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American car 20 19 was really not a good year, and the reasons for the decline of Ford, Jeep and GM all pointed to products.

According to the data of the Federation, the cumulative sales volume of American cars in 20 1748700 decreased by 19.4% year-on-year, which was the biggest decline of joint venture cars except French cars, even exceeding the overall sales volume of independent brands in 20 19. From the sales volume of specific models, the decline rate of American cars is as high as 24. 1%, which is the most obvious decline among different cars in different countries.

Among them, GM's sales in China in 20 19 were 3.09 million vehicles, down 15. 1 1% year-on-year, which is already a two-day losing streak of GM's sales in China; In 20 17, GM's sales in China climbed to the peak of 4.04 million vehicles; In 20 18, GM's sales fell to 3.64 million units. According to the data released by SAIC-GM, the cumulative sales volume in 20 19 was10.6 million vehicles, down 18.78% year-on-year.

Ford sold 567,900 vehicles in China last year, down 2,665,438+0% year-on-year; The annual sales volume of Changan Ford in 20 19 was184,000 vehicles, down 5 1.3% year-on-year. Although Ford's sales in China are still declining, it has begun to show signs of recovery, while GAC Fick is still mired in decline. In 20 19, its sales volume was 74,000 vehicles, which was 4 1% lower than that in 20 18.

From the data alone, these three American car companies are all gloomy, but in fact, the situation of these three companies is very different. If we want to sum up a commonality, then the common reasons for the decline in sales of these three companies all point to products.

GM: Trust crisis of three-cylinder engine slows down.

The decline in GM's sales has a lot to do with its first promotion of three-cylinder engines. Although many car companies have made it clear that the three-cylinder engine is the future trend and predicted that it will encounter difficulties in the promotion of the three-cylinder engine, the negative reaction of the market still exceeds GM's expectations.

It never rains but it pours. GM's large-scale promotion of three-cylinder engines coincided with the cold winter in China auto market. Under the superposition, GM's sales naturally fluctuated.

According to the data obtained by Yi Jie from SAIC-GM, the cumulative sales volume of Buick brand in 20 19 was 837,300 vehicles, down19% year-on-year; The cumulative sales volume of Chevrolet brand was 4,654.38+0.35 million, down 24.8% year-on-year; The cumulative sales volume of Cadillac was 2,654.38+0.25 million units, down 6.8% year-on-year. Considering the rapid growth and high base of Cadillac in previous years, the performance of 20 19 is also normal, while the performance of Buick and Chevrolet is higher than the overall decline of the automobile market, which deserves attention.

In fact, simply tracking the sales performance of several main sales models of Buick brand shows that its sales performance is obviously related to the three-cylinder engine. Take Yinglang as an example. This model was equipped with 1.0T and 1.3T three-cylinder turbocharged engines in the middle of 20 17 and Yinglang in 20 17 respectively. In 20 18, with the continuous fermentation of the trust crisis of three-cylinder engines, Yinglang's sales declined. The annual sales volume was only 262,000 vehicles, a sharp drop of 37. 17% year-on-year, and it also fell out of the top ten sales list of joint venture vehicles.

As a pillar model of Buick brand, Yinglang's sales change can be regarded as a barometer of Buick's overall sales performance. In view of this situation, on the one hand, SAIC-GM increased the promotion of three-cylinder engines, on the other hand, in May, 2065,438+09, it introduced the original factory warranty policy of three-cylinder engine powertrain for 8 years or 654,380+06,000 kilometers. ? With the increasing acceptance of the three-cylinder engine market and the introduction of this policy, Yinglang's sales began to pick up. In 20 19, Yinglang's annual sales volume was 279,300 vehicles, up 6.6% year-on-year.

The decline in Chevrolet's sales is also related to the promotion of three-cylinder engines, so generally speaking, GM's slightly poor performance in 20 19 is the trust crisis of three-cylinder engines. However, with the improvement of market acceptance of three-cylinder engines and a series of measures taken by GM to promote four-cylinder engines during product replacement, it is believed that GM's sales in China market will continue to pick up.

Ford: remarkable results were achieved at the beginning of the transformation.

As we all know, 20 19 is the year of Ford's transformation. From the release of the "Ford China 2.0" strategy in April to the joint release of the "Changan Ford Acceleration Plan" by Changan Automobile and Ford Motor in September, in just one year, Ford has taken actions in many fields such as products, technology, sales and marketing. At present, these actions have achieved initial results.

Looking back, the decline in Ford's sales in China is related to the slow launch of new products, insufficient localization of products and insufficient technology. Therefore, this round of transformation of Ford also starts with products. After the official announcement of Ford China 2.0 strategy in April, the launch of new Ford products continued to accelerate, especially 20 19? In the second half of 2008, all-new Focus Active, all-new Taurus, all-new Sharp ST/ST-Line, Leading EV, Sharp International and other models were listed one after another.

Especially for Sharp, this car is considered to be Ford's next key model, with a starting price of less than 200,000 yuan, all four-wheel drive as standard, and the all-aluminum suspension design with a luxury brand standard of 500,000 yuan for the first time at the same level, which reflects Ford's enterprising spirit.

With the launch of new products and a series of reform measures, Ford's sales rebounded obviously in the second half of last year, although its sales volume still showed a downward trend last year. Since the monthly sales volume of Changan Ford exceeded 20,000 vehicles in June last year, the sales volume continued to climb in the following months, and the retail volume in September and June reached 42,600 vehicles and 47,000 vehicles respectively.

At the same time, because of the strategy of "fixing production by sales", the inventory of Changan Ford dealers is also decreasing. According to official data, the inventory of its dealers has remained at a low level of 35 days to 45 days, and some dealers have begun to make profits.

At present, Ford's transformation has achieved initial results, but the prospects are still unpredictable. On the one hand, China's automobile market is still declining, on the other hand, Ford's recovery is also related to its previous low base. Whether it can continue to recover and return to the peak is still unknown. In addition, after several years of continuous decline, it is not a simple matter to repair Ford's brand power.

Jeep: Still stuck in the quagmire of decline

Compared with GM and Ford, the life of Jeep brand and Guangfeike is much more difficult.

When Jeep was first made in China, its performance was amazing. In 20 16 years, the cumulative sales volume of GAC Fick reached 179800, up by 260% year-on-year. In 20 17, its sales volume reached 222,000 vehicles, up 57% year-on-year, among which the sales volume of domestic Jeep exceeded 200,000 vehicles, up 57% year-on-year.

But from 20 18, Jeep's sales began to decline. In 20 18, the sales volume of guangfeike dropped to125,000 vehicles, down 38.99% year-on-year. By 20 19, the sales volume of guangfeike was only 74,000, which dropped sharply again.

There are multiple reasons for the decline in Jeep sales, but the quality problem after the localization of products has always been considered as the main reason. On 20 18, Jeep brand vehicles burned a lot of engine oil, which led to the owners' extensive rights protection. Later, Free Light was exposed by CCTV 3. 15 because of burning oil, and then Guangfeike recalled 143800 2.4L Free Light and Guide. As a result of this incident,

At the same time, the survival of dealers is becoming more and more difficult, and the pressure on profits and inventory is enormous. Therefore, in 20 18, many dealers of guangfeike withdrew from the network, the products and reputation of Jeep brand fell to the bottom, and guangfeike began to "save itself". On April 29th, 20 19, Jie Zheng, who worked in fiat Chrysler group for 10 years, left the company, and the next day, he was in FCC.

At present, the reform has been carried out for more than half a year, but the situation of Guangfeike seems to have not been significantly alleviated, and the sales volume is still weak. It doesn't seem optimistic that phreak alone can rebound against the trend in 2020.

Write it at the end

On the whole, the decline of American cars is the result of the downturn of China market and the problems of enterprises' own products, and it is not difficult to draw a conclusion that the quality and localization level of products become more important under the situation that China market enters stock competition. In the extensive market growth period, the good days of selling a product casually are gone forever. Whoever has a lower attitude, who can launch products that better meet the needs of users in China, is likely to survive.

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