facecar goes overseas with Chinese car companies to compete in new battlegrounds

In the first half of 2023, China became the world's No. 1 auto exporter. The technological breakthroughs, intelligent development and cultural export of Chinese auto brands have also prepared the elements of development for globalization.

Going overseas with Chinese car companies

How Chinese new energy vehicle brands can compete and get out of the main battlefield in Europe, and grasp the opportunities and paths for emerging growth market share and future globalization.

Mr. Zhu Jiaming, co-founder of facecar, combined with industry trends and innovation cases to share the design direction and innovation trends of independent brands going overseas from the perspectives of products, brands, user groups and cultures with the topic of "Overseas Consumers' Behavioral Habits and Cockpit Application Scenarios" in the 2nd Automotive Overseas Export Summit Forum in 2023. The topic was "Overseas Consumer Behavior and Cockpit Application Scenarios".

Trends and Environment of Chinese Car Companies Going Overseas

In the sharing around the trend and environment of car enterprises going overseas, Mr. Zhu Jiaming mainly introduced the main battlegrounds for Chinese new energy brands to compete, the market share, and the market environment of the main markets Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.

"To enter overseas market, we need to understand users and regulations". In his speech, Mr. Zhu analyzed in detail the preferences of overseas user groups, language and culture, relevant traffic regulations and privacy rules, and explored the differences between the driving needs of overseas user groups and those of domestic user groups, such as "youthfulness, fashionable design, lifestyle, cockpit space and driving experience".
Mr. Zhu said, "facecar has been providing full-process user experience consulting services for world-renowned automotive companies and brands for 13 consecutive years, and has a rich theoretical system and practical experience in experience innovation and user insights. The team has professional innovation talents with diversified backgrounds covering user research, interaction design, visual design, 3D animation and other fields, and has helped many automobile brands realize experience innovation and combine innovation and design into mass production models. At the same time, we have also contributed to the innovation power in the process of Chinese auto brands going overseas".

Overseas HMI Design Differences
For overseas intelligent cockpit travel scenarios, Mr. Zhu Jiaming analyzed "navigation scenarios, driving scenarios, range scenarios, travel scenarios, voice interaction scenarios, entertainment scenarios, and customized cockpit scenarios". According to Mr. Zhu, "We should build open, flexible and highly scalable solutions in advance for overseas business." At the same time, he shared the four key points of the brand strategy of automobile globalization, emphasized the international differentiated design, "the products are highly matched with the local needs and differentiation, the transportation distance in overseas areas is far, the charging pile equipment is not perfect, and the low temperature environment in some areas of Europe and North America, so the overseas users pay more attention to the battery life."

According to Zhu Jiaming, "For products and applications to be released globally, the globalization process needs to be considered, i.e. 'internationalization' and 'localization'. Internationalization is a convergent design approach to meet the needs of different countries through one solution, while localization is a personalized solution for each country."

For example, in some countries, the writing or reading habit is from right to left, and the user's page-turning mode of thinking is also from right to left, so the design of the function sequence and paging symbols also need to be changed to a right-to-left order. When adjusting the volume of the device, it is also operated in the opposite direction as in China.

The international differentiated design of automobile is reflected in many dimensions and levels, only the HMI design has to be differentiated from visual, gesture, layout, dynamic effect, sound effect, interface terminology and other aspects. The internationalization of independent brands is not only a big trend, but also a big challenge. facecar will continue to accompany and support the globalization of Chinese auto brands.