Imagine that at a grand press conference, the manufacturer boss showed more than a dozen pure electric new cars in one go. The last time this scene appeared, it was probably in... Evergrande Auto booth at this year's Shanghai Auto Show?
Today, the magic scene is once again. However, the protagonist is no longer the suspicious real estate giant, but the Japanese giant who has always shown itself as "stable" and "conservative", Toyota Motor.
Well...... Misplaced the map, or enter the main topic.
On December 14, Toyota's head Akio Toyoda announced the electrification strategy that shocked the industry at a media briefing.
By 2030, invest 2 trillion yen ($17.6 billion) in battery technology research and development.
By 2030, a total of 30 pure electric vehicles will be launched, with a goal of 3.5 million electric vehicles sold worldwide that year.
Lexus will transform its pure electric brand: from 2030, it will only develop pure electric vehicles, with annual sales of electric vehicles in China, North America and Europe reaching 1 million units; in 2035, 100% of Lexus new vehicles will be electric vehicles.
The news came out, the Chinese Internet was in an uproar, and the reason for the controversy was of course the contrast:
Japanese brands, represented by Toyota, have been slow in the face of the wave of automobile electrification. Akio Toyoda himself has also been sent to the hot search for repeated remarks questioning electric vehicles.
For a time, various remarks such as "the last fortress of fuel vehicles collapsed" and "Toyota finally surrendered" appeared in relevant news comments.
But then again, Toyota has never said not to do electric vehicles.
As early as this year's Shanghai Auto Show, Toyota has released the bZ (Beyone Zero, meaning beyond zero emissions) pure electric brand to the world, and showed off the e-TNGA pure electric architecture, announcing that it will build a bZ series of pure electric vehicles based on this.
In November, the first production car of the bZ brand, the new pure electric SUV Toyota bZ4X, was officially unveiled. For this car, supercharging station in the previous article Toyota bZ4X unveiled: Japanese big brother finally serious? It has been described in detail for everyone, and its core highlights include:
Based on the development of a pure electric platform, it is no longer "oil to electricity" and realizes "a rear space comparable to that of a D-class sedan".
It features one Motion Grip steering-by-wire and a special-shaped steering wheel similar to the Tesla Model S Plaid.
Equipped with a 71.4 kWh lithium battery, although the maximum WLTC life is 500 kilometers, it promises to maintain 90% battery capacity after 10 years or 240,000 kilometers of driving.
It is reported that the Toyota bZ4X is planned to be produced in China and Japan, and is expected to be launched in mid-2022. At the same time, Toyota plans to launch seven bZ series electric vehicles by 2025, including cars, MPVs, crossovers and other models.
So, at today's press conference, we saw 4 new bZ series electric concept cars in addition to the bZ4X.
Akio Toyoda said the bZ series of electric vehicles will "cover more market segments at reasonable prices."
In addition to the bZ4X, the other four concept cars are compact SUV, small crossover, large SUV, and a mid-size pure electric sedan suspected of being the benchmark Tesla Model 3.
In addition, the more exciting, of course, is the pure electric Lexus.
In addition to playing Toyota's traditional "standard change art", it is suspected that two pure electric SUVs and a pure electric coupe extended from the bZ series, the most eye-catching is the following pure electric supercar:
Toyota said the Lexus pure electric supercar will be the "spiritual inheritor of the LF-A", with zero-hundred-kilometer acceleration of less than 2 seconds and a state-of-the-art solid-state battery, with a range of more than 700 kilometers.
Finally, we set our sights on the last row of the "Sea of Cars" picture at the beginning, where a series of models of different forms showed off the "Diverse Toyota Electric Vehicles."
There are small, all-electric SUVs that resemble Toyota CH-Rs, and Compact Cruiser EVs, hardcore, all-electric off-road SUV design elements that are clearly incorporated into classic FJ Cruiser design elements.
In addition, electric pickups, sports cars, and even compact vans and small shuttle buses are also present.
One thing that's interesting, though, is that these vehicles aren't under the Toyota pure electric brand bZ sequence, which means they're likely to be...
Or to use a more neutral description, using the "oil-electric compatible" route?
Finally, let's take the topic to explore the long-hyped "Toyota fall behind theory".
Previously, Akio Toyoda was interpreted by the media as a "diehard of fuel vehicles" and "a pioneer in boycotting electric vehicles" because he repeatedly said that "electric vehicles will destroy the Japanese automobile industry."
However, while the big bosses in Japan continue to say that "electrification should be slowed down", we often hear news that Toyota has invested in solid-state batteries and built battery factories.
This superficially fragmented attitude has created an image of Toyota's uncertain outside world.
At today's press conference, some answers may be found in Akio Toyoda's speech: "We need to reduce emissions as much as possible and as soon as possible" and finally achieve "carbon neutrality".
It should be known that in the interpretation of "electrification" by Japanese manufacturers, it has never only referred to pure electric vehicles, but also other "live" models, such as traditional HEVs, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cells, all within this category.
The goal of 3.5 million pure electric vehicles in the world by 2030 seems ambitious, but it is only about one-third of Toyota's global sales volume - in 2020, the company's global sales are 9.528 million units.
Therefore, Toyota's understanding of electrification ultimately falls on the basis of environmental protection and energy sustainability. The electrification strategy is clearly proposed to meet the challenges that are emerging in the world's largest automotive market.
But unfortunately, compared with the transformation strategy of another international giant Volkswagen Group, Toyota seems to have something missing from its planning.
The missing part is probably the more critical area in the next automotive industry competition.
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