In the era of the prevalence of fuel vehicles, it is not uncommon to buy a car for some feelings, and even some car enterprises often use feelings, classics and other words as selling points in product promotion. However, in the era of rapid rise of new energy vehicles, with the rise of electrification and intelligent technology and younger consumers, we have to admit that the main brand of feelings seems to have failed. This is actually reflected in Ford Electric Horse and other brand models.

A few days ago, Ford Motor China official micro blog announced that Ford's 150000 electric horse Mustang Mach-E in the world was officially offline, which means that the sales of electric horse in the world has reached the threshold of 150000. Ford is currently accelerating the production of electric horses. The official plan is that by the end of next year, the global production capacity of electric horses will be 270000.

Image source: Ford China

On the other hand, in China, Ford Electric Horse has been on the market as early as April 2021, but its sense of existence in the domestic new energy vehicle market is not strong for more than a year. The terminal sales data shows that from January to October this year, the terminal sales of Mustang Mach-E was 5270, accounting for 0.13% of the domestic market share of new energy passenger vehicles. From the perspective of monthly trend, the sales volume of electric horses reached the highest point in March this year, 1091 units, and the terminal sales volume of other months was only a few hundred units.

Such figures may not be bad in the Chinese market when it comes to the global market of Ford Electric Horse. However, in the domestic new energy market, compared with the monthly sales of Weilai, Ideals and Tesla, Ford is obviously a little gloomy. Why did few people pay for the electric version of the once sentimental car?

Electric horse "fails" in China

Consumers familiar with Ford brand probably know that Mustang is the representative of muscle cars in the United States, which rose in the 1960s. Because it shares the platform with Ford models, Mustang can provide young people with a sports car with good performance at a lower price. With its high performance price ratio sports car positioning, Ford Mustang's sales volume has exceeded 100000 in just three months after its launch.

With the wide popularity of consumers, Mustang soon became a screen darling and a favorite of Hollywood. In real life, young people drive it to realize their dreams. In Hollywood movies, heroes drive it to save the world. Mustang has long been a symbol of American pop culture. Later, Ford introduced Mustang to the global market, and its sales performance continued to increase. According to data, Mustang has sold more than 10 million vehicles so far.

Image source: Ford China

Perhaps the market performance was too good. In the process of comprehensive electrification, Ford launched the pure electric version of Mustang, which led to the birth of Mustang Mach-E, a pure electric SUV. In addition, Ford added it to the Mustang family, aiming to inherit the classic gene of Mustang.

From the perspective of market performance, the sales volume of electric vehicles in the United States is quite good, reaching 27140 in 2021, which has promoted Ford to surpass General Motors in the sales volume ranking of electric vehicles in the United States that year, ranking second, just behind Tesla.

However, in the Chinese market, the market performance of electric horses is different. In China, the electric horse was listed in April last year, but it was not until the end of last year that the first batch of goods were delivered. The cycle is really long. In the complete delivery year of this year, from January to October, the monthly sales of electric horses are still only over 100. On the contrary, the terminal sales of Tesla Model Y in the first 10 months have reached 235000.

It is worth noting that the price of the electric horse also follows Tesla's price cut. In late October, Tesla lowered the price of two models on sale in Chinese Mainland, of which the starting price of Model Y was adjusted to 288900 yuan. Later, Ford also officially announced that it would reduce the selling price of all its electric horses by RMB2-28000, with the adjusted price range of RMB2499-369900, and the starting price was lower than Model Y. Some people ridiculed that it was obviously intended to bind Tesla.

At present, it is unknown whether the market performance of the electric horse will have a sharp growth effect after the price reduction. But in the face of the fierce competition in the domestic new energy vehicle market, it may not be easy for the electric horse to turn over.

New energy users do not pay for feelings?

As a global car and a model with Mustang's name, why does Ford Electric Horse perform poorly in the Chinese market? There are also many different views on this within and outside the industry.

According to some analysis, the time for electric horses to enter China is not long, and the exposure is not enough. The most intuitive embodiment is that there are few direct stores. It is reported that as of September this year, Ford has 106 independent direct sales outlets for electric vehicles. In contrast to other electric vehicle enterprises, there are no other than 200 channels. Among them, "Weixiaoli" has been continuously expanding its sales and service channels in order to improve market performance. Obviously, there is a significant difference between electric horse and other brands in terms of channels.

In addition, in terms of product communication, Ford Electric Horse lacks commendable technical highlights in the Chinese market in addition to Mustang, a gold lettered signboard with feelings. Other car enterprises, such as BYD, have e-platform 3.0 and blade batteries, Tesla has leading automatic driving technology, and Weilai focuses on power change and owner services.

The Ford Electric Horse is not without highlights. For example, it relies on the racing simulator for training and has the ultimate control experience; All intelligent driving assistant hardware is installed in the front, bringing a worry free intelligent driving experience. In addition, its dynamic appearance designed by inheriting the Mustang family has also been officially publicized. However, these highlights will become more mediocre in the current very involute new energy market. If they remain mediocre, they will soon be submerged in the growing car market.

The popularity of Mustang, a gold lettered signboard, in the Chinese market is far less than that in the United States. The minority of brand culture determines the size of the audience to a certain extent. In the domestic new energy market, consumers consider the most factors when choosing new energy vehicles, such as endurance, charging, maintenance convenience, brand and price. The minority brand culture does not conform to the mainstream new energy consumption habits at present.

In addition, there are countless new energy vehicles listed on the supply side in recent two years, especially in the range of 300000 yuan or so, consumers have more and more models to choose from, and electric horses are just one of them.

To sum up, in the bustling new energy vehicle market, when consumers have more choices, or focus more on the endurance, brand and other aspects, the probability of paying for feelings will be lower and lower.

Chinese consumers have changed

In fact, in the current domestic new energy vehicle market, there are many brands that are also encountered with Ford Electric Horse, mainly joint venture brands. The industry has been saying for nearly two years that the share of independent brands in the new energy market has increased significantly, while joint venture brands have been left behind. Some analysts believe that this is just because the independent brand has taken the lead in development, while the joint venture brand has not yet fully introduced its technology or products into the domestic market, so the advantages of the joint venture have not really risen.

However, there must be reasons for the success of independent brands in the field of new energy. If further analysis is made, a very important reason is that Chinese consumers have changed. Independent brands have a good insight into this and provide products that cater to consumers in the market.

As a new force of car making, when the average price of Weilai is about 400000 yuan and it can sell more than 100000 units, Li Bin, the founder and chairman of Weilai, once analyzed that, in addition to the positioning problem of Weilai, the important reason is that the population of Chinese consumers has changed. He said that the average user age of Weilai is 37.2 years old, and 75% of the post-80s users. Many people of my generation look up to foreign brands, but the post-85 and post-90 generation look up to them, and the post-00 generation is more willing to buy Chinese brands. The reason why Weilai can become a high-end brand has a lot to do with the growth of the user group and the change of the user's mind.

Not only Weilai, but also the leaders in the new energy vehicle market have had a comprehensive insight into consumers. Lian Yubo, Executive Vice President of BYD Group, said at the China Automobile Forum held a few days ago that at present, two thirds of Chinese families are car free families. For these families, it is very difficult to buy pure electric vehicles for the first car. Therefore, BYD adheres to two technical routes: pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Plug in hybrid vehicles meet the needs of the first family car, and pure electric vehicles meet the needs of the second family car, Both are completely parallel development technology routes. BYD believes that the large-scale promotion of new energy vehicles can only be achieved by adhering to the technical route that conforms to the national conditions.

In addition, the ideal car, which has always been popular in the market, aims at the positioning of the family group. According to Li Xiang, CEO of the company, 89% of the purchase groups with more than 200000 yuan are family users. In other words, the main family car has actually targeted 89% of the car buyers, and the next ideal thing to do is to "eat from one range to another".

Roland Berger has pointed out in relevant reports that there are significant differences in the characteristics of new energy vehicle and fuel vehicle consumers. For example, the age distribution of new energy vehicle consumers is younger, and they pursue cutting-edge technology products. Such customers usually have no attachment to traditional fuel vehicles, receive less traditional fuel vehicle brand education, and have no inherent brand preference, so they are more likely to accept emerging new energy brands. In addition, the new energy vehicle consumer group also has the characteristics of obvious family attributes, increased proportion of women, higher education and professional level, and stronger consumption ability.

To sum up, on the surface, the scale of the new energy market is gradually expanding, and each brand can share the cake. But when it comes to the stage of fierce competition, it tests the brand's ability to penetrate the consumer groups. Some analysts believe that only by deeply understanding the characteristics of the consumer population and accurately defining the product according to the demand for vehicles, can new energy vehicle players achieve significant development in the future.