When will local independent brand cars be strong?

"Revolution has not yet succeeded" self-owned brand cars still need to work hard. The "China Independent Automobile Technology and Product Achievement Exhibition" held in Beijing is undoubtedly a tour exhibition of our independent automobile technology in China. Judging from the word "product achievement exhibition", good things will definitely be called achievements, and things that are not so good will definitely not be called achievements. Holding such an exhibition is undoubtedly an affirmation of the development of self-driving car technology, but don't forget that our road is still far away, and don't forget the shortcomings behind us. After decades of development, China automobile industry has made great progress, and a large number of independent automobile brands have emerged. However, due to the late start of China's automobile industry, its technology lags behind that of foreign automobile industries, and most of its own brands have started halfway, so there is still a big gap compared with international automobile manufacturers in terms of market base, R&D strength, marketing strategy and new vehicle launch, and it also faces many difficulties and problems in its development. The development of automobile chassis technology is insufficient. In terms of core technology and key components, independent automobile brands still have many disadvantages. Especially in chassis technology, it is obviously at a disadvantage. At present, many self-owned brand models have asked foreign companies to help adjust the chassis at the beginning of design or directly use the chassis of foreign brands, and then use this as a selling point when the models are put on the market. For example, the chassis of Ruiqi G5 was made by Lotus Company, the chassis of Chery A3 was made by Milla Engineering Company in Britain, the chassis of Geely high-end model Emgrand EC7 18 was made by Dutch PDE Company, and the chassis of JAC Tongyue came from KIA Maxima, which was redeveloped by Lotus Company. It took two years to adjust. At present, the main gap between domestic and foreign automobile chassis technology is the accumulation of automobile tests and related data. In foreign countries, some multinational parts companies have relatively perfect experimental facilities. When they encounter new concepts and technologies, they will do experiments, solve problems immediately, and then do experiments after solving them. This makes research and development more efficient. In fact, many R&D departments of vehicle companies have complete software and hardware facilities, but they still lack experimental facilities and experience, especially not many vehicle companies have road test sites, so many new R&D advances are not easily supported by experimental data immediately. Core engine technology still needs efforts. Engine is one of the cores of automobile technology and the embodiment of the core competitiveness of various automobile enterprises. If any automobile enterprise wants to establish its own brand, it must have its own engine with intellectual property rights and strong independent research and development capabilities. The backwardness of self-owned brand cars in engine technology has been restricting the development of China cars. However, with the breakthrough of Geely Automobile, Chery Automobile and Great Wall Motor in this core technology, self-owned brand cars have entered a new stage of engine research and development. For example, the 1.8T turbocharged engine launched by Brilliance Auto; China's first CVVT engine JLG18; Geely independently researched and developed; Great Wall Motor Company's electronically controlled high-pressure diesel engine with independent intellectual property rights, Great Wall Intelligent Fuel Saving King INTEC, was officially mass-produced in Great Wall Motor Factory. BYD exhibited a newly developed variable intake BIVT engine at the Beijing Auto Show, which will be mass-produced. Although domestic automobile manufacturers have independently developed engine products, there are still many independent automobile manufacturers who have not independently developed their own engines. At least at present, there are only a handful of domestic manufacturers who really independently develop engines. Independent research and development of engines is a necessary condition for independent brand cars to occupy a place in the international automobile market. At present, the development modes of domestic engines can be roughly divided into three types, one is characterized by the development of technical assistance sought by foreign companies, the other is the mode of imitating innovation, and the other is the development mode of digesting and absorbing the technology of foreign manufacturers. Without the help of foreign automobile manufacturers, our own brand automobile engines still have a long way to go in independent research and development and upgrading. Because a large number of key components still need to be imported and controlled by foreign manufacturers. Just like ECU, the core control component of CVVT engine independently developed by Geely Automobile, it still needs to be purchased from Bosch, Germany. Therefore, our core engine technology level is still very weak, still in its infancy, and there is still a long way to go. Vehicle technology needs to be improved. A few years ago, there was a saying on the Internet that "a car has a car, and a car is waiting in line for repair". If more cars are sold, there will naturally be more problems, such as the lights are not on, the dashboard is not on, and the door cannot be closed. There is also a saying that "there is no serious illness or minor illness", and it is often plagued by minor problems such as indoor decoration or accessories, and even goes to the maintenance station every week to repair these minor problems. Of course, these problems can be tolerated and understood in the initial stage of our independent automobile industry. After all, the "fat man" wants to eat bit by bit. Moreover, in order to win back some market share in the joint venture car, the self-owned brand cars have to play low-priced cards, hoping to open some markets first with price advantage, so it is a last resort to reduce the cost of some accessories. Due to the poor production equipment and assembly technology of independent brands, it is difficult to make excellent products without good molds. Therefore, most of the self-owned brand cars have rough interiors, and most of them have problems such as excessive gaps, uneven seams or lax seams. Although it does not affect normal use, it always makes consumers feel uncomfortable. The poor details and workmanship of the whole vehicle have now become the shackles affecting the development of self-owned brand cars, reducing consumers' trust in self-owned brand cars, hindering the promotion of the status of self-owned brand cars, and causing the conceptual positioning of self-owned brand cars in the eyes of ordinary people. Therefore, the development of self-owned brand cars can no longer only focus on the core components, but also master the independent core technology, but the interior details and overall body technology should also be improved. Because now consumers are not buying a car, but just staying at the stage when the car will open. Nowadays, consumers have high requirements for every detail of the car, not only for good handling performance, but also for the comfort of sitting inside. More humanized design is needed to support the promotion of the whole brand status. The impression of low-end models is very important in most people's impressions. Most self-owned brand cars appear in the market as low-end models. Compared with joint venture brands, auto start of independent brands started late and its technical level was relatively low, making it difficult to build high-quality cars. Without good products, it is difficult to sell good prices. Therefore, for a long time in the past, self-owned brand cars were synonymous with "low-end cars". Although some consumers can be attracted by low prices, in the case of fierce competition in the automobile market, joint-venture automobile brands have also cut prices and launched small-displacement vehicles to target the low-priced car market. As a result, compared with joint-venture automobile brands, the price advantage of China's own brands is no longer obvious, and the gap in brand competitiveness, product technology and quality has brought great pressure to the development of self-owned brands. Li Shufu, president of Geely, once said, "Price competition alone is not the future of China. We should upgrade our technology, improve our quality and become an enterprise with leading technology and good service. This change can only be achieved through innovation. " Now more and more independent brand car manufacturers have begun to realize this. Only by improving product quality as soon as possible and mastering more product design and technology with independent intellectual property rights can we gain a foothold in the fierce market competition and stand out from the domestic automobile market where joint venture brands and even world automobile brands are in the leading position. In fact, many independent brands have begun to develop into mid-to high-end models. For example, FAW Car introduced Pentium, Hongqi HQ3, the only luxury car with its own brand. Chery Automobile has already launched Chery A5 and Tiggo, and there will be more advanced models such as Tiggo 5 and Tiggo 6 in the future. After getting the remaining assets of Rover, SAIC and Nanqi launched Roewe 750 and MG 7 series respectively, and directly cut into the market with mid-to high-end cars. In a word, now independent brand car manufacturers are trying to get rid of the image of "low-end car" and let consumers change their old ideas about independent brand cars. In fact, they are trying to occupy a favorable position in the future automobile market. I believe that our own brand cars can do better in the future. Abandoning the "cottage" and enhancing the brand value have been carried out for many years in China, and the modeling design has also made great progress, but there are also many problems. Actually, I don't want to mention the word "shanzhai" here, because I have said it for many years, and I believe everyone is immune. But I have to say it again, because the design of independent car brands really dare not compliment. Tracing back to the origin of the word "shanzhai" actually comes from Guangdong dialect. At first, a large number of high imitation mobile phones emerged in Chaoshan area were called shanzhai mobile phones by local people, and then shanzhai mobile phones were "carried forward" in Shenzhen, and finally they became household names through the Internet. In the current concept, "shanzhai" is synonymous with appearance simulation, complete functions and low price. It is true that China's self-owned brand cars started from the "cottage", and everyone has a deep understanding, seeing and hearing. Li Shufu, the boss of Geely, once described it as "learning to use red strokes". But the purpose of "painting red" is not to stay on "painting red" forever, but to become a "calligrapher" in the end. But some independent brand manufacturers didn't really understand the meaning, just imitated a car to achieve short-term market effect, and tasted a little sweetness from the automobile market. Then imitate, then imitate, fully copy, fully copy. However, due to the lack of systematic research and development, manufacturing system and other factors, blindly carrying out "shanzhai" is definitely not far away. Now, more and more self-owned brand cars are beginning to imitate international high-end models. For example, Rolls-Royce in China, Bentley in China, Porsche Cayenne in China, Lexus RX in China and Land Rover Range Rover in China. In fact, how to do it, car manufacturers are also trying to attract more consumers' attention. Of course, some consumers are very interested in this product. It's a good choice for people who can't afford expensive models, because it's low in price and cool in appearance. But looking back, where is our sense of independent innovation? It doesn't matter whether we really imitate or not. Someone bought it anyway. But for a brand, its core value is independent innovation, while the cottage products are drifting, changeable, lacking personality and brand value, and the cottage cars lacking brand value will become a stumbling block to the future development of independent automobile brands. At present, the cottage cars in China are only in the stage of modeling imitation. If we innovate independently while imitating, constantly add our own innovative design to the existing model and gradually form our own style and characteristics, perhaps consumers' acceptance will be much higher than now. In fact, no matter people in the automobile industry or ordinary consumers, they still hope that their automobile brands can stand up straight. Independent automobile brands should have family characteristics. Independent automobile brands have now entered a period of rapid development, but after years of development, we find that independent brands do not have their own family characteristics, but there are no impressive memory points in consumers' hearts. This is indeed a defect of independent automobile brands at present. Let's take a look at foreign automobile manufacturers, whether BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi or other world-famous automobile brands. From the beginning of brand development to the present, the models have relatively fixed or close family characteristics, especially in family face and model design. Continuity can be maintained. From the aspect of vehicle design, many world automobile manufacturers have maintained the continuation of traditional characteristics from early development to now. Now people pay attention to the brand of a car, and the most representative parts are often the first thing that comes to mind. Most car brands have highlighted this point in their design. You know, these family characteristics are not remembered at the beginning and need years of accumulation. However, the history of our own automobile brand is only a few decades, and we have taken many detours in these decades, not to mention family characteristics, because our automobile industry has been crossing the river by feeling the stones from the beginning to the present and learning from other people's experience. For domestic independent automobile brands, family characteristics will be a goal for future development. The so-called family characteristics or automobile design is not only simple and beautiful. With the rapid development of automobile industry, a beautiful car body appearance not only represents the strategic direction of marketing, but also reflects people's growing aesthetic requirements, which makes automobile enterprises have to upgrade their brand level in automobile design. As mentioned just now, family characteristics need to be accumulated for many years, but if we start or pay attention to it now, we must do our own product positioning, strategy and planning, and analyze it according to the actual situation of our own brand. I believe that in the near future, we will also see the uniqueness of each manufacturer in the models. In the case of little difference between brand competition and various conditions, family characteristics will certainly bring benefits to product identification and brand impression. Distinctive features and unique design are easier for consumers to identify with, which is of great significance to the new product design and development direction of self-owned brand cars. Conclusion: At present, there are still many deficiencies in independent automobile brands. In fact, as we all know, we are not criticizing our own car brands here, nor are we targeting a certain independent brand car. We just take the opportunity of this "China Independent Automobile Technology and Product Achievements Exhibition" to talk about the shortcomings behind the "achievements", which is actually a spur. There may be mistakes or extremes here, but our starting point is good and we all hope.