Pay attention to and often read the tram lab punch card to think about new energy insights
Toyota punched himself in the face?
Author: Guo Decheng
Akio Toyoda, who once shelled pure electric vehicles, has now brought his 15 new pure electric concept cars.
Just a year ago, Akio Toyoda also said at the press conference: Pure electric vehicles are an over-hype, if Japan is too hasty in banning gasoline vehicles, the current business model of the automotive industry will collapse.
The attitude of the head of Toyota Motor To pure electric vehicles is not too much to describe as rejecting or even hating. However, Akio Toyoda's rejection of pure electric vehicles has a very important premise: Japan is a country that relies on natural gas and coal for power generation.
In this environment, Toyota has chosen a new energy vehicle technology route that is different from That of European car companies, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
So Toyota launched the Mirai, an FCV hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, and the pronunciation of mirai's name happens to be the Japanese "future". It can be seen how firm Toyota's belief in the hydrogen fuel cell technology route is, directly defined as its own future.
Toyota's advocates will naturally see hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as the only alternative to internal combustion engine vehicles. In this way, the technical route of the future car has become two factions, one is pure electric energy, and the other is hydrogen energy led by Toyota.
However, such a boss who is extremely rejective of pure electric vehicles actually brought 15 pure electric new energy vehicles in one go.
01
Two new concepts to circumvent face punches
Compared to the dazzling 15 new cars, I think the two new concepts proposed by Akio Toyoda are more interesting.
Carbon-reducing vehicles and carbon-neutral vehicles, these are the two classifications of electric vehicles by Akio Toyoda.
"If the energy that drives the car is not green, then no matter what kind of electric vehicle can not make CO2 zero, so we call it a 'carbon reduction vehicle'."
"If the energy used is pure green energy, then even if the internal combustion engine is used, it can achieve 'carbon neutrality'."
These two concepts are not based on the vehicle itself, but on the basis of how the energy consumed by the vehicle is generated. If you follow this concept, most of the current pure electric vehicles belong to carbon emission reduction vehicles.
As soon as the new concept was proposed, the pattern came up first, after all, if you want to achieve the "carbon neutral car" in Toyota's mouth, it is almost impossible to rely on only one automobile company. This needs to involve the setting of energy production methods and many industries, and the energy industry has a pivotal position for a country.
As the head of a multinational corporation, Akio Toyoda naturally has a higher concept of pattern, so it is not surprising that he proposed this concept of looking tall. However, these two concepts also subtly circumvent the fact that he punched himself in the face.
You should know that a year ago, Akio Toyoda just denounced pure electric vehicles, and this time he brought 15 electric vehicle products to the extreme. Perhaps also to avoid conflicts between his own views and practical practices, he proposed concepts such as carbon-reducing vehicles. In this way, even if toyota group began to build pure electric vehicles, they did not build "new energy vehicles" in the traditional sense, but "carbon emission reduction vehicles".
02
15 "Carbon Reduction Vehicles"
After having a high enough pattern to support it, Toyota's move to launch a pure electric vehicle this time seems to be noble. And directly out of 15 new cars at a time, it is really very high-profile, and even once made me think of the previous domestic "A Chi" brand.
However, compared with this domestic company, Toyota is much more reliable. Among Toyota's 15 new cars this time, the Lexus, bZ series and Lifestyle series are included.
bZ series
The bZ series is a pure electric series launched by Toyota based on the e-TNGA architecture, after Toyota has released the bZ4X concept car, and this time they have brought four new cars: bZ Compact SUV, bZ Small Crossover, bZ SDN and bZ Large SUV.
Of the five models currently launched in the bZ series, the other four are SUV models, except for the bZ SDN which is a sedan. The full name of bZ is "beyond ZERO", which means that Toyota wants to achieve the value of "beyond zero emissions".
Lifestyle Series
The Lifestyle series is a new electric vehicle series launched by Toyota, and the Lifestyle series seems to be more youthful and personalized than the bZ series. The Lifestyle series brought 7 pure electric concept cars this time, including SUVs, sports cars, pickup trucks, vans and so on.
Toyota's electrification idea is very clear, with the bZ series focusing on the high-end mainstream market and the Lifestyle series focusing on the personalized young market. It seems that the Toyota brand has made sufficient preparations for the transformation of electrification.
Lexus, a high-end brand under the Toyota Group, has other heavy information in addition to launching 4 pure electric concept cars at this conference.
03
In 2035, we will do pure electric brand
In his speech, He said that Lexus, a high-end brand under the Toyota Group, will achieve a full lineup of BEV versions for all its models in 2030. Achieved 100% BEV sales in China, North America, and Europe, and reached the global sales target of 1 million units.
By 2035, 100% of the bevs will be sold worldwide, that is, by 2035, Lexus will transform into a pure electric brand.
Toyota, which was originally extremely conservative about pure electrification, actually wanted to transform Lexus into a pure electric brand in 2035, which is indeed unexpected. At the same time, it also means that Lexus's next new cars will be mostly pure electric vehicles.
Lexus RZ
The RZ can be seen as a luxury version of the Toyota bZ4X, which is also based on the Toyota Group's e-TNGA architecture. Unlike the other three concept cars, the RZ has the appearance of a car closer to production, which will be officially released worldwide next year.
Referring to the Toyota bZ4X, it will feature a 215 hp electric motor and a 72.8 kWh battery pack, and the cruising range is expected to be around 350 km.
Electrified concept car series
In addition to the RZ is a concept car that is close to mass production, the other three concept cars seem to be a bit far from mass production. Lexus' Electrified series has launched three models this time, including sedans, SUVs and sports cars, corresponding to the straightforward Selection Sedan, Electrified SUV and Electrified Sport.
04
Toyota wants two blossoms
Crazy release of more than a dozen pure electric new products, is Toyota to abandon the hydrogen fuel cell route, so as to switch to pure electric?
I don't think it's possible, Toyota is not trying to give up one road, but wants two blossoms.
Toyota set up an electric vehicle research and development department as early as 1992, and also in the 1990s, Toyota and BEV began to develop fuel cell vehicles powered by hydrogen at the same time. Although Mirai was not officially put on the market until 2014, this is a technology that has accumulated for more than two decades.
That is to say, Toyota has been experimenting with two technical routes from the beginning, and in the future they rely on these two different technical routes are likely to occupy a favorable position in the electrification process.
Back to the article to start the Toyota Akio shelling electric vehicles, it seems that Toyota Akio's statement is actually to put pressure on infrastructure construction and the transformation of related industries, otherwise the electric vehicles are built but there is no place to charge, which is how embarrassing it is.
The transformation of traditional fuel vehicle brands into pure electric brands, in addition to the huge changes in the product itself, one of the things to face is the transformation of after-sales service. Especially in terms of charging and replenishing energy, Tesla, Weilai, and Xiaopeng all have their own unique skills. Therefore, Toyota's next action in other related industries of new energy vehicles deserves our attention.
Today's topic
Did Toyota show you this wave of operations?
Feel free to leave a message in the comment area
Scan the code to add the operation assistant and make notes
Join the Tram Lab AC group