Can domestic explorers drive Ford to launch a new round of counterattack after Sharp International?

At the end of last year, Ford launched a new compact SUV, which sounded the horn of counterattack in China.

In terms of product strength, Sharp is 2.0T+8AT, with four-wheel drive system as standard, and the starting price is only 654,380+089,800 yuan. When the selling price was announced, many media shouted: "This is too cost-effective".

After Sharp, Ford's next new car explorer has also been put on the agenda, so will this brand-new 7-seat medium and large SUV become a brand-new breakthrough for Ford in China?

Bigger than Sharp, but the interior is not as good as Sharp?

Friends who know Ford must know explorers. The fifth generation Explorer is still on sale, but because it is an imported version, the starting price is as high as 465,438+0.28 million yuan, which is not competitive in the medium and large SUV market.

This time, it is the sixth generation of explorers.

Judging from the declaration map of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the new car basically continues the design of the overseas version, and the front face adopts a family-style design similar to Sharp. The difference is that the headlights are embedded in the hexagonal grille, and the explorer's breath is not as sporty as Sharp. It looks more like a steady school.

Relatively speaking, the explorer's side and rear are more imposing, and it adopts a more traditional SUV body. Although the vertical taillights at the tail don't look like many "hipsters", they show a lot of American muscles.

What's more, the explorer's car is over 5m long and 2m wide. The gas field presented by the big physique is obviously not comparable to most joint-venture seven-seat SUVs, including Sharp, and even slightly exceeds the public.

Considering the rough style of the exterior, the interior may also be guessed.

At present, domestic explorers have not announced the interior design, but it seems more practical to refer to overseas versions.

The central control panel adopts a unique vertical layout. Although the addition of wooden decorative strips adds a sense of luxury, it does not seem to be of much help to the overall design. The knob bar adds personality elements to a certain extent, but compared with the sharp world with similar interior design, the explorer may improve the materials used, but it seems worse from the perspective of design sense.

It can be seen that although the explorers have a strong momentum, the internal and external values do not seem to be trend leaders at the moment. Considering that joint venture brands such as Mazda and JEEP have also launched many 7-seat SUVs in recent years, they are mostly tepid in the end.

Can the first domestic Ford explorer successfully break through?

Power 2.3T has started, can we continue to take the cost-effective route?

At present, most medium and large SUVs of this level are based on the extension of low-end platforms, such as Mazda CX-8 and CX-5*** platforms, while Volkswagen Touran adopts the same MQB platform as golf and other models. But there is also an example. Buick Angkewei adopts the same C 1XX platform as Cadillac XT6.

A certain degree of "climbing" seems to make Angkor's premium higher, and the starting price of 299,900 yuan is already a high level in the same level.

In terms of sales volume, it has reached the sales level of 3000+ per month, which is not as good as Volkswagen Touran and Toyota Highlander, but it can also be counted as the same level of sales.

Similar to Angkor, Ford explorers were once "above", and the degree was even worse.

It is understood that domestic explorers and Lincoln flyers enjoy the platform, and the latter currently starts at 628,800 yuan. Although explorers are obviously inferior to aviators in luxury, they have obviously become "superior" in the face of competing products.

This also seems to mean that Explorer will become a rare model based on longitudinal rear drive in its class. "No rear drive, no luxury", Cadillac's slogan is also suitable for explorers.

In addition, the power of the explorer is also worth mentioning. Although the 3.0T engine of the same model of aviator is not used, the maximum power of this 2.3T engine can reach 203kW, and the parameters have already killed all models in the same class, and it is also equipped with 10AT with the most gears in the same class.

From the size point of view, as mentioned above, the explorer's measurement has indeed completely suppressed the largest public transportation at the same level.

So on the whole, the strength of Ford Explorer in China seems to have all-round advantages.

Now it seems that everything is ready, except for the final price.

Although the explorer has not been officially released yet, not to mention the pre-sale price, referring to the sharp thinking, Ford, which intends to counterattack, should also give the explorer a lot of sincerity.

Therefore, even if the size and power have great advantages, the starting price is likely to be in the early 300 thousand yuan or even lower, which is likely to be at the same level as Tuoang and Angke Banner, thus showing a high cost performance.

In addition, considering that the imported fifth-generation explorers are all four-wheel drive, four-wheel drive may also become the standard for domestic explorers.

Sum up bit by bit

It has been three months since St. Regis went public, but it doesn't seem to be ideal in terms of sales performance.

Its monthly sales from 65438+February last year to February this year were 560 vehicles, 142 1 vehicle and 986 vehicles respectively, which hardly existed in front of similar vehicles such as Honda CR-V and Nissan Qi Jun.

Although this is largely affected by the epidemic, and most new cars will go through a climbing stage, it has already laid a little uncertainty for the first step of Ford's counterattack in China.

I believe that the latter will be more cautious about domestic explorers and may have greater discounts on pricing.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.