Giant Awakening: Toyota Starts Electric Counterattack

In late April, 333 Songze Avenue ushered in the best spring festival in Shanghai. Outside the exhibition hall, the crowded traffic and dense crowd announced that the 2021 Shanghai auto show has begun, and there is an urgent need for change in the exhibition hall under the calm wind and waves. Echoing the theme "embracing change" of this auto show, auto companies such as Volkswagen, GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai Kia have either displayed pure electric platform models or flaunted high-end technology, and the giant counterattack has begun.

It is worth noting that for the pure circuit path has always been conservative Toyota no longer hesitated, and finally sounded the clarion call of counterattack.

On April 19, Toyota released the BZ (beyond zero) pure electric exclusive series to the world, and its first model, BZ 4x concept, was launched in the world. It is reported that Toyota bz4x is planned to be produced in China and Japan, and is expected to achieve global sales by the middle of 2022. As a part of all-round electrification, Toyota will launch 15 pure electric vehicles worldwide by 2025, among which BZ pure electric exclusive series plans to launch 7 products.

"In recent years, Chinese consumers have a very high demand for electric vehicles, especially pure electric vehicles. This is why we introduced BZ series into the Chinese market. " At the communication meeting, CEO of Toyota Motor Company, Mr. Masahiko Maeda, said frankly at the communication meeting that "for all electric products and models, the final choice is the consumer, not the manufacturer, that is, customers will decide the final market development according to their own needs."

It is worth mentioning that at the media communication meeting on the day of the auto show, the head of the headquarters of Toyota Motor China, chairman and general manager of Toyota China, Takayasu Nakao, executive deputy general manager of Toyota China and chairman and general manager of TMEC, and Dong Changzheng, senior executive deputy general manager of Toyota China, were present on the scene. As far away as Japan, the CEO of Toyota Motor Company, Mr. Masahiko Maeda, the executive director of Toyota Motor Company, and the chief engineer of Toyota ZEV factory have conducted in-depth communication through video link. It is self-evident that Toyota attaches great importance to this electric transformation.

Toyota's anxiety

Different from other traditional automobile giants who actively embrace the wave of electrification, Toyota's attitude towards direct transformation of electrification is not very positive. VW and GM have launched several pure electric vehicles, such as VW ID series and Buick micro blue series. Last year, Mercedes Benz, BMW and Audi announced the full arrival of the era of luxury electric vehicles. Compared with Toyota, which is in the first tier, the first electric vehicle based on e-tnga pure electric architecture is a step behind them. Compared with its leading position in hybrid technology and hydrogen fuel cell technology, Toyota does not seem to make much of a splash in pure electric.

In fact, as early as 1983, Toyota has independently developed pure electric vehicles, and successively launched ev10, ev20 and other series of EV Models; In 1996, Toyota began to develop the RAV4 EV, and launched it in the United States the following year, which is the first Toyota electric vehicle in real mass production; Toyota launched its second-generation RAV4 EV in 2012, when Tesla provided motors, lithium-ion batteries, software, etc. In 2014, the two parted ways. Toyota focused on the development of hybrid and fuel cell vehicles, while Tesla still adhered to the pure electric line.

At the end of 2016, Toyota set up EV business planning department to promote the layout of pure electric vehicles. A year later, Toyota released the plan for pure electric vehicles for the first time; In 2019, Toyota introduced PHEV plug-in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, corolla dual engine E + and leiling dual engine E +. The year 2020 is the first year for the formal implementation of Toyota's electric vehicle planning: in March 2020, Toyota and BYD jointly established a pure electric vehicle R & D company to jointly develop pure electric vehicles and parts; In April, Toyota's first mass production pure electric vehicle c-hr EV / Ezer e engine and Lexus brand mass production pure electric vehicle model UX 300E were successively put on the market.

According to the latest data of the Federation of passenger cars, the retail sales of domestic new energy passenger vehicles reached 182000 in March this year, up 239.6% year-on-year. From January to March, the wholesale volume of domestic new energy passenger cars reached 470000 units, a three fold increase compared with 114000 units in January March 2020. More importantly, the retail penetration rate of domestic new energy vehicles reached 8.6% from January to March, significantly higher than that of 5.8% in 2020. But behind the gratifying sales, specifically speaking, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in Chinese brands and mainstream joint venture brands is 20.5% and 1.3%, respectively. The joint venture plate is obviously lagging behind.

No doubt, with the large-scale introduction of pure electric products, Toyota will fully open the new energy offensive in China's automobile market. In fact, Toyota's attitude towards electric vehicles has changed, on the one hand, because of China's double point policy; On the other hand, it is the market attraction brought by China's growing electric vehicle market. Although Toyota has begun to find lost ground in the Chinese market in recent years, its share in the Chinese market is far lower than its position in the global market.

Although there is no clear opposition to the development trend of electric vehicles, in December last year, the head of Toyota Motor, Mr. Toyoda, once said that the concept of electric vehicles has been over hyped. If the automobile industry turns to electric vehicles too hastily, the current business model will collapse. Just a month earlier, Mr. Toyoda acknowledged that Tesla's market value did exceed the combined valuations of seven Japanese automakers. But in his view, although Tesla's market value is indeed quite high, "it has not made real things.". Tesla's business is a restaurant that is still promoting new recipes, and Toyota is more like a restaurant with a large number of customers, he said. Toyoda's move is considered to be envious of Tesla's high market value.

In 2020, Toyota's global sales volume will reach 9.528 million, while Tesla's will be 499500, accounting for only 5% of Toyota's volume. In June last year, Tesla's market value surpassed that of Toyota, and then Tesla's share price continued to soar. Today, Tesla's market value has exceeded $700 billion, more than three Toyota.

It is undeniable that the outbreak of China's new energy vehicle market has also attracted more competitors to enter. The traditional automobile giants are making efforts to electrify. Tesla and Weilai have initially established their foothold. Lantu, Zhiji and aan are also trying to enter the market. Xiaomi, Baidu and other cross-border players are also eager to try. Can Toyota continue to make brilliant achievements in the crowded track?

Accelerating electrification

It is worth noting that, unlike the electric vehicles developed based on the exclusive platform of pure electric vehicles in the industry, up to now, the pure electric vehicles launched by Toyota are mostly based on the transformation of fuel vehicles into electric vehicles. However, with the production of BZ pure electric exclusive series models, Toyota no longer tests water with a single product, but really starts to electric counter attack.

BZ 4x is based on the e-tnga pure electric architecture jointly developed by Toyota and Subaru, and carries the battery jointly developed with Ningde era. According to Toyoma Haoer, BZ series involves many models and will import many EV Models to the world in the future. Battery supply is very important. Therefore, Toyota will find local suppliers in various countries and regions to provide batteries for EV products sold and produced in local areas.

In addition, BZ series will also launch China's exclusive models jointly developed with BYD. Recently, it was reported that "the new pure electric vehicle model jointly produced by Toyota and BYD is undergoing road test, and the core technology is BYD's, and Toyota is just labeling." In response to this rumor, Mr. Maeda responded, "BYD and Toyota engineers work together to complete the vehicle development. Each company will give full play to their own technology and expertise to create more valuable and popular products for customers. "

At the same time, Toyota's high-end brand Lexus also made clear the time point of electrification at the Shanghai auto show. It is estimated that by 2025, all Lexus models will provide electrified versions, and the sales proportion of electrified models will surpass that of traditional gasoline powered models; By 2050, the whole product line of Lexus plans to achieve the goal of "carbon neutral" in the whole life cycle, from the production and manufacturing of raw materials, parts and vehicles, to the logistics of vehicles, and to the final recycling of vehicles.

With the release of Toyota BZ pure electric exclusive series, Toyota will launch more electric vehicles worldwide. "In order to better meet the needs of consumers, Toyota will further expand its electric vehicle lineup," he said. To be specific, it is necessary to realize the proportion of electric vehicle sales at the same time, as well as the double growth of the overall sales volume, so as to further realize the popularization of electric vehicles. "

According to the plan, by 2025, more than 30 new electric vehicles will be introduced into China by Toyota and Lexus brands, including HEV, PHEV, EV and FCEV; BZ pure electric exclusive series of vehicles, a total of 7 models, of which 5 will be introduced into the Chinese market, by 2025, Toyota and Lexus will have 10 EV Models in China; By 2025, electric vehicles including HEV will account for 50% of the sales volume, and the overall sales volume will increase by 50% compared with that in 2020.

Among them, 5 of the 7 models of BZ exclusive series will be imported into China, which is the largest in number. Talking about the reasons, Mr. TOJIMA told reporters that, first of all, environmental protection vehicles can only be truly popularized in order to achieve real environmental protection; Secondly, the introduction of models is determined according to the specific national conditions of each country, including the different needs of consumers in different countries“ At present, the development speed of China's electrification, especially EV, is the fastest in the world. The demand of Chinese consumers for EV Models is also the largest and diversified. A single model should not be able to meet the needs of Chinese consumers. "

In addition, Toyota said that in addition to electric products, Toyota will promote carbon dioxide emission reduction in production, battery recycling, tree planting and other fields from the perspective of the whole life cycle, so as to contribute to the realization of carbon neutrality in China.

Looking back at the centenary development history of the automobile industry, it is only a relative concept to attack and defend, fast and slow. In the era of reform, there are many pioneers who have been annihilated in the long history, and many of the latecomers have achieved great success. Although Toyota has made great achievements in hybrid electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, in the face of the brand-new pure electric field, can the belated Toyota catch up and succeed again?

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