Since they are called "wind vane", these selected models should be qualified to represent the automobile trend of the whole industry, or at least a single market.
There are many annual car awards around the world. The oldest European car of the year has a history of 56 years, and the shortest world car of the year has passed 16 years. In the past ten years, the automobile industry has developed rapidly and changed greatly. If we want to spy on the development and changes of the automobile industry in the past decade, perhaps these annual automobile awards can tell us the answer. After all, they are all important witnesses and participants in this period.
So, what changes have taken place in the automobile industry in this decade? Which trends really dominate the industry trends, and which trends are just a mirage?
Before summing up, let's take a look at which models have won the annual car awards in these years in the past ten years.
Car of the year:
European car of the year:
North American car of the year:
Japanese car of the year (JCOTY):
Japanese RJC Car of the Year:
As for why China's annual car selection didn't make the list, the main reason is that the so-called annual car selection in China is too rampant, with different standards, and lacks relatively fair, authoritative and unified selection.
In fact, just looking at overseas cars in recent years is enough to reflect the changes in the automobile industry in this decade.
Pure electricity has no virtual fire.
Even if you don't work in the automobile industry and see more and more "green brand cars" and charging piles along the way, you probably know that car electrification is one of the most prominent trends in the past decade.
Since 1997, when Toyota launched the first generation Prius, the prelude of car electrification has been officially opened, and the trend of electrification has been popular for more than 20 years.
Starting from the hybrid vehicle, it also means that from the beginning, electrification is not equal to pure electrification-hybrid vehicle (HEV), 48V light hybrid vehicle, plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV), pure electric vehicle (BEV), fuel cell technology (FCV) ... as long as "electricity" is brought, it can be regarded as a means of electrification.
However, judging from the car winners in the past decade, Nissan Leaf, Jaguar I-PACE, Chevrolet Bolt and Hyundai Kona? EV, most of the electric vehicles evaluated are BEV, and pure electric vehicles seem to have an absolute advantage.
Actually, it is not.
As early as 2006, Honda Civic Hybrid and Lexus RX400h had already appeared on the world car list of that year; If you look at the first few years of the last decade (around 2009-20 12), you can also find cars from Japan, Europe and North America, such as Toyota Prius, Chevrolet Volt and Ford Fushion. Mix these "oil+electricity" models.
In fact, as early as the recent 10 year, the mechatronic vehicles HEV and PHEV, which are mainly internal combustion engines, have set off a wave in the industry.
For example, 200 1, Toyota Prius entered the top three European cars of the year; In 2005, the Prius finally beat Citroen C4 and Ford Focus with 406 points and won the European Car of the Year Award.
For example, in the world annual car selection with the sub-award of "Eco-car of the Year", more than 6 electromechanical models won the prize, and more than 17 models entered the top three.
For example, there is also a technical award in the RJC annual Fengyun car evaluation in Japan. Among the award-winning technologies in the past ten years, there are five items related to power system, three of which are electromechanical integration technologies.
In recent ten years, among the winners of RJC annual Fengyun Science and Technology Award in Japan, there are five technologies related to power system, three of which are electromechanical technologies. Who is Suzuki Green that everyone is not familiar with? The technology is also a hybrid technology of oil and electricity, but the auxiliary function of the motor is slightly weaker than that of the general HEV technology, which is often used in K-CAR models.
On the competitive stage of electric vehicles, the appearance of BEV is not too late, but it has only become a "fragrant cake" in the past decade. In contrast, HEV and PHEV caused great repercussions in the industry shortly after their launch, and were frequently nominated and awarded prizes in the selection. Up to now, although HEV has been nominated less because of its initial popularity and lack of originality, some PHEV are still active in major competitions.
In addition, worldwide, the sales of HEV and PHEV are considerable, which shows to some extent that people are more willing to pay for electromechanical integration technology with close price and no endurance anxiety at this stage. It is not difficult to predict that mechatronics technology will remain vigorous in the future, and go forward side by side with BEV in complementarity.
In contrast, the real development period of pure electric vehicles is mainly concentrated in the near 10 year (after 20 1 1 year), but even though nine models entered the top three, only three models finally won the "environmental protection car of the year" award. At present, only 20 1 1 Nissan leaf and 20 19 jaguar I-PACE have won the "world car of the year" award.
Perhaps in the eyes of the critical annual automobile judges, HEV and PHEV, which have been initially popularized, lack novelty, and FCV is still in its infancy. Then, choosing a pure electric vehicle is also a more "avant-garde" choice. But based on this, it is still too early to say that pure electric vehicles are the ultimate goal of vehicle electrification, and the momentum of pure electric vehicles in cars and market sales in major years seems to be tepid.
In 20 19, the global pure electric vehicle market dropped sharply compared with 20 18. As the largest electric vehicle market in the world, China's future will be more uncertain with the decline of domestic subsidy policy. (Source: Ying Si Taibo)
The SUV craze has swept the world, and MPV is still a "pseudo-trend"
Friends who have been paying attention to the annual car selection will definitely feel that in the past decade, the SUV craze has not only swept through China, but also spread to the whole world.
I don't know, in the five annual car reviews mentioned above, in the past 10 years, SUV*** won 18 awards. It is worth noting that in the past 2-3 years, SUVs have won the championship in succession-even in the European market for cars and the Japanese market obsessed with MPV.
Isn't there an "annual design award" in the world annual car selection? In the past ten years, this award has been won by SUV for half the time! This will probably make many people who scoff at SUVs stupid. You know, in the past, SUV was a generous box, so many people thought that the car was the best carrier of good design, and all elegant lines and contours could only be displayed incisively and vividly in the car.
He used to think that now SUVs have also captured the hearts of judges and the public with design. In fact, everyone loves beauty. Whether it's an SUV or a car, as long as it looks good, how can it not be hot?
In the United States, the birthplace of SUV, Americans love SUV more and more. In North America, there are "multi-purpose vehicles" respectively. Vehicles) and trucks of the year. The former covers SUVs and MPVs, while the latter includes pickups and SUVs with strong off-road capabilities.
In the past 10 years, these two awards have produced 15 winners, among which SUV occupies 7 seats-in the two awards, you can choose MPV or pickup truck, SUV is only one category of the winning models, but it occupies nearly half of the seats; In the eyes of Americans, even if they are better than pickup trucks, they sometimes lose to SUVs, which proves to some extent that SUVs are personalized, multifunctional and practical, and they are really popular.
SUV has become a hot spot after cars, but with the gradual saturation of SUV market, car companies can't help but start looking for the next blue ocean, hoping to get ahead of them. So some people regard MPV as an opportunity.
However, judging from the annual car selection, MPV seems to have never been taken seriously-in the past 10 years, only one Chrysler Pacifica MPV won the 20 17 North American car of the year outside the Japanese market. However, even if we look back at the Japanese market, in the past ten years, only Nissan Serena won MPV once, which is not as good as K-CARs.
The reason why SUV is popular is that it has inherent advantages-compared with cars, SUV has different competitiveness such as large space and strong passability. It's not too late for SUVs to appear. Why is it hot now? Very simple, Yan value closely follows the public aesthetic! In other words, if the SUV looks good from the beginning, I'm afraid it's already on fire.
High value and multi-function are consumers' consistent requirements for automobile products. If MPV wants to be the next blue ocean, it must have these advantages and provide more possibilities than SUV.
On design, MPV is not as dynamic as SUV; On passability, MPV is not as good as SUV；; In terms of space, MPV finally has an advantage-I can sit seven people comfortably! But think about it, how many consumers around the world have this demand? European and American families have 2-3 cars per minute, which is unnecessary; You really need seven seats. Isn't the seven-seat SUV also very fragrant?
MPV does provide some differentiated experiences, but consumers' demand for these experiences is quite limited, which determines that MPV is only a "pseudo-trend" at this stage and may be difficult to catch fire in the future.
Mainstream brands should also strive to achieve differentiation.
Looking at the annual car selection in recent ten years, we also found a phenomenon: Volkswagen won high-frequency awards in many evaluations in the early stage, and Toyota seems to be a natural "car insulator of the year". Although it has been the world's number one sales volume for many years, and various models are world-renowned, it seems that Toyota and the annual car glory are always a little different.
I'm not reconciled to Toyota. As one of the top automobile giants in the world, Volkswagen and Toyota are similar in enterprise strength and products, and they are proper benchmarks of the same level in any market-can we say that golf is really better than Corolla? Is Passat really better than Camry? Obviously not.
Therefore, if Volkswagen has a more competitive advantage than Toyota in the annual car evaluation, personally, it may be that Volkswagen is more in line with the tastes of European and American judges in the annual car evaluation. After all, people do have an advantage in number.
Cars with similar positioning in the past can really win the competition by pulling a little "family ticket" based on the subjective preferences of the judges. However, in today's serious homogenization of automobile products, manufacturing differentiation may be a more effective means to stimulate aesthetic fatigue judges and consumers.
In recent years, Volvo and Jaguar, which have made high-profile "sweeping the list", have made demonstrations.
In the annual car reviews of 20 18, all of them were swept by Volvo Corps without exception. This unprecedented unified operation, probably car companies dare not recharge it.
Coincidentally, 20 19 jaguar also staged a similar drama. Although the degree of sweeping the list is not as good as Volvo's, it has won at least three awards: World Car of the Year, World Eco-car of the Year and European Car of the Year-Oh, yes, I-PACE has also been shortlisted for the top ten Japanese cars of the year.
Globally, Volvo and Jaguar can't compete with BBA in sales and brand power, but they stand out only because they give people different sensory stimuli.
For example, Volvo's fresh and refined Nordic design is like a clean stream of German luxury created by BBA. Judges and consumers who are tired of watching BBA are easily moved by this unique style, which is the differentiated design experience provided by Volvo. 20 17 world car was awarded to jaguar F-PACE because jaguar's British design made the judges feel refreshed.
For another example, in the 20 19 car evaluation, Jaguar I-PACE also met a strong enemy like Audi e-tron, but I-PACE won the championship because Jaguar I-PACE proved that pure electric vehicles can also have such excellent handling. In other words, I-PACE provides many differentiated driving and control experiences that electric vehicles did not have before.
A similar example is that Toyota's new generation RAV4 won the championship in Japan's car of the year in 2020.
As mentioned earlier, Toyota runs with other cars all the year round. In fact, even in Japan, Toyota has no local advantages-you know, the last time Toyota won the annual car award in Japan, it dates back to the Toyota Prius ten years ago.
At that time, the Prius was elected because of the differentiated advantages brought by its excellent hybrid technology, which overwhelmed Volkswagen Golf and Honda Insight and was shortlisted at the same time. After ten years, the new generation RAV4 won the award again on behalf of Toyota, because the TNGA architecture gave it a differentiated competitiveness different from other traditional SUVs-a tougher and domineering appearance, stronger and more stable handling and so on.
Imagine if the new RAV4 is simply upgraded to "three big pieces" and replaced by another generation, who will be interested in it?
Therefore, differentiated advantages, placed in strong brands, can make the strong stronger and icing on the cake; Putting it in a relatively weak brand, such as Volvo and Jaguar, can also make it exude a different charm. This may be an era that doesn't need perfection, but it must have individuality. Only brands with differentiated advantages can enter people's sight and be recognized and remembered by everyone.
China's car sales ranked first in the world for ten years in a row, but unfortunately, in the past ten years, we have never considered a car in the world annual car selection, even if it only entered the primary list. In the past, local brands were only sold in China or Asia, which was understandable. However, now that Lexus and MG have entered Europe, the Great Wall has also opened the Australian market, and the world territory of China brand cars has been expanding, but it still has no place in the world annual car list, which makes people feel unwilling.
But calm down and look at these models that have topped the annual car throne, all of which have their own differentiation. Should local brands also think about a question: in recent years, we have been trying to find the shadow of joint venture brands to build cars, but when we make the quality of cars equal to that of joint ventures, what can we compete with others?
There are already Corolla, Accord and Golf in the world, so there is no need for China brand to build a bunch of similar models. If China automobile brands want to gain real recognition on the international stage, they may still have to think about how to build their own differentiated advantages.
Words? |? Xie zijun
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.