Changan Ford, the 50:50 joint venture between Changan Automobile and Ford Motor Company, has been producing Ford vehicles for the Chinese market – including the Ford Mondeo and Ford Mustang Mach-E – for years now. The automaker’s in-vehicle tech was recently recognized by J.D. Power in its 2021 China Tech Experience Index (TXI) Study, and now, the data analytics and consumer intelligence company has ranked Changan in the middle of the pack in its newly released 2021 China APEAL Study.
The China APEAL Study takes a closer look at the relationship between new-vehicle owners and their vehicles over the first 2-6 months of ownership. The goal is to determine how or if satisfaction changes over that period of time, as well as to see if the appeal of that particular vehicle wears off once a consumer has spent some time behind the wheel.
Among mass-market brands in China, Changan Ford ranked 16th with a score of 731 out of 1,000, which placed it dead even with the segment average. Changan trailed a number of its rivals in the study, including GAC FCA Jeep (753), Buick (747), Dongfeng Nissan (742), Dongfeng Honda (741), and GAC Toyota (743), and tied with FAW-Volkswagen and Haval.
The 2021 China APEAL Study also generated some interesting findings regarding the direction of the market as well. Participants indicated that vehicle design is more important to them than last year, while Chinese EV owners are overall more satisfied with their vehicles than ICE owners. But perhaps most importantly, younger customers aren’t finding today’s vehicles to be terribly appealing.
“Customers born after 1990 now account for more than half of owners of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles; however, they are the least satisfied and the least excited with their vehicles,” said Jeff Cai, general manager of auto product practice at J.D. Power China. “This generation is more demanding in fashion, technology, and intelligent features than other generations, which requires the automakers to incorporate their special needs in the product plan and design phase as early as possible to ensure that vehicles proactively meet the demands of future customers.”
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you need to send that mondeo edge to australia with the 2ltr diesel engine and you will see your sales double if nnot triple in a very short period as there i s nothing on the market in australia that comes even close to the size nd comfort of a mondeo