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A few days ago, the registered trademark "Musa" submitted by Beijing Hyundai was exposed on the China Trademark website of the Trademark Office of the State intellectual property Office. As "Musa" is close to the transliteration of Beijing Hyundai MUFASA, "Musa" is likely to become the Chinese name of the car. In addition to "Musa", Beijing Hyundai has also applied for trademarks such as "Mu Sha", "Mufasa", "Musa" and "Musa sa". The transliteration of these trademarks is also close to that of Beijing Hyundai MUFASA. At the same time, Beijing Hyundai also applied for the "Lion King" trademark because "MUFASA" has the same name as Simba's father in the Disney animated film "Lion King," but Musa is more like the name of a car. Of course, whether it sounds good to name the new car "Musa" is another matter.

In the latest declaration catalogue of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the automobile industry has obtained the declaration chart of Beijing Hyundai's brand-new model-MUFASA, which can be regarded as a replacement of modern ix35. The new car adopts the brand-new design of the modern family, but the overall design is not amazing. As a reference, the price of the modern ix35 is 12.98-155800 yuan, and it is estimated that the starting price of the modern MUFASA may be around 130000 yuan.

According to the declaration chart released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Beijing Hyundai MUFASA adopts a new design style of the modern family, the interior of the polygonal front grille is embellished with similar honeycomb elements, and the center of the grille uses the luminous brand LOGO, which is surrounded by the front of the fangs style. At the same time, the half-moon design of the headlight group, with the net looks very visual impact.

The side of the body, the lower part of the door is also designed with black trim and chrome trim, the back roof with a penetrating waistline, coupled with a newly designed hub to further enhance the sports atmosphere. In the rear part of the car, modern designers have created a narrow banner rounded rectangular taillight group for the car, which looks very strange, with a modern brand letter logo in the center. At the same time, the car is decorated with a diffuser to enhance the sporty flavor of the car.

In terms of size, the length, width and height of the new car are 4475 / 1850 to 1665 (1681 to 1685) mm, and the wheelbase is 2680mm. For reference, the length, width and height of the 2021 modern ix35 are 4500 mm 1850 mm, and the wheelbase is 2640mm. In comparison, the length of modern MUFASA is shorter than ix35 25mm, and the wheelbase is longer 40mm than ix35. In terms of power, Beijing Hyundai MUFASA carries a G4NJ 2.0L naturally aspirated engine produced by Shandong Hyundai Weiya Automobile engine Co., Ltd., with a maximum power of 118kw.

Ix35 is a compact SUV model owned by Beijing Hyundai. It was once a best-selling model under Beijing Hyundai, with monthly sales of more than 10,000 vehicles. It is a product that can compete with the German and Japanese compact SUV. However, with the decline of the quality and competitiveness of Beijing Hyundai products, the performance of ix35 in the end market has obviously stalled.

In April 2010, Beijing Hyundai ix35 launched a total of six models with 2.0L and 2.4L engines, with a price range of 16.98-242800 yuan. In November 2017, the new generation of ix35 was officially listed, with an official price range of 11.99-161900 yuan. In terms of power, the new car is equipped with a 2.0L engine with a maximum power of 160hp and a peak torque of 193Nm, which is matched by a 6AT gearbox.

In December 2020, the medium-term revamped ix35 was officially listed with a market guidance price of 12.98-155800 yuan. In terms of appearance, the shape of the new ix35 front grille has been changed to an interlaced style, the horizontal headlights are connected to the large-size medium net, and the front bumper has also been redesigned. In terms of power, the new ix35 continues to carry 1.4T turbocharged and 2.0L naturally aspirated engines with maximum power of 140hp and 160hp, and peak torque of 193Nm and 242Nm, respectively.

The annual sales of the ix35 in 2022 is 64148 vehicles, which is far behind Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Nissan and other models in the compact SUV market, according to the Carriage Association. However, in the Beijing Hyundai product camp, the performance of the ix35 is not poor, it is the second-selling model of Hyundai in Beijing, after the Elantra, which sells 99856 vehicles for the whole year.

On October 18, 2002, Hyundai Group and BAIC jointly established Beijing Hyundai, which became the first Sino-foreign joint venture project in the field of automobile production approved after China's entry into WTO. At that time, the best-selling models on the market were Jetta, Pusan, Xiali and so on, while the Sonata, as the first production car of Beijing Hyundai, sold very gratifying after its listing, reaching 177000 units in the third year on the market, accounting for 10% of the B-class car market. After that, Beijing Hyundai used the shortest time to reach the record of 1 million vehicles produced and sold by domestic automakers, with sales of 1.03 million vehicles, 1.16 million vehicles, 1.06 million vehicles and 1.14 million vehicles respectively from 2013 to 2016, and reached an all-time peak in 2016. it is also one of the outstanding joint venture car companies in China.

At that time, the reason why Korean cars were able to achieve such extraordinary results in China depends on the "cost-effective ratio". However, many years later, Beijing Hyundai wants to rely on "performance-to-price ratio" to obtain the market, obviously can not get through. After 2017, Hyundai sales in Beijing have been declining, and by 2022, Hyundai sales in Beijing have fallen to 260300 vehicles, six consecutive years of decline.

Beijing Hyundai lags behind to a large extent because many internal problems have not been properly solved, and the disorderly development of products has led to the loss of clear market positioning of Beijing Hyundai. At present, Beijing Hyundai is gradually reduced to a third-line joint venture brand, and there is a growing gap between Beijing Hyundai and mainstream German and Japanese products and even independent brand products.

In November 2022, Beijing Hyundai launched the "2025 to New Program", which plans to return to the annual sales target of more than 500000 vehicles by 2025 through product transformation, brand innovation and service innovation. Among them, Beijing Hyundai will achieve full hybrid fuel vehicles in 2025, and build a hybrid product matrix of one MPV, two cars and three SUV models in the next 3-5 years, reaching the annual production and sales scale of 300000 hybrid products. But the key point is that in the context of declining brand awareness, Beijing Hyundai needs to think deeply about how to get market attention and consumer recognition for newly launched products.

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