From Shanghai Yangpu Park to the southwest, through the Municipal Gongjiang Middle School and the Ship Building, you will arrive at an industrial park called Internet Treasure Land next to Zhoujiazui Road.
The well-known enterprises settled in the industrial park are Pig Eight Commandments, NetEase Blizzard, Dewu and Obsidian, the largest of which is Ford Motor.
In the center of Shanghai, where the rent of the office alone costs hundreds of thousands of yuan per month, unlike other car companies that set up their R&D departments on the outskirts of the city, Ford rented an entire building in the industrial park, named for the Ford China Dx Hub "Fochuang Valley", where the new Ford China Design Center is located.
The new Ford China Design Center has the ability to design the whole process from design trend research, interior and exterior design, color material design, digital interaction experience design to digital model and full-size clay model production, and the new generation of Ford Mondeo is its product for the Chinese market.
Since last month, the unveiling of the new generation of Ford Mondeo at the Ford China Design Center has piqued my curiosity.
You know, Mondeo has a huge influence in China, there are 1 million car owners alone, and each generation of Mondeo debuts, the product force must be the most advanced in the same level.
If you want to know what new technology Ford has, look at Mondeo; if you want to know how Ford will sell next, look at Mondeo; if you also want to know whether Ford cares about the Chinese market, you have to look at Mondeo.
So, when I learned that there was a new generation of Ford Mondeo tastings this month, I immediately left for Shanghai.
The first generation of Mondeo, Ford spent billions of dollars to develop, after its debut in 1993, won the 1993-1994 FIA World Touring Car Cup.
The second generation of Mondeo was listed in 2000, and in 2004, Changan Ford was introduced into domestic production, and in the first year of listing, it won more than 30 awards such as the domestic annual wind car, the best cost-effective model and the annual model.
The third generation of Mondeo went on sale in 2007, and my good friend and his dad bought one that year, when Mondeo was not called Mondeo but Mondeo Win.
The fourth generation of Mondeo was launched in 2013, and the design elements derived from Aston Martin instantly attracted the attention of everyone, which was the flagship model with the highest technology content and the most sophisticated production technology under Changan Ford, and was a model of technology and taste in the B-class car.
"What is the legacy of the new Ford Mondeo? What has changed compared to the fourth generation of Mondeo? Can Changan Ford turn around? "I walked into the Ford China Design Center with all kinds of questions.
In the center of the booth is the new generation of Mondeo ST-Line models.
The large black dynamic material emphasizes the strong performance genes hidden in the Ford brand.
The unique aerodynamic wind blade design with side air intake curtain function on both sides of the front face, combined with the exclusive front guard and skirt encirclement of ST-Line combustion, breathing kinetic energy scale armor grille, rotary wing aerodynamic wheels and other designs, the vehicle performance sense is explosive.
There is also the ST-Line logo on the fenders and exclusive red brake calipers, as well as the flying wing design embedded in the unique underwing of the rear, which is a proper American muscle feeling.
Simon Brook, chief designer of Ford China Design Center
Simon Brook, chief designer of ford's China Design Center, told me, "The new generation of Mondeo is led by the Ford China team, compared to previous generations of Mondeo, in addition to the appearance is more in line with the preferences of Chinese consumers, the cockpit is also." For example, in ergonomics, the seat is designed with reference to the height and weight of Chinese, while the domestic version of the fourth-generation Mondeo has not changed much from overseas models, and the reference object of ergonomics is Westerners. In addition, the new generation of Mondeo has a wheelbase of 2945mm and a particularly generous legroom in the rear. ”
"Compared with overseas, Chinese consumers pay more attention to the functions of smart car machines, we are equipped with a 1.1-meter ultra-wide area giant screen, the integration of 12.3-inch full-color digital LCD dashboard and 27-inch large real 4K central control screen, using the latest UI interface design style, the function distribution is more intuitive, concise, but also in line with the Chinese operating habits."
I sat in the car and experienced it, the rear legroom is really large, the seat cushion length is moderate, and the backrest support is good.
In terms of car machinery, I did not expect to be able to log in to WeChat and QQ, voice recognition feedback is also very fast, in the split screen state to let the main co-driver co-drive, co-driver passengers can navigate, view the car condition, and manually draw the screen to the main driver. During the driving process, the co-driver passengers can enjoy the entertainment function exclusively, do not interfere with the main driver navigation, the main driver drives, the co-driver chases the drama, which is unexpected by me.
Because of the joint venture brand cars tried in the past two years, the car machine system is generally 5 years behind the Chinese brand, with fewer functions and low screen resolution, which is very chicken.
So I can be sure that the new generation of Mondeo equipped with Ford's latest generation of car and machine system SYNC+2.0 Zhixing interconnection system must also be developed by Chinese engineers, the system is smooth, and the sub-pages and APP are adapted to the screen.
More than that, the new generation of Mondeo chief engineer Guan Yingchao told me that there are many highlights of the new generation of Mondeo.
"The new generation of Mondeo is a super intelligent car in the fuel car, the new car and Ford pure electric models share the same new electronic and electrical platform - Ford FNV intelligent interconnection network architecture, with tram-level intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving capabilities, and has the vehicle's global OTA capabilities, commonly used and new, a generation ahead of the opponent." For example, the new generation of Mondeo's 100 Gigabit Ethernet communication architecture transmits data 100 times faster than conventional cars. ”
What concept?
It's not just an increase in speed, it's also speed and latency that breaks a threshold!
The speed of 120 kilometers per hour means that the delay of 1 second is 33.3 meters, and in the 4G era of high latency, playing a mobile game is worried about dropping the line, but in the low-latency 5G era, the network delay is shortened to 1 millisecond, and there is basically no delay in the transmission between data.
This means that the new generation of Mondeo equipped with Ford's FNV intelligent interconnection network-wide architecture will realize many intelligent functions that are not available in its class.
"Yes, the new generation of Mondeo is equipped with Ford's first mass-produced vehicle-to-road coordination system, based on cellular vehicle-to-vehicle (C-V2X) technology, and the vehicle is connected to the urban intelligent transportation system." Guan Yingchao said proudly.
On May 6, 2021, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on the construction of smart cities, identifying six cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and Wuxi as the first batch of pilot cities for the coordinated development of smart city infrastructure and intelligent connected vehicles.
With the vehicle-road coordination system, vehicles can be known at the first time in the future for sudden traffic accidents on the road, sudden obstacles on the street, sinkholes on rainy days, etc., and avoid them in advance, so that driving is more predictable and brings a leap-level intelligent driving experience.
In addition, the new generation of Mondeo is equipped with Ford's new generation co-Pilot360 intelligent driving assistance system, equipped with the industry's leading visual perception system, equipped with more than 23 sensors in the same class, which can achieve up to 18 intelligent driving assistance configurations, including Ford's world's first L2+ autonomous driving function - BlueCruise active driving assistance function, which can easily achieve "quasi-automatic driving assistance" on specific sections of highways and urban expressways.
It can be said that the intelligent experience brought by the new generation of Mondeo is unexpected. Who says pure electric vehicles are smart? The new generation of Mondeo was the first not to agree.
"This is a model designed by the Ford China team, compared to other Ford models, it is particularly intelligent, will Ford feel that this is a compromise?" I asked Simon Brook.
On the contrary, everyone believes that the new generation of Mondeo will lead the Ford design trend. Because China is changing too fast, for example, senseless payment has been popular in China for many years, and now the United States and parts of Europe have only begun to promote, and more places are still using cash. The new generation of Mondeo design drawings were transmitted to the European Design Center, and many designers saw it and their eyes lit up and praised the cockpit design. Simon Brook replied confidently.
Unfortunately, at this tasting meeting, Ford did not release much information about the power of the new generation of Mondeo, and at present I have heard that the new generation of Mondeo will carry 2.0T+8AT, 0-100km/h acceleration time of 6 seconds, the only one in the same level. The weight of the car is about 1.5 tons, and the body uses a lot of aluminum materials. In the future, a hybrid system version will also be introduced.
Writing to the end: Back to April 3, 2019, Chen Anning, Vice President and President of Ford Motor Company Group china and president and CEO of Ford Motor (China) Co., Ltd., announced a new business promotion plan at the "Ford China 2.0" press conference, and will establish "four major entity centers" in China, namely "Design Center", "Innovation Center", "Product Center" and "New Energy Center". Fulfill its promise of "more Ford, more China".
Investing time and money is not a big deal, but why?
This is because Ford realizes that the use needs of Chinese consumers are relatively different from those in Europe and the United States, and consumers in Europe and the United States care about power and control, but Chinese consumers buy cars first to look at the appearance, space and intelligent configuration.
Prior to this, most of the Ford models sold in the Chinese market were developed by the European Ford Product Center. As a result, the model cannot adapt to the needs of Chinese consumers after being domestically produced in China. The best evidence of this is that Ford, which has always been known for its handling and athleticism, is the Forris, the best-selling model in the Chinese market.
Therefore, Ford set up "four major physical centers" in China, to put it bluntly, a large proportion of the products launched in China in the future are tailored for the Chinese market.
The new generation of Mondeo is the best example of Ford China's commitment to "More Ford, More China".
The biggest difference between the new generation of Mondeo and other Ford products is that it is a model specially built for the preferences of Chinese consumers (the original version will not be exported overseas in the future).
So after watching the new generation of Mondeo, I fell into contemplation for a while.
Although the new generation of Mondeo touched me, it does not mean that this car can touch the post-70s, and their dependence on smart configuration is far less than that of the post-80s and post-90s. The highlight of the new generation of Mondeo may seem to them to be chicken ribs.
In addition, the current market share of B-class cars has fallen to 12.4%, and the old saying that "those who get B-class cars win the world" is no longer true. After the listing of the new generation of Mondeo, it is difficult to say whether it can reproduce the former glory of Changan Ford.
But Ford China's current "more Ford, more Chinese" thinking is right, if the smart configuration on the new generation of Mondeo is transplanted to the SUV, it is likely to be a hit. Before I saw the real car, I did not expect that Ford, which is known for its power, safety and control, would have such a high level of intelligence.
Text | Li Jianbo
(This article is the author's personal opinion only and does not represent the position of DearAuto.) )
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Mr. Li Guoyong of Guangdong Green Law Firm