believes that "only with the structural foundation of the platform can we design this car." ”
In order to better reflect the sense of sport, ALL NEW K5 Kaiku not only compresses the distance from the front wheel to the front bumper, but also moves the engine compartment and engine position of the overall engine backwards. The extreme increase in wheelbase and the increase in interior space were also designed on the basis of the i-GMP platform.
The i-GMP platform that Zheng Chunyuan mentioned repeatedly is the ballast stone of hyundai Kia Group. This is the third generation platform of the world's top modular technology, and its core value is to achieve the fusion of ultimate driving and elegant driving.
"Simply put, there are three points: First, the use of more lightweight, high-strength body materials to improve driving performance and safety. Secondly, the down-mounted design, lightweight configuration and load-bearing improvements further enhance the stability and driving pleasure of the vehicle. Third, by optimizing the structure of the platform, the space utilization rate and freedom of use have been comprehensively improved. ”
Zheng Chunyuan told the automotive reporter, "In the future, all new kia products will be tested and produced through the i-GMP platform, and as the most important model, AIl NEW K5 Kaiku has become a pioneer." ”
"Power and fuel saving space is large", Chinese consumers usually summarize their demand for buying a car.
According to the data, Smartstream power system is a new generation of power system of Hyundai Kia Automobile, its world's first fourth-generation CVVD technology, which means "continuous variable valve duration", the technology can reasonably control the valve opening duration according to different driving conditions such as fixed speed and acceleration, and realize the free switching of the three cycles of Otto cycle, Atkinson cycle and Miller cycle, and the effective compression ratio of the cylinder can be freely adjusted between 4:1-10.5:1. Get the effect of a variable compression ratio engine, improve performance, and optimize fuel efficiency. At the same time, exhaust gas emissions are reduced when the catalytic converter is in a cold state.
After repeated experiments, the power performance of the engine equipped with CVVD technology can be improved by more than 4%, the fuel efficiency can be improved by more than 5%, and the exhaust gas emission can be reduced by more than 12%.
"With the support of CVVD technology, ALL NEW K5 Kaiku users can experience excellent power output and enjoy higher fuel economy: the power performance is comprehensively improved, while the fuel consumption of 100 kilometers is as low as 5.6L." Zheng Chunyuan said, "The technology is hailed as 'the biggest technological progress in the engine field in the past 30 years', which is another pioneering move in the history of fuel engines in the past century." ”
The fourth generation of CVVD technology and i-GMP platform are the two core technologies of ALL NEW K5 Kaiku, which jointly build the core competitiveness of this blockbuster car.
"Sales are important, but the quality of sales is even more important!" This awkward and reasonable sentence, Zheng Chunyuan said it with Chinese, but it seemed extremely clear.
According to the data, Dongfeng Yueda Kia sold 22,028 units in June this year, although it only increased by 21% year-on-year, but sales increased by 51% year-on-year.
has undergone a qualitative change in the sales structure, Zheng Chunyuan told reporters, the average selling price of manufacturers' bicycles in June last year was 99,000 yuan, and now the average selling price is more than 120,000; the average price of terminal bicycles in June last year was 85,000 yuan, and now it has reached 110,000. ”
Zheng Chunyuan believes that this gratifying result comes from the core business philosophy of "customer first, dealer second" put forward by Li Feng, general manager of Dongfeng Yueda Kia. That is, how to improve customer satisfaction and how to improve dealer satisfaction as the core goal of the next step, rather than blindly pursuing sales.
"Isn't it also part of raising the brand to let ALL NEW K5 Kaiku run more on the road, let dealers sell more, and let more people see Kia's innovation?" Zheng Chunyuan said, "At present, the dealer level has a leap in morale compared with last year, because the main sales model shows a trend from entry-level to more than 100,000 models, from compact models to mid-to-high-end models." ”
According to the statistics of the first half of this year, the sales of Dongfeng Yueda Kia's more than 100,000-yuan class models accounted for a record high of 76%, of which the new generation of smart running and the new generation of Proud Running two SUV models increased the largest proportion.
"Although like other brands, we also have a relatively large amount of profit promotion behavior for consumers, but the dealer's income has still been greatly improved, achieving a triple win-win situation of corporate brand reputation, dealer business ability and user product revenue."
"China First, Global Presence, Innovation" are the three core brand directions formulated by Hyundai Kia Group for the Chinese market.
"This means that Hyundai-Kia Motors group is putting the Chinese market at the top of its strategy." Zheng Chunyuan told reporters.
Hyundai-Kia Group is changing dramatically at the strategic level.
"After the all NEW K5 Kaiku was listed in South Korea, the first overseas market chose China. At the same time, for the Chinese market, not only adjusted the wheelbase longer, increased the power, but also injected the most cutting-edge technology, the most stringent standards applied here. ”
Prior to this, Hyundai Kia Group's strategy in China was relatively conservative, and when launching new models, it would first be launched outside the Chinese market, and after the new products responded well to the market, they would then put products with better sales in the Chinese market. Even some new cars have been on the market in South Korea for two or three years before they are introduced to the Chinese market. This approach ensures that most of the products imported into the Chinese market are mature products, but it makes it impossible for the best products to enter China at the first time, and the competitiveness in technology, design or configuration is discounted.
Zheng Chunyuan said that after the K5 Kaiku was listed in South Korea, the first overseas market chose China. "Compared with the Korean version, we have also adjusted the wheelbase for the Chinese market, increased the power, and injected the most cutting-edge technology into all the ALL NEW K5 Kaiku."
In addition, Zheng Chunyuan also told reporters, In order to ensure the excellent quality of ALL NEW K5 Kaiku, based on the current situation of the epidemic, Kia's South Korean headquarters sent a special plane last month to send 100 Korean technicians to the factory in Yancheng for quality control. ”
New energy is a market full of opportunities.
Zheng Chunyuan said that in the future, Kia will carry out a strategic transformation to actively develop independent electric models based on the electrification of passive derivative models. Starting next year, new electric models developed and produced on the exclusive E-GMP pure electric platform will be put on the market.
"Our proposed "TECH" strategy will be implemented: T- turbocharging, E- electric vehicles, C - intelligent networking, H - hydrogen energy vehicles. Zheng Chunyuan revealed to reporters, "In the near future, not only will a number of hydrogen energy vehicles be released in the Chinese auto market, but also the flagship model configuration of the intelligent network connection system will be applied to the entire series of models." ”
From technology to products, from channels to brands, the whole is in a state of readiness, only owe ALL NEW K5 Kaiku this east wind!
"The epidemic in China is very well controlled and it is safe here." Zheng Chunyuan chatted with the auto reporter about home.
Because of the epidemic, Dongfeng Yueda Kia Korean executives and ordinary employees, including Zheng Chunyuan, have not returned to China for a long time, even if the company has a high temperature holiday, they cannot return.
"When you return home, you are quarantined for 14 days, compared to 7 days of vacation."
Zheng Chunyuan shrugged his shoulders, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly again.