Source: Financial Sector News
Plagued by factors such as lack of cores and price increases, the overall pressure on China's auto market in 2021 has not met expectations. The data shows that the number of sales of the top five Chinese auto brands (including joint venture brands) in 2021 will fall by 2% to 15%. However, the "god car phenomenon" that appeared against the trend in 2021 is also quite intriguing, and after ten generations, it can also win the recognition of the most young car owners at the moment.
This "god car phenomenon" comes from gac honda accord. Especially in response to the continuous intelligent consumption demands of Generation Z, in the three years since its release, the "New Accord" has become the first choice for young people's first high-end cars.
On the one hand, the "long history" of accords: the data shows that since its introduction in 1976, accords that the accord has gone through ten generations of changes, with cumulative global sales of more than 22 million vehicles. As the earliest domestic model of Guangqi Honda, since its introduction to China in 1999, its cumulative sales in China have exceeded 2.8 million units.
On the other hand, it is accordance with accord's super high market share in China's mid-to-high-end market and its recognition among young consumers: in the statistics of the past three years, Guangqi Honda Accord has won the first place in the sales of high-end cars for three consecutive years, and the sales data of China's new consumer groups has ranked first. In addition, 54% of the 700,000 users accumulated in the three years of listing are post-90s.
Why can GAC Honda Accord gain the "heart" of young users? In fact, the "with the young" strategy proposed by Accord reflects the progress of a well-established car company: following the pace of the times, achieving self-transcendence, understanding the needs of the market with a development vision, and constantly creating models that meet the market demand.
Fashion, technology, intelligence - generation Z consumption characteristics
From a demographic point of view, the generation born between 1995 and 2009 is known as "Generation Z", and this group has become an emerging consumer force. As can be seen from Jeff From and Angie Reid's book "Generation Z Marketing", the consumption characteristics of Generation Z come from the characteristics of this generation's own life:
First, they are a generation of "full mobile device users.". This group of consumers who have been exposed to the Internet and mobile Internet since childhood are more inclined to use products and application scenarios with intelligent and networked functions;
Secondly, Generation Z has a typical personal plot, advocating uniqueness and self, hoping to get a sense of identity and belonging, showing a maverick and flaunting itself in the pursuit of product appearance, function, etc., while hoping to get support and understanding in niche groups, and get more sense of identity and belonging. Therefore, its social function requirements are also particularly prominent.
Third, the Z generation pursues "all-round experience", which not only has higher requirements for appearance, but also attaches great importance to the sense of spiritual experience, so it has high requirements for the functional experience, purchase experience, service experience, after-sales experience and even complaint experience of the product.
These consumption characteristics are concentrated in automotive products, which reflects the demand of Generation Z owners for a new generation of cars: on the one hand, it requires a fashionable appearance, a sense of technology, and a full-range car experience that can obtain enthusiasm and freedom, and at the same time, it can bring maverick identity; on the other hand, it can take the car as the core to realize the requirements for the application scenarios and lifestyles of "intelligent connection of everything".
Staying with the young enhances a full sense of technology
At the beginning of the product redesign, the new Accord has clearly defined the design concept of youthfulness.
First of all, the new Accord has insight into the consumer psychology of Gen Z consumers, and brings a stylish, technological and personalized appearance to the Accord series of products with the development concept of "absolute confidence" and the design of comprehensive youth. For example, in order to better cater to young people's pursuit of extreme dynamics, the new Accord has added a new appearance color of Extreme Crimson and Polar Night Quicksilver. The magic night sports kit includes a black-plated three-bar front grille, 18-inch sports wheels, black painted exterior mirrors, bright black rear spoiler and other design elements that highlight the sports aura, with blackening effect LED headlights and fog lights, the whole vehicle exudes a strong sports atmosphere everywhere, which perfectly fits the sports aura and high quality pursued by young users.
Secondly, in terms of powertrain, the new Accord is equipped with Honda's two ace powertrains: Sharp Hybrid and Sharp · T move. Among them, the Sharp Hybrid model is equipped with Honda's third-generation i-MMD hybrid system, which is widely known to Chinese consumers and has won the world's famous Ward Top Ten Engine Award three times, with a comprehensive maximum power of 158kW and a maximum torque of 315N·m of the motor. It has three driving modes of pure electricity, hybrid and direct engine drive, and the system can intelligently and seamlessly switch driving modes according to the actual road conditions.
At the same time, by optimizing the motor torque control when pressing the throttle, the SPORT mode can achieve a more rapid acceleration response, which means that any user taps the throttle and lightly presses the brake, the new Accord can respond to the appeal at the first time, bringing the user a more pleasant experience. The battery energy management control is also optimized, and the overall driving texture of the vehicle is enhanced by strengthening the linkage between the engine sound and the sense of acceleration during power generation, bringing a smooth control experience of human-vehicle integration. With this powerful hybrid system, the new Accord not only has excellent driving performance, but also remarkable fuel economy performance, and the fuel consumption under comprehensive working conditions is as low as 4.2L/100km, which has obvious advantages in the same class of hybrid models.
Third, in meeting the needs of emerging generation car owners for intelligence, the new Accord can be described as sparing no effort. The new Accord is equipped with Honda CONNECT 3.0 Intelligent Guide Interconnection System, and the car-machine system jointly created with iFLYTEK is one of the industry-leading intelligent voice interaction methods, which has achieved comprehensive upgrades in AI intelligent assistants, daily life interconnection, mobile phone remote control, OTA online upgrades, etc., and supports a variety of dialects and can also customize wake words.
Not only that, the new Accord also supports the expansion of external intelligent applications, by waking up the built-in Tmall genie, you can easily order takeaway, as well as remote control of smart home appliances.
Accord: The future can be expected
Looking forward to the future, with the further development of China's economy, the global automotive industry pattern will further concentrate on China, and the strong consumption capacity of China's auto market will be more remarkable. Especially in the market segment, the "new species" with the intelligent internet of vehicles as a prominent feature will get more room for development. According to the data of the National Industrial Information Security Development Research Center, the market penetration rate of intelligent and connected new cars in the mainland increased from 5.2% in 2016 to 51.6% in 2020, and it is expected that by 2025, the sales of intelligent connected vehicles will account for more than 50% of the total sales of the year.
In this context, brands like Accord, which have been liked by users in terms of intelligent networking, obviously have a first-mover advantage and will also bring people more imagination space. No matter how the pulse of the development of the times changes, the direction of self-evolution is defined by the needs of consumers, which is the main reason why Accord, a benchmark model that has continued 23 years of technology accumulation, has successfully attracted more than half of the post-90s consumers; only in this way can Accord continue the "God Car Phenomenon" in the fierce competition of many brands.