American dilemma, Ford to the left, GM to the right

In North America, Ford and GM fell in love with each other for more than a hundred years.In China, they are now facing the same predicament.

According to statistics from the China Automobile Association, the market share of American brands in 2021 will be 10.2%, rising for two consecutive years, but in fact this is entirely due to the rise of Tesla.

As the two major facades of traditional American brands, Ford and GM's sales in China last year decreased by about 645,000 vehicles and 1.14 million vehicles respectively compared with the peak period. Changan Ford and SAIC-GM Buick, which are responsible for sales, fell by about 68% respectively. % and 33%, the market share has shrunk significantly.

Although they have not been reduced to being one of the mainstream choices in the market like Guangfik, how should they stabilize the existing market and regain lost ground as soon as possible?

Recover the fuel vehicle market first

Including the Lincoln brand, Ford China has mainly launched 4 models in the past six months.

The latest one is the new Focus released on June 6. As a mid-term facelift model, there are two main changes: First, the new exterior design is dominated by the Ford China Design Center; second, the entire series is equipped with a 1.5T four-cylinder engine, replacing the previous three-cylinder engine.

It can be felt from these two changes that Ford hopes that this classic model, which has gained 2.7 million users in China, can continue to exert its residual heat and even reverse its sales.

Looking further ahead, the new-generation Mondeo was officially launched on April 13.Since its North American counterpart, the Fusion, and its European counterpart, the Mondeo, have been discontinued, this car is also entirely dominated by the Chinese design team.

The bigger point is that the entry price of the new-generation Mondeo is only 159,800 yuan, a drop of 33,000 yuan compared to the previous generation.In the mainstream joint venture B-segment car market, this price is 10,000 yuan lower than that of the Accord, and 20,000 yuan lower than that of the Teana and Camry.

It can be seen that Changan Ford has invested a lot of money in order to save this market segment.

Ford FNV intelligent interconnected whole network architecture, the whole vehicle OTA capability, 1.1-meter ultra-wide high-definition large screen, BlueCruise active driving assistance function, rich configuration and lower price, make the new generation of Mondeo in the market at the very beginning. Received good feedback.

According to official data, as of May 30, the car has received a total of 10,246 orders.

Some people believe that the reason for the pragmatic pricing of the new generation of Mondeo is largely due to the experience of another strategic model EVOS.

EVOS was launched in November last year and is the first strategic model of the "Ford China 2.0" plan.The car has been on the market for more than half a year, and monthly sales have failed to meet Ford's expectations.

The Lincoln Z, a new mid-size car launched by the Lincoln brand at the Guangzhou Auto Show last year, is also an exclusive model built by the Ford China Design Center. It was officially launched in March this year and performed quite well.

These four models have two things in common: First, the designs are all from the Chinese team, and second, they are all fuel vehicles.

The first point proves that Ford China is really working hard, hoping to reverse the current unfavorable market situation through more localized products.

From the second point of view, it seems that Ford intends to recover the fuel vehicle market first, so thereis little action innew energy for the time being.

Currently, Ford has only two electric vehicles in China, the Territory EV and the Mustang Mach-E.As an "oil-to-electricity" model, the former has a very low sense of presence, and the monthly sales volume is less than 100 units.Although the latter was dubbed the Mustang, the delivery performance was also mediocre, perhaps due to itslimitedproduction capacity .

But in any case, Ford's layout in the new energy market is indeed not fast.

The Mustang Mach-E was born on the GE1 platform, the full name of which is "Global Electrified 1 platform".This platform is not a newly developed pure electric vehicle platform, but a transformation based on the Ford C2 platform.

In May 2021, foreign media reported that Ford was developing two dedicated new electric vehicle platforms, one for full-size SUVs and pickups, and the other for small SUVs and crossovers.

But so far, no more news about the new platform has flowed out, and it is unknown when it will land.

Ford announced an electrificationstrategy in March this year. They plan to launch seven pure electric vehicles in 2024, including three passenger cars and four commercial vehicles, but this strategy is only for the European market.In the U.S., Ford's electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning, shines, with orders skyrocketing.

Previously, Ford China had stated that it would electrify all in.But at present, the follow-up of follow-up products is not very fast, or there may be epidemic reasons.

According to data from the China Automobile Association, my country's passenger vehicle market will achieve a year-on-year growth of 6.5% in 2021, of which new energy vehicles will increase by 167.5%, while traditional fuel vehicles will drop by 5.6%.From January to April this year, while the new energy vehicle market increased by 114.1% year-on-year, the traditional fuel vehicle market experienced a sharp decline of 17.6%.

For Ford China, if it wants to regain lost ground, it may not be possible to rely on fuel vehicles alone. The pace of the new energy market must be accelerated, and this matter cannot be promoted by Ford China alone.

How determined is the general transformation?

Bai Yansong once said that when people reach middle age, it is easy to go down if they don't go up, so they must have the mentality of starting again.

Perhaps this is a true portrayal of the current GM in the transformation process.

From the global strategic contraction of the strong man breaking his wrist to the landing of the Ultium electric vehicle platform, GM has been showing the determination to transform to the outside world, both globally and in China.

On June 6, Cadillac's mid-to-large pure electric SUV LYRIQ opened its doors.According to the plan, the car will be delivered in late September.

From the hardware point of view, the car is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip, 33.8-inch ring screen 9K super retina screen, a new generation of Super Cruise super assisted driving system, and a battery management system that can realize wireless connection.

It can be said that GM has put the latest intelligent and networking technologies on this car.

That's not surprising, after all, Cadillac was at the vanguard of GM's transformation.At the same time, Ruige is also the first model of Ultium's electric vehicle platform in China, and its importance is self-evident.For nearly half a year, SAIC-GM has also been revolving around this car.

Surprisingly, Buick.

On June 1, SAIC-GM Buick and North America simultaneously released a new brand identity and a future-oriented development plan.From 2022 to 2025, Buick will launch 12 new models in China, including 5 new-generation electric vehicles, targeting mainstream new energy markets such as MPVs, SUVs and sedans.

According to the official introduction, there will be two new electric vehicles to meet with consumers this year.One of them, which was unveiled on June 1, is the Electra-X pure electric concept SUV.

As the first Buick model born on the Ultium electric vehicle platform, Electra-X adopts the new pure design concept of PURE Design.GM China insiders say that its exterior design is very close to a production car.

More importantly, the new generation of VCS intelligent cockpit system used in the car is also equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip and equipped with EYEMAX 30-inch integrated curved 6K screen, and even the new generation of Super Cruise super assisted driving system has also been "decentralized". "To this car.

That is to say, GM can't wait to give Buick all the configurations that only Cadillac was eligible to enjoy before.

It can be seen from this move that Cadillac is indeed the vanguard of GM's transformation, but Buick is the key to the transformation.

Why?Because China is the world's largest new energy market, and the sales ratio of Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac in the Chinese market is about 60:20:20.At the same time, Buick's sales in China are five times that of its sales in the United States.

In addition, SAIC-GM can get full support from GM headquarters in the process of transformation.

According to foreign media reports, Buick plans to stop selling traditional fuel vehicles in North America by 2030, and Cadillac will go fully electrified in roughly the same time period.

But everything has pros and cons, and there are some hidden problems behind GM's determination to transform.

On the one hand, GM has given Electra-X the most cutting-edge technology and configuration. Will the price of its products be higher than consumers' perception of Buick's brand value, which will lead to applause and disappointment.

At the same time, how can Buick and Cadillac's products widen the gap when the technology has the same root and the same source?Want more high-end, how much room does Buick have?

On the other hand, Buick still has an annual sales capacity of about 800,000 vehicles in the domestic fuel vehicle market.So in the case of the continuous decline of the fuel vehicle market, should it continue to increase or gradually shrink?

Judging from the latest planning, Buick will launch 7 new fuel vehicles in the next three years, and it seems that it does not want to give up the fuel vehicle market too soon.

However, since 2019, several new models launched by Buick, whether it is Encore GX, Envision S, Envision PLUS, or Envision flag, have received very general market feedback, and the best monthly average sales are only About 2000 vehicles, it can be said that they did not meet expectations

At present, the main sales force of Buick are still the three models of Angkor GL8· and Regal. The market performance of Yinglang, which is contracted by the three-cylinder mechanism, is not as good as it used to be.Chevrolet, a brother brand, has the same situation, and even faces greater market pressure.

So, how much leverage does GM China have in the fuel vehicle market?

On the other hand, once Electra-X cannot be recognized by the market like the previous MicroBlue series, can GM’s transformation be so determined?

Write at the end:

If a traditional enterprise wants to successfully transform, it must first give up its obsession with the stock market.Transformation is essentially a process of redistribution of interests.

The transformation of fuel vehicles to electrification is by no means an overnight thing. The most difficult thing for traditional car companies is how to gradually phase out fuel vehicles when electric vehicles have not yet succeeded.

Both Ford and GM are currently in a dilemma, and going left or right comes with huge risks.