Although electric vehicles have won huge attention at present, the "carbon competition" in the automotive industry has actually just begun. As the world's earliest automotive enterprise to lay out new energy, Toyota provides a benchmark sample that can be learned and referenced for the low-carbon and sustainable development of China's and even the global automotive industry.
Written by 丨 Lu Shan
Edited 丨tian grass
Produced 丨 Automan Media
The impact of the pandemic has reshaped global business models, and the "double carbon" goal has transformed the automotive industry.
Under the "double carbon" strategic thinking of carbon neutrality and carbon peaking, the industry outlet has swept the global automotive industry, and global car companies are looking for a new balance in industrial trends, product structure and market revenue.
Although electric vehicles have won huge attention at present, the "carbon competition" in the automotive industry has actually just begun. The "double carbon" goal is a highly complex and widely related globalized system engineering. The automotive industry must work in an all-round way with other related industries from the height and breadth of the whole life cycle, the whole industry chain and the whole ecosystem.
As the world's earliest automotive company to lay out new energy, Toyota has put forward its own thinking on global environmental issues such as climate change, lack of water resources, resource depletion, and biodiversity reduction in the "Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050" strategy released in 2015, and thus deduced the carbon reduction strategy of the whole product chain, the whole industry chain and the whole value chain.
In the past six years, Toyota has continuously achieved this goal, providing a benchmark sample for the low-carbon and sustainable development of the automotive industry in China and even the world.
1
Concentration and sobriety
Toyota in front of the outlet
The proposal of the "double carbon" goal has created a huge outlet for the global automotive market. Taking the Chinese market as an example, the sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 420,000 units in November this year, and the penetration rate reached 19.47%. It is estimated that by 2025, China's new energy vehicle sales will reach more than 5 million.
The popularity of the market cannot hide the bottleneck and uncertainty of the development of the new energy industry. In the face of the diversity of technology choices, Toyota takes all-round electrification technology as the goal, and actively promotes the technological progress and popularization of HEV (dual engine), PHEV (dual engine E+), EV (E-engine), and FCEV (hydrogen engine), showing the rare cognitive clarity and strategic determination in the entire industry.
Since the birth of the world's first mass-produced hybrid model, the PRIUS Prius, in 1997, Toyota has sold more than 18 million hybrid models worldwide. This achievement makes HEV the most accepted new energy technology in the market. In the past 2020, Toyota's global electrified model sales have accounted for nearly 1/4.
Focusing on the Chinese market, with the launch of Toyota's TNGA platform, from the fourth-generation Highland to crown land release, from the domestic Sai Na to FAW Toyota Lingfang, Toyota's new models in the Chinese market have achieved the full popularization of HEV dual engine.
It is worth noting that in today's fierce competition and the market tends to the buyer's market, Toyota's new models are almost in short supply to varying degrees. Consumers would rather queue up to hold coins for purchase, which also reflects the market's high recognition of Toyota's new energy models.
The so-called cognitive clarity is the result of Toyota's efforts to effectively reduce carbon dioxide emissions through a small number of batteries through the popularization of HEVs. At present, Toyota has accumulated sales of more than 18 million HEVs worldwide, equivalent to the battery capacity of about 260,000 EV models, but achieved a CO2 reduction effect equivalent to 5.5 million pure electric vehicles.
When the global capital market continues to add fuel to the fire of new energy, Toyota's emphasis that "our enemy is not the internal combustion engine, but carbon dioxide" is closer to the truth of the "double carbon" goal we are pursuing.
In the short term battery technology can not achieve a qualitative breakthrough, mileage anxiety can only alleviate can not be eliminated, between the power supply and safety and cleanliness is difficult to complete, charging equipment construction is far behind the demand, Toyota's vigorous promotion of HEV is another kind of market level of sobriety.
2
Robust and pioneering
A comprehensive electrification strategy
If HEV is the technical cornerstone of Toyota's full electrification, the EV pure electric vehicle models and the FCEV hydrogen fuel cell models that will be released and sold in the future are more explorations and layouts made by Toyota for the future.
Facing the "double carbon", Toyota will take hybrid technology as the core technology, on the basis of which it will attack the all-round development of the battery, Toyota has been striving to seek a high balance in safety, life, quality, cost performance and performance. Continuous improvement of engine and electrification core components, and targeted according to different models, can give consumers peace of mind.
At the Shanghai Auto Show in April this year, Toyota's TOYOTA bZ pure electric exclusive series completed its global debut, implying the realization of the value of "beyond Zero" beyond zero emissions. On October 29, Toyota announced details of the bZ4X, the first model of the TOYOTA bZ pure electric exclusive series, and is expected to start selling in China, Japan, the United States, and Europe in mid-2022.
The promotion of electrified vehicles should respect users and the market, and should not distinguish the powertrain from the size and mileage of the vehicle, but should expand the various product lineups and increase the number of optional models. Only by adhering to the diversification of model products can we provide different regions and different users with automotive products that can reduce carbon dioxide emissions and be practical.
The emergence of bZ4X is not Toyota's showmanship in the field of EVs, but adhering to Toyota's consistent concept of car building, with practicality and reliability, looking for suitable people belonging to Toyota in the EV market segment.
Compared with the robustness of the EV, Toyota's initiatives in the FCEV are more pioneering. This reflects that Toyota is by no means a "conservative" Toyota in the understanding of the outside world, on the contrary, on the road of multiple solutions to the same proposition, Toyota has gone far and farther than its competitors.
In May this year, Toyota President Akio Toyoda personally drove a Corolla Sport racing car equipped with a hydrogen engine to participate in the third race of the NAPAC Fuji SUPERTEC 24-hour endurance race, and finally successfully completed the 1634-kilometer race.
A very cool fact is that Akio Toyoda is not driving a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle this time, but based on the traditional internal combustion engine to modify the fuel supply system and injection system, to achieve hydrogen fuel replacement of traditional gasoline fuel. That is to say, this Corolla Sport still does not produce carbon dioxide, but it has the engine sound of traditional fuel vehicles.
As Akira Toyoda said on Weibo after the game: "This is a new choice that we strive to achieve carbon neutrality and create for the future." ”
Unlike the indicative significance of the galloping on the track, the application of hydrogen energy in the Olympic stadium can show Toyota's determination to achieve greater social value for FCV.
Taking advantage of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Toyota will launch a large-scale FCEV model in China for the first time. These include the "second generation MIRAI", "Costa Hydrogen Engine", and the Beiqi Foton Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus equipped with Toyota's hydrogen fuel cell system. According to the statistics of the organizing committee, among the transportation service vehicles used in the Winter Olympics, energy-saving and clean energy vehicles accounted for 100% of passenger cars and 85.84% of all vehicles, which will undoubtedly be the highest record in the history of the previous Winter Olympics.
After the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Toyota will also actively promote the subsequent reuse of FCEVs in the transportation service vehicles of the Winter Olympic Games, and take this as an opportunity to continuously promote the development of China's hydrogen fuel cell industry. To this end, Toyota has established "United Fuel Cell System R&D (Beijing) Co., Ltd." and "Huafeng Fuel Cell Co., Ltd." from 2020 onwards to develop and produce hydrogen fuel cells locally.
The company, which is not well known to the outside world, completed the development of the fuel cell system "TL Power 100" based on the second-generation MIRAI system in only one year, achieving a high power density of 4.9 kW/L and a long durability of up to 30,000 hours. And like the original localization path of HEV, the cost is greatly reduced by continuously improving the localization rate. This provides the most critical foundation for the future market cultivation of FCEVs.
From heV low-carbon travel with zero mileage anxiety, to technological innovation in the pure electric era, to the next-generation carbon neutrality choice for the society, Toyota has been striving to provide consumers with richer choices for low-carbon travel, hoping that consumers can freely choose travel services and products that take into account "sustainable development and practicality" according to different regions, different purposes and different use scenarios.
3
Growth and carbon reduction
Cooperation and exploration of the whole value chain
In the future, China's double carbon standard should be replaced incrementally, and at the same time, the replacement of stocks should be gradually implemented. In this process, incremental substitution mainly relies on zero-carbon technology to achieve; and the replacement of stocks will rely on the effective combination of carbon reduction, zero carbon and negative carbon technology, only supply and demand, multiple industries go hand in hand, in order to finally achieve the strategic goal of carbon neutrality.
From the perspective of carbon emissions throughout the life cycle of automobiles, the carbon emissions of automobiles in the use of cars account for up to 30%. Promoting the electrification of automobiles and improving the economy of fuel vehicles, including battery recycling, will become an important way for the future automotive industry to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and the establishment of a carbon neutrality and management system throughout the life cycle is an inevitable requirement for the development of car companies.
Toyota is well aware that to achieve true carbon neutrality, we cannot rely solely on technological advances in vehicles, because the automotive industry must reduce carbon dioxide emissions from all aspects of vehicle production, use and recycling. To this end, Toyota strives to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from manufacturing, storage, use, recycling, and disposal from a life-cycle perspective.
For example, in hydrogen fuel cell technology, Toyota has always insisted on using hydrogen energy produced by renewable energy, improving the storage performance of hydrogen storage tanks, and insisting on research and development of long-lasting hydrogen fuel cell systems. At the same time, Toyota has already "paved the way" for the recycling of batteries: a research on the disposal method of FCEV end-of-life vehicles and the recycling of core components in cooperation with Chinese companies.
Similarly, for the core components of pure electric models "recycling", Toyota uses a solar panel panoramic sunroof on the bZ4X, which can provide 1800 kilometers of travel per year through solar power generation. In addition, in the absence of charging piles or emergencies, vehicles can even be charged by solar energy.
At the same time, through the "deterioration diagnosis" of the replaced battery, the battery cascade recovery is realized, and efforts are made to build a "battery material recycling and reuse" system, and the "only remaining" hazard of the electrified car is infinitely reduced to near zero.
Toyota is promoting the full lineup of electrified vehicles, and the all-round development of batteries is also proceeding simultaneously. Power batteries for HEVs emphasize instantaneous output capability, while energy batteries for PHEV and BEV value long-lasting output capabilities. HEV batteries will continue to take advantage of the characteristics of nickel-metal hydride batteries and lithium-ion batteries and continue to improve.
This year, Toyota released a bipolar nickel-metal hydride battery with higher output, and will expand its application models in the future. Lithium-ion batteries for PHEV and BEV will continue to reduce costs and improve long-lasting output capabilities, and will continue to improve in the future.
In the Chinese market, Toyota's full electrification strategy is accelerating. According to the plan, by 2025, Toyota will introduce 35 new electrified models in China, OFYOTA bZ pure electric series of 7 models, and 5 models will be introduced to China to achieve the goal of 50% of electrified vehicles in 2025.
With the rapid introduction of products, Toyota's carbon reduction actions around the entire value chain of technology, production, and sales are also being strengthened. Compared to a decade ago, Toyota's plant now produces 46 percent less carbon dioxide emissions and 88 percent less waste, and promotes the use of green electricity at about 1,500 core dealerships across the country.
In the "Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050" strategy, Toyota will reduce the average co2 emissions of new vehicles in the world by 90% by 2050, zero co2 emissions throughout the life cycle of global vehicles, zero co2 emissions from global factories, minimize environmental impact on water resources, build a circular society and system, and establish a future in which people and nature coexist.
Carbon reduction is the common goal of the world and all mankind, and it is impossible for any single enterprise to achieve it independently. In China, Toyota is expanding its "circle of friends" and actively cooperating with local partners in an open manner, expanding the scope of application of HEV and FCEV systems, and expanding cooperation in the fields of autonomous driving, new energy, MaaS, and recycling of waste batteries, striving to achieve 100% local production of electrified core components and achieving the dual goals of growth and "carbon reduction".
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