Such a sharp positioning seems to give Ford China a shot in the arm, which won a lot of applause from the media. It seems that the sharp world can be used as a lifeline for Ford China, sweeping away the decline in recent years.
However, the current situation may not be so optimistic, and low prices are just to quench your thirst.
Sharp should sell well, with an average of 5,000 vehicles per month, but it will definitely not be an explosion.
The harm and influence of low-price strategy on Ford brand is long-term. In the future, Ford will completely become a second-tier brand in China market, and can no longer be compared with Volkswagen, Toyota and Honda.
But this is the best thing that Chen Anning (President and CEO of Ford China) and Song Yang (President of Changan Ford National Sales and Service Organization) can do.
After all, no matter how clever a woman is, she will never cook without rice. For Ford China at present, surviving is the most important thing.
No matter how good the product is, Yan value will always have a veto power.
Sharp world is actually a new generation of European calf, which is the replacement model of the current calf. Now it is equivalent to the sales of two generations of models under the same roof. Of course, this is not unusual. Many joint ventures are doing this.
However, it also reflects that Ford really has nothing to buy a new car.
Now Ford suffers from insufficient domestic sales of new models. Ford North America, in particular, will spend a lot of money on the "four modernizations" technology of driverless cars, and at the same time, it must set aside enough funds to ensure a good financial report and maintain the stock price. Therefore, apart from layoffs, only the R&D investment of traditional models has been squeezed, which makes it difficult for Ford to keep up with the global supply of new models in China market.
The new and old generations of calves are sold under the same roof, which is the best choice to maintain sales.
From the perspective of product strength, although Sharp has only three configuration versions, it is very balanced and has no obvious shortcomings. The power combination of 2.0T+8AT has certain advantages in competing models, and Ford's advantage in handling is still there.
There are also many forward-looking configurations such as SYNC+ Zhixing infotainment system+car networking system and driver assistance system developed locally, bang &; Olufson brand audio is a highlight, and there are few configurations at the same level.
However, the biggest problem of Sharp International is that there is no bright spot in the design, and the golden mean design language is in the same strain as New Focus. Although the domestic version has done some "micro-shaping", it can't change the overall image. It is difficult for St. Regis to compete with popular Japanese brands and win the favor of young consumers.
In the current domestic auto market, Yan value can be "rejected by one vote".
Therefore, even if Sharp enters the market at a low price, there is no face value to prevent Sharp from becoming a roadblock for explosions.
Sharp is just an SUV based on a compact platform, which is not comparable to mainstream medium-sized SUVs such as Angkor and Tiguan L in terms of vehicle size and interior space. Ford wants to use this model to hit the medium-sized SUV market, and it will inevitably be crushed by competitors. Sharp face, it must be Honda CR-V/ Hao Ying, Toyota RAV4/ Willanda, Volkswagen Ge Tan/Tuyue.
Sharp gave up the 1.5T version, and the whole system comes standard with 2.0T and four-wheel drive system, so as to widen the distance with the Maverick and focus on the market space between the Maverick and Sharp. After that, Mavericks will definitely sink their products, drastically cut prices and focus on the entry-level compact SUV market.
However, the price reduction of Mavericks will inevitably face competition from China brand SUVs. This damage to the Ford brand is irreversible.
Ford's loss in China originated from New Focus.
The new generation of Fox, which was listed before, has weak product strength. From the brand-new C2 platform to the co-pilot 360 driver assistance system and the latest SYNC? The 3-car networking system makes the new Focus products run well.
But the three-cylinder engine and conservative design ruined everything.
Ford has a very famous global strategy: "OneFord" is a Ford, which means that the global product planning, research and development, production and sales are all managed in a unified way.
During the financial crisis in 2008, Ford under the "One Ford" strategy cut down many unprofitable brands and product lines in time, which helped Ford avoid the bankruptcy crisis. However, GM, whose brand line and product line are more complicated, failed to survive the crisis and finally had to go bankrupt.
However, "One Ford" also limits Ford's global R&D advantage, resulting in the lack of local R&D capability in Ford China. After the strategy of "15 15", Ford no longer has enough brand-new models to continuously supply China, resulting in the failure of new cars in the past three years.
There is nothing wrong with "One Ford", but the China market is an exception.
In fact, Ford's global platforms and powertrains are still competitive in the current market. If Ford has the development ability like SAIC Volkswagen in China and relies on a mature vehicle platform to make products that can meet the needs of domestic consumers like LaVida, it will not fall below Changan Ford's monthly sales of 20,000 vehicles. However, the construction of localization development ability needs continuous investment and accumulation, which is by no means a one-off event.
In fact, Ford has had successful cases before, but more are extremely painful lessons.
In the development of Sharp, Ford China insisted on the uncompromising third row space, which made Sharp the only medium-sized and large-scale joint venture SUV in the market at that time, and contributed huge profits to Ford China for a long time.
However, on New Focus, Ford ignored domestic consumers' rejection of the three-cylinder engine, insisted on the strategy of all three cylinders, and rejected Ford China's suggestion of keeping four cylinders. In the end, the brand-new Fox was widely criticized as a pain point, which made Ford and GM, two American brothers, turn him into my brother.
As for the brand-new Fox design, Ford Global Design Team did not take into account the young styling style blown by China, and once again rejected Ford China's younger proposal, taking the design concept of the public as a reference, and completely embarked on the road of no return.
Of course, Ford's global design director at that time had already left.
Now, Ford, like GM, Volkswagen and Toyota, lists the China market separately and reports it directly to the highest level in the world. However, giving the China market greater decision-making power and paying more attention to the investment in the China market is by no means as simple as singling out the China market and adjusting the organizational structure.
Future Ford China's offensive and defensive ways
For Ford China, at present, it can only stay in the slogan stage if it wants to raise the sales volume to 654.38+0 million again. At present, it is very difficult for the domestic automobile market to change from incremental market to stock market. Compared with Volkswagen and Toyota, Ford has a big gap in brand strength, product strength and overall system capability.
In the future, Ford China will take an offensive in the field of commercial vehicles and performance vehicles; In the field of passenger cars, we should take defense as the attack and practice our internal strength hard.
The so-called attack means increasing investment and making positive progress. Referring to the technical cooperation agreement signed between Ford and Volkswagen, we can find that Ford's Transit series commercial vehicles and F series pickup trucks are still very popular in technology, but Ford has not introduced the latest Transit models to the China market. And like Mustang coupe, there are hard-core SUVs to be listed in the future? Bronco is very distinctive and is a rare personalized product in the market.
However, although these products are difficult to become the mainstream in the current domestic automobile market, their high profits and the supporting role of brand power can also make Ford live a more comfortable life in the current competitive domestic market.
The so-called defensive nature means the need to at least maintain the current market share and situation. In the field of passenger cars, Ford China needs to respond faster. Get the attention of the media and consumers through faster product iteration speed and new product launch speed. Relying on the global technology center to supply new models will continue to face the situation that new cars are out of gear.
In fact, Ford's vehicle platform is very mature and its technology is relatively advanced. Using these platforms, it is not too difficult to develop some models that meet the market demand in China.
According to reliable sources, Ford China is about to set up a design center in Shanghai, which is a good thing.
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This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.