China yuchang: to ask you a question on the new energy, from the global terms, the new energy models have two technical routes, one fuel cell, one pure electric. Will Ford's new energy models of the technical route is how to plan?
Sheryl: First of all explain, model research and development is not my professional. My research interests are global trends in other industries, such as mobile phones, health, etc., through a comprehensive study of other sectors of insight, to explore the future potential opportunities.
For Ford, we think it is best to let customers decide what kind of car is right for them. Some people may like the car, some people may like the SUV, some people may like the pickup. In making the choice of cars, we come to choose what kind of power system to suit their requirements. At the current stage, Ford has a leading turbocharged direct injection engine EcoBoost, but also high-tech diesel engines, as well as hybrid electric vehicles, and pure electric electric vehicles. I do not think there will be only one dynamic model in the future, this is my personal point of view.
China yuchang: I have two questions: first, you have investigated the people of the unmanned view or attitude? Are people more looking for unmanned driving or do they prefer to drive on their own? The second is that people view the electric car, people like the future of the car are electric it? Or more like a traditional internal combustion engine as a mechanical feeling? Like the United States a lot of muscle sports car, this is the electric car can not be replaced
Sheryl: First of all, to answer your first question, we have done a global survey, people are not really interested in autopilot technology. The answer is also very interesting. For example, in India and China, people are most interested in this technology. In India, one of our research found that 84% of Indians expressed willingness to accept the future of their own sitting in an autopilot vehicle. In response to this problem, the result in China is 78%, only 40% in the United States, the lowest is the United Kingdom, only 30%. We speculate that China and India may have a lot of large congestion in the city, people spend time in the commute is very long, and the accident rate and mortality is very high. If you have an autopilot, it's not just about convenience, it's about security.
Many Ford employees from the feedback point of view, they still enjoy the fun of driving, but Ford also autopilot a lot of investment. However, in the traditional power models, especially the performance of the input and output of vehicles, Ford has made significant advantages in the Chinese market-selling Mustang model is an example. In recent years, Ford's investment for the traditional model is the highest ever, for example, this year's 24-hour World Le Mans endurance race, Ford won the GTE-Pro category champion, just this year is the trend of the fifth report. Electric cars, Ford will invest an additional 4.5 billion US dollars for the development of new electric vehicles, by 2020, we will introduce 13 new electric vehicles. Such a large investment will bring a substantial increase in intelligent electric vehicles. Such as life mileage, and compatible applications on the phone, such as through the phone to understand how much the remaining battery model is to find the nearest distance between the charging pile and so on.
China yuchang: You are doing the future trend analysis, your research results for Ford's product development departments have any suggestions to help them to the Chinese market or other markets to introduce this more trendy or more forward-looking products?
Sheryl: In fact, as a futurologist, my main job is to understand what the market is changing, and my work is global. Our concern for China should be said to be long-term, very close. We communicate with experts in various industries, such as Beijing's political experts, as well as technical, environmental and economic experts, they will tell us the trend, or we call it "situational planning." These "situational planning" are very important tools, can promote us to have a long-term thinking. For a 113-year-old company, Ford is now in a very important and very interesting moment of history, as our chairman, Mr. Bill Ford, Ford Motor founder Henry Ford's great-grandson, as a Responsible car company, we began to worry about, if we keep on the road and then increase the vehicle will happen what kind of situation. As we all know, some people in Beijing, the daily commute time takes 5 hours, last year there have been more than 10 days of continuous blockage situation. So as a company, we are going to expand the scope of the products and services provided to the market, the introduction of the "Ford Smart Mobility Plan." We want to be a service provider, because not all people want to own a car or want to drive their own, so we will have some new business models, for example, we share a car, or even Is some of the shuttle bus or bicycle rental business, which may all be the future of the new model.
China yuchang: Just now your speech mentioned the Chinese consumers and other countries such as India, the United States or other European countries, values, consumption patterns and lifestyles are different in many ways. I would like to invite you to use a few keywords to sum up the Chinese SUV consumers in the next two to three years, is about how to present the trend? The second question is, because Ford is now implementing the "one Ford" overall brand strategy, from the perspective of the user in China, you generally give Ford what kind of advice?
Sheryl: I think there is a lot of optimism in the Chinese market, full of passion. In fact, for a long time, when the world view of China when there is such a view, the Chinese middle class chase is the social status of their own labels or a variety of luxury goods. But dig deep, you will find that they actually pay more attention to a variety of life experience, as well as family, which leads to what we call "a better life." Chinese people in their own life is not a good time, material possession is not the only decisive factor, but more of a pleasure.
"A Ford" refers to our entire brand to gather together, which means a team, a goal. But we have to take into account the different markets, to close to the needs of different regions of the market, so that our brand to everyone's commitment is the same. But in different markets, we promise this way may be different, and Ford's DNA no matter where in the world are unchanged. As an example, the Chinese SYNC 3 car interconnection system can support Chinese handwriting input recognition function, which is not available in other countries.
China yuchang: What will Ford do when your research trends conflict with the existing Ford owners' usage habits?
Sheryl: I'd like to explain a little bit about the trend report. What does trend mean? In fact, when we say trends, we have a hypothesis, when a person in his teens or early twenties, his values have been identified. This value will not change as you age, or if you are at different stages of your life, or if you change your residence.
To give you an example, such as jeans. Jeans have been around for 150 years. In the past, a man in jeans might be a blue-collar worker because jeans are cheap and very durable. But now is not the case, jeans is a very fashionable thing, the whole community are very welcome this fashion, whether you go to the most expensive restaurant, or you are serving the kind of the most conservative workplace, people will Welcome to the emergence of jeans. So we think this is a trend, is the people's values or attitude towards some things slowly evolved process.
When we are talking about trends, in fact, not necessarily just from the automotive industry. We will find some laws from other industries, these laws will tell us that society is changing. Because from you have an idea, to put this idea really can be sold out, open the car on the road, take three to five years. So we want to ensure that the real concern is meaningful things, is some long-term trend, rather than short-lived fashion trend. Take jeans to give an example, we all know that jeans actually have a variety of styles, speakers, tight legs, long, short ... ... these are actually short-lived things, it will not affect our value system. So we want to ensure that these short-term trend will not be distracted, to pay attention to the long-term meaningful trend.
China yuchang: I have seen from your resume that you have been a futurist of Ford Motor Company for more than 10 years. I would like to ask the Ford Futurist this position what special charm you can engage in this Industry for ten years?
Sheryl: Because I really love this job. It should be said that this may be the only Ford I really want to do the work. I said earlier, I am not a traditional car people, I bring the value of the company is to enable companies to challenge the status quo. I would encourage my colleagues to look at the world from different perspectives, such as the Smart Mobility Initiative. This concept may be a decade ago, the company which has not been a lot of people accept. A similar example is, I have a decade ago has been proposed rental economy is slowly rising. Ford also saw a lot of opportunities in this trend. So I think our company is undergoing a revolutionary change, and at this moment in the company which play such a role, is a very exciting thing.
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