When the times abandon you, you won't even say goodbye, and if you want to survive in today's domestic auto market, hard work alone is far from enough.
Mustang brand was born in the early 60s of the last century, has a very long history, and took the lead in opening the Pony Car this very unique market segment, over the years has been a good inheritance of the family brand characteristics, in the United States local sports car industry status is almost unshakable, is such a brand, but in the new energy rapid transformation of the domestic automobile market, eat closed.
Recently the 2024 Ford Electric Horse was launched, with its 2398-35.980,000 yuan **, compared with the old model, the official drop of 1010,000 yuan, at the same time, it has been upgraded in terms of configuration, battery life and power, and a new lithium iron phosphate battery version has been added to find ways to save costs and improve product strength.
But in our opinion, this time is likely to be the last facelift of the electric horse in China. Because it is foreseeable that foreign brands, including Tesla, will have more difficulty surviving in the domestic auto market next year, and the survival space left for Ford Electric Horse will become smaller and smaller.
The revolution and labor pains of electric horses
In the past decade or so, the global automotive market has been accelerating its electrification transformation, and brands are undergoing profound changes, and Ford is no exception. Ford's progress in electrification was not slow at first, at least much faster than most Japanese brands, and it was a good choice to choose the Mustang brand as a starting point.
In the initial stage, the Ford Mustang Mach-E was the pillar of the Ford brand's sales in the North American market, and even stole a large number of Tesla users at that time, but when it came to our domestic car market, it was struggling. The reason for this can actually be summed up in four words: "not adapting to the soil and water".
As the proud work of Ford's electrification transformation, the Ford Mustang Mach-E released in 2019 was pinned on high hopes at the beginning, but due to the impact of the epidemic and its own factors, it was not officially introduced in China until 2021.
After Ford Electric Mach Technology Co., Ltd. obtained the right to operate, it officially changed its name to Ford Electric Horse, which initially used independent channels for sales, which is the same direct sales model as most of the new car-making forces, but the service level is far from the level of direct stores, and at the same time, the number of directly operated stores in the country is less than 50, which is far from most of the new car-making brands, and the final result is that the sales are very bleak.
In order to improve sales performance, Ford Electric Horse has been slashing prices since the end of 2022, but even so, sales in the domestic auto market are still very bleak, and only a few thousand units have been sold since entering the domestic auto market in 2021, which is not even as good as the sales results of many new car-making forces in a week.
In August this year, Changan Ford officially accepted the Ford electric horse business, which officially joined the sales system of Changan Ford, which also means the official end of the Ford electric horse direct sales model, coupled with 2 recalls, the brand image that it has been used to tell stories is also greatly reduced, and the news of upgrading the 8155 chip also lacks a sense of presence this year.
In fact, Changan Ford's life in the domestic auto market is actually not easy, from 2019 to the present, the share of American cars in the Chinese auto market has been hovering around 10%, and has been in a state of year-on-year decline. In addition, Changan Ford's sales system and its own operating capabilities should also be marked with a big question mark.
There is also a more serious problem, when most of the new car-making forces are playing intelligent, playing refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas, the publicity focus of Ford Electric Horse is still promoting sportiness and track genes, constantly telling the story of fuel vehicles, and the energy supplement system has not kept up with the pace of other brands.
In addition, due to the lack of new products and no decent iterative upgrades in the past two years, the performance of Ford Electric Horse in the global market is also very dismal, and at the same time, Changan's independent new energy business is in a critical period of growth, so the inclusion of Changan Ford's sales system cannot fundamentally solve these problems.
You can only live without China
In the past two years, many joint venture brands have left the domestic auto market one after another, so as to get rid of the long-term loss situation. From 2018 to 2023, a number of joint venture car companies and brands have withdrawn from the Chinese market, and brands that have accumulated a certain degree of popularity, such as Changan Suzuki, GAC FCA's Fiat, Dongfeng Renault and GAC Mitsubishi, have not been spared.
The main reason is that in the era of new energy electrification, the rise of independent brands is rapid, and the transformation of new energy electrification and intelligence is also advancing rapidly.
Especially for second-tier joint venture brands such as Ford Electric Horse, the competition in the domestic auto market next year will become more difficult, and after being swept up, there is actually no way back, including Ford itself, most of its business in China has actually fallen into a very embarrassing situation. In particular, a niche product series such as Mustang has limited recognition that is visible to the naked eye.
In fact, for Ford Electric Horse, it is definitely a good choice to leave the domestic automobile market quickly. First of all, in terms of product power, it can no longer be compared with competing products, and at the same time, friend brands often have several new cars a year and countless OTA upgrades, which also makes their overall product competitiveness lower and lower.
The most important thing is that the current Ford electric horse has not even been able to touch the threshold of the new domestic mainstream car-making forces, and Changan Ford currently does not have the ability to create a joint venture brand new energy model explosion, after all, not all brands have the brand halo like Tesla, and even if it is as strong as Tesla, there is no good way to face the current situation.
Write at the end:
When the initial Ford electric horse entered the country, I was actually the first batch of people invited to test drive, at that time I was very impressed by this car, combined with the market environment at the time and its, I was also very looking forward to its market performance, but I was helpless, the development of domestic new energy vehicles was far faster than imagined, and the electric horse at this time was no competitiveness at all.
There are actually many reasons for the failure of Ford electric horse, such as the introduction of slightly late, insufficient product force, too narrow sales channels, etc., now the domestic automobile market can no longer be like the era of fuel vehicles "lie to win", want to obtain market recognition in addition to giving enough sincerity, but also to come up with excellent product strength and matching service system, these two aspects are also what Ford electric horse lacks.
At present, there are two ways out in front of Ford Electric Horse, one is to use the power of Changan Automobile to reform and upgrade the product and service system, but it depends on whether Changan Automobile is willing. The second way is to quickly get out of the domestic car market and come back when everyone is almost rolled, just like the Hyundai Kia next door. One person cheers for the graduate school entrance examination