Today, I saw Jin Canrong talk about his views on the global situation in 2024, and the core point is that the left-right confrontation in many countries in the world will become more serious this year, resulting in more and more confrontation in the world, and the estrangement will become deeper and deeper.
His judgment has actually happened in many areas, and it is quite intense.
For example, one of the hottest topics discussed on the Internet recently is that our negative population growth has further intensified last year.
The experts are all kinds of tricks, all kinds of strange opinions, anyway, they just let young people hurry up. And ordinary netizens are all in the mood of watching the excitement and not thinking it is a big deal - I just need to be happy, no matter how big the flood will be in the future.
Too often, the divide is widened by people deliberately backsliding. Once people encounter something unpleasant or bad, they tend to go to extremes, and even make others unhappy not for their own profits.
This is a stubborn negative factor in human nature.
Let's talk back to the car. On January 29, Ford released a very interesting off-road vehicle in China - Ford Bronco, Chinese name "Liema".
This is a hard-core off-road vehicle with a classic "square box" shape, with a long model history, excellent performance, and a large modification space, and it has also been optimized for luxury and refinement according to the preferences of Chinese consumers.
I believe that any car enthusiast will not refuse the big toy of the fierce horse. And according to the grapevine, the horse is likely to be sold at 260,000 yuan. If it is true, it shows that Ford did not come to China to cut leeks with such an original American car. At least I really want to sell cars.
To be honest, I admire Ford. Even though the market is getting bloodier, in recent years, Ford has been going to China to get interesting and interesting models.
At a time when the game and confrontation between major powers are becoming more and more intense, Ford is willing to take American off-road vehicles and pickup trucks such as Bronco and Ranger into domestic production, and is willing to import and introduce large-displacement American performance cars such as F-150 Raptor and Mustang Dark Horse.
At the same time, Ford also relies on Changan Ford to launch some more mainstream family "grocery carts", such as Edge L, Explorer, and a new generation of Mondeo.
It can be said that Ford's two product lines in China are very clear now, the left hand for home use, and the right hand for fun.
Although the pressure on sales is still huge, at the very least, from achieving sales to shaping culture, as a brand that plays a pivotal role in the history of the world's automobiles, Ford still wants to do well in China.
But that is not the case for other joint ventures, even if they appear to be doing better in China than Ford at the moment.
Since last year, the living environment of joint venture car companies in China has become more and more difficult. Basically, the sales of each joint venture fell last year.
The biggest reason, of course, is that joint venture car companies are generally lagging behind in promoting new energy models, and they cannot keep up with the general trend of intelligence. Especially compared with Chinese brands, their new energy models are nicknamed "miscellaneous cars" by us.
In this case, some joint venture brands are lying flat, no longer obsessed with sales, their sales network has shrunk significantly, go to their 4S stores, and the sales staff are also very Buddhist. Such as Hyundai, Kia, Chevrolet, etc.
There are also some who want to struggle again, otherwise as soon as the floodgates of large-scale channel loss are opened, they will basically be unable to return to the sky, such as Nissan and Honda.
Of course, there are also those who are okay, such as Volkswagen and Toyota, although they are also under pressure, but they have been trying their best to keep up with the pace of China's electric intelligence. When global models are brought in, they must be optimized locally in the field of intelligence.
Here I want to complain about Honda, Nissan, etc., which do not want to give up large-scale sales in the Chinese market, and do not arrange products that Chinese consumers like. Not only that, their existing models also maintain the old tradition of Japanese cars, not to mention the high guide price, and the configuration of low-end models is miserable, and Chinese consumers naturally can't get their hands on it, such as Fit, Jinke and other products.
But even if they bring in some fun models, they still want to cut one and count them as one.
Take Honda's domestically produced Civic Type-R as an example, many JDM fans finally looked forward to the stars and the moon and finally looked forward to the red label car, but the price was 420,000 yuan as soon as it was announced. The price of this car in the United States is equivalent to 320,000 yuan, and the price in Japan is less than 250,000 yuan.
Thanks to the growing product strength and better experience of Chinese brands, the terminal transaction price of joint venture models has dropped again and again in the past two years.
At the same time, China has entered the era of personalized car consumption, especially young people who want to own a fun and interesting car.
But the Chinese are very tolerant, not to say that in the new energy era, no one will pay for fuel vehicles. It's not that China is competing and playing games with any country, and we should completely reject its cars.
The way of heaven is to make up for the deficiency when there is more than is lost.
China is open and inclusive, and Ford is still developing tenaciously in such a Chinese market, bringing more interesting models, while further reducing the price of domestic models, and calmly competing with Chinese brands.
However, some multinational brands are still closed, unwilling to lie flat and unwilling to change. If this continues, they will eventually become a drag on joint venture car companies, and will eventually be eliminated by the Chinese market.