Automotive Interior: The Next Battlefield for World Motor Company Competition
2023-06-18
Car interiors, the next battlefield for competition
[In the future, Chery will not let go of an unsatisfied car. Chery will have to work hard in the interior of the car to make the interior fully up-to-date. This work has now begun. In the second half of this year, consumers will Can experience a 'fine' Chery." This is the chairman of Chery Yin Tongyao recently to the media state.
"I admit that Chery's first three products have a rough side. In addition to considering the return of funds, after the product is offline, we too need to let it quickly enter the market, too need to hear the feedback of customers, too need to know the peer Its evaluation." Yin Tongyao used three [too" to explain the reasons for the [precaution" of the previous product. "Roughness" has affected the continued high-speed growth of Chery's market share. "Roughness" has, to some extent, damaged the reputation of the Chery brand.
Chery did not have the words and art, and dared to admit his inadequacies. When reporters asked other car manufacturers whether they encountered the same problem, they almost euphemistically admitted that they are: "Our manufacturing process still has a gap with foreign countries, and the interior design of products is a weak link." The issue raised by the reporter seems to be too advanced. It seems that the sophisticated design of the interior is a late-maturing variety that consumers need to wait patiently.
According to the survey, out of the 55 new cars that were listed on the domestic market in 2003, only a handful of cars had interiors as selling points. Only in the Elysee SX/VTS (leather upholstery/metal feel interior style), Guangzhou Honda New Accord (upholstery has a big upgrade), and 03 Nissan new bluebird (interior luxury) and other products appear in the selling point column Interior wording.
However, in the international sports arena, design war has already moved to interior design. According to overseas media reports, the international automotive design community is following the design trends of Japanese companies with a sincere attitude. Because the interior of the Japanese car is exquisite, the design performance is outstanding, and this design feature has long been transformed into the most direct competitiveness of the Japanese models in expanding the territory on the international sports car. The three major automotive groups in the United States compete with Japanese companies in high-end interiors. They cater to the preferences of consumers and add to their cars all the refinement, anger and devotion of European cars. A car designer once said to reporters: [The most likely car design is the interior design. The appearance of the car is for others to see. What people really enjoy is the interior design of the car."
From a styling design perspective, interior design accounts for more than half of all vehicle designs. Because of the relative complexity of the interior design, the components involved are relatively numerous. To design a product's interior is as complicated as the car's shape design. Interior products include dashboards, steering wheels, seats, control buttons, air conditioning outlets, shifter heads, door trims, door handles, and more. At the same time, the interior design must match the shape design. Although there are many concept cars that are beautiful in shape, the interior design is inconsistent with the shape, which affects the coordination of the aesthetics of the vehicle and greatly reduces the aesthetic appearance. The insiders often know at a glance that it was not done by a group of designers, and at least not communicated well. In terms of job characteristics, interior designers mostly come from product designers, because the interior products are mostly close-contact, so the design needs to consider more details and need more delicate, and emphasizes the sense of touch, feel, Comfort, visibility and more.
For automotive interior design, Du Baonan, director of automotive design and design at Design Balance Industrial Design, has deep feelings. He believes that, from the development trend in recent years, the trend of international trends in interior design is more and more tend to digital and high-tech, modeling tends to be simple, neat, and pay more attention to the application of a variety of materials, collocation. From the perspective of the development of the design language, the development trend of the international design style from 1997 to 2000 was that the automotive design language influenced and guided the product design style. From 2001 to 2004, due to the advent of the digital age, the widespread use of high-tech digital products (such as digital communication products and video audio/video products) has greatly influenced the trend of car design. The style of product design has begun to guide and influence the car. The design style of the vehicle. Many interior design elements of a concept car (such as buttons/buttons, display sections, backlight design, etc.) are similar to home appliances, computer products, and communication products.
"In developed countries in Europe and the United States, most consumers prefer a simple design style. Products with beautiful shapes and simple styles will appear in every corner of their lives. This style will become an aesthetic standard in their lives." Du Baonan This way he evaluates the tastes of European and American consumers he is familiar with.
For the tastes of consumers in developing countries, he believes that in Asian countries, it may be because of population-intensive reasons. People do not have the concept of sparsely populated countries in Europe and the United States. They prefer to have a lot of details and even luxurious arrangements. Use these to highlight your personality. As far as the domestic situation is concerned, consumers do not consider the proportion of interior quality when buying a car. Many models have made adjustments after entering China, removing high-tech parts and adding decorative parts such as peach wood trim and leather seats to reduce costs.
The Japanese knew the Chinese consumer psychology very well, and thus did a lot of articles in the interior design, starting from the decoration, adding some useless configurations such as bright plating, peach wood decoration to confuse consumers. In fact, in a sense, these things are very common, but they can also prove that most people are "pursuing luxury."
The main reason is that cars are only just beginning to be popular in China. Most consumers don`t know much about cars, they don`t know how to choose them, and it`s not clear how to evaluate and test whether the layout is reasonable and whether the interior quality is good or bad. As long as other brands have configurations, their own cars are just as good. As the popularity of automobiles continues to increase, this phenomenon will change. Consumers will eventually choose to design a good, comfortable product. As a specific user, they have much more time to touch the interior of the car than the shape of the car. Whether interior design is good or bad (including design, material comfort, layout, conformity with usage habits, etc.) will directly affect his use and even mood. In this sense, the interior design of the car is particularly important.
People all say that we can't survive without being [showing" right now. However, in the opinion of reporters, this involves the cultural differences of the nation, and the emphasis on functioning is still heavy. It requires careful scrutiny at specific times. In any case, Chery's ability to openly admire the interior is a good thing, but it is important to first touch the preferences of the people. (Liu Yuanna)
Car interior enters the era of extreme decoration gap is less than 1 mm
The major automobile companies in the world have been trying their best to improve the quality of products, increase their competitiveness, and please consumers. In these kinds of efforts, an important part is the improvement of interior quality.
Mr. Greg Bernas is the project executive manager of Toyota Motor and an automotive engineer. His full-time job is to reduce the gap between the car interior and the car body, such as the gap between the door and dashboard of the glove box, or the gap between the lid of the cup holder and the central storage box, and so on. Today, these tiny details have become a very important indicator of the quality of car interiors. Those gaps around car audio, air conditioning devices, and door handles have become narrower and narrower, and they are increasingly being used by car manufacturers as proof of superior quality.
Bernas believes that with the narrowing of the overall quality gap between different brands of cars, automotive interiors have become a new battleground for competition. The ultimate goal of this war is to fully match the interior parts of the car to zero distance.
According to JDPower's report, car interiors have been overall improved over the past five years. The problem report for the first three months after the purchase of a new car has dropped a lot. These issues include annoying friction, or less prominent carpeting. Between 1998 and 2003, the interior quality of American car brands rose the fastest. The interior problems of the 100 models dropped from 25.0% in 1998 to 17.2% last year. The European automotive company, the same indicator is reduced from 30.6% to 23.5%.
Toyota and its luxury brand Lexus have been the front runners in the interior. In the JDPower interior quality report, Lexus ranked first in the past six years. At the just-concluded Chicago Auto Show, Toyota set a new goal for his colleagues. On its 2004 So-lara, Toyota announced that the gap between the car interiors has been reduced from the old 1.5 mm to 0.5 mm. Don Esmond, senior vice president and sales division of Toyota Americas, said that such high precision requirements will give customers a very high quality and exquisite feel. More importantly, such an accurate match will be maintained over a long period of time. Although 1 mile of 1 gallon of oil is not a big achievement in terms of fuel economy, for the interior, a gap of 1 mm is a remarkable thing.
Bob Lutz, vice president of product development at General Motors, acknowledged: [We are really lagging behind Japanese companies in this area, but we are learning." He said that the advent of Buick La Crosse this fall will be an excellent testimony. Buick La Crosse represented our first major move to improve interiors to achieve the best interior levels in Japanese cars. He said La Crosse's rich interior material texture and wood grain will hopefully bring a positive impact to the Buick brand.
Lutz hopes that Buick will become the United States Lexus, providing the highest quality car possible within the price consumers can afford. This is one of the strategies that Mazda is using. The Mazda B series pickups also intend to provide consumers with high-quality interiors on a low-cost basis. Jeremy Barnes, a spokeswoman for Mazda, said that because consumers cannot spend more than $30,000 to buy a car, there is no reason not to get high-quality interiors. Because only the interior is the item that the driver always feels after getting on the bus.
Ford`s interior design guide, Reichman, said comparing the Ford`s new Mustang`s interior with the older interiors shows how much energy we`ve spent on interior quality improvements in the new model, including Ford`s last year. The investment in decoration improvements is three times that of previous years. The quality of the material used in the new Mustang, the degree of docile material, and the distinction between different materials make it very attractive. At the time of design, the goal was to make its interior frictional sounds minimal, more durable and sportier. Ford is currently leading the use of new materials in the interior. Mercury Mariner2005, which is expected to be available this fall, uses a soft, comfortable fur. The $140,000 500-horse Ford GT used Azdel SuperLite for automotive interiors for the first time. It is a compound of glass fiber and many other substances. It was formerly only used for roofs.
U.S. Transport Research Institute said that at present, car users spend four times as much time on commuting traffic in cars as they did in 1982. As a result, car manufacturers and their designers have raised the importance of car interiors. The same height as the external environment. The time and money they spend on interior design while car designing is gradually increasing. (Hu Qiping)
Interior work is no longer a forgotten corner
Today, even the most subtle flaws in car interiors can be a failure for the whole car. If the car buyer finds that the dashboard is too bright or the plastic panel used feels too cheap, it will take a leg off. Stereo radio switches are smooth even if they are touched, but if they make a loud "click" when they spin, they will also suffer. Daimler-Chrysler hired consultants to study consumer preferences for car interiors and found that most people decided to like or hate the car within 90 seconds of fastening the doorknob.
Consumers' nitpicking urges automakers (especially the Big Three in Detroit) to urge their designers to make this small space as gorgeous and beautiful as possible. U.S. companies imitate Volkswagen and other companies, use computer-aided design methods to carry out certain design work, and also improve the materials selected for automotive interiors. Some companies even increase spending to decorate dashboards, seats, and other equipment in automobiles. . Ford Motor Company's new 500 sedan and Volkswagen's cars are similar in appearance, and they are well received by most car designers and corporate executives. Nicholas Scherr, Ford`s chief operating officer, said that this model does not require much investment. He pointed out that consumers think that hollow plastic buttons give a bad feeling, so Ford turned stereo radios and environmental control knobs into device control panels. When the driver presses the button, there is no sense of emptiness caused by the plastic components of the mold. Scherer said that buttons do indeed feel more solid, and this does not cost us any cost.
Interior work at General Motors is almost a corner forgotten by the product development department and this has only changed in recent years. According to company vice chairman Robert Lutz, when the budget for development departments such as body design, engines or transmissions exceeds the standard, the company will usually compress the expenses of the interior decoration department to obtain funds. Today, on the one hand, he requires all other departments to tighten the budget; on the other hand, he strives to maintain the integrity of the interior design department's budget. General Motors even added development funds to each car to improve interior levels. Lutz said: "The interior department is no longer a fund-backed bank for over-expensive departments."
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