With more than two weeks to go before 2021, Toyota's electrification strategy was groundbreaking.
Yesterday, December 14, Toyota Motor President Akio Toyoda opened a press conference on how Toyota is achieving a "carbon neutrality" strategy at MEGA WEB At the press conference, Toyota unveiled more than a dozen new cars (including 5 BZ series models, 4 Lexus models and 7 concept cars).
In addition, Toyota also announced that it will launch 30 pure electric models by 2030, plans to produce 3.5 million electric vehicles per year, and a budget of up to 2 trillion yen for battery research and production expenditures; toyota will spend as much as $35 billion in electric vehicles in the next decade.
Before the press conference, the ridicule of Toyota Akio "criticizing electric vehicles" and the new domestic forces executives of the department teasing Toyota for Nokia, and netizens calling Toyota "old stubborn" seemed to still linger, and I did not expect toyota's reverse "slap" to come so suddenly and quickly.
Speaking of which, I have to say two more words. With the rise of China's new car-making forces and the deepening of fancy marketing, many consumers really think that auto companies that are not active in electric vehicles are "technologically backward".
After Toyota motor released the electrification strategy and clearly "embraced electrification", some media said that as the "conservative" Toyota embraces electrification, China is the biggest winner in the battle for future power technology routes. The implication is that Toyota's embrace of electrification is a decision that has to be made due to the rapid development and maturity of China's electrification industry and technology. To be honest, this view is too much.
We do not intend to advocate or disparage which view, objectively speaking, Toyota motor is the earliest enterprise in the implementation of electrification strategy and technology, more than 20 years ago HEV technology has achieved mass production, and in 2014 and mass production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle Mirai, and the electrification strategy released today is nothing more than the result of the development of electrification technology to a certain stage.
Even yesterday, the focus of Toyota Motor's conference was not a specific electrification strategy, the core and focus was "carbon neutrality", and the concept of "carbon reduction vehicle" and "carbon neutral car" was clearly proposed.
It is certain that for a long time to come, Toyota Motor will gradually evolve from a "carbon reduction car" to a "carbon neutral car", whether it is technology or product, it is a gradual process. For example, it is expected that by 2030, 30 pure electric vehicles will be introduced worldwide, but only if Toyota currently has as many as 100 products on sale in more than 170 countries and regions around the world.
Relatively speaking, Toyota's electrification strategy for its luxury brand Lexus is relatively clear, and it is expected to provide pure electric versions for all its models by 2030, achieve 100% pure electric vehicle sales in China, North America and Europe, and achieve 100% pure electric vehicle sales in the world in 2035, that is, Lexus will become a pure electric brand.
From a certain point of view, I am not surprised or sudden at all that Toyota motor has released its electrification strategy. The reason why many people are surprised may be that they pay too much attention to or believe that "Toyota Motors associates Nokia" remarks.
Did Toyota really not embrace electric vehicles before?
On the contrary, the current hot electric vehicles began with Toyota, and Toyota now has the world's largest electric vehicle industry chain. The concept of electric vehicles is the concept of electric motor drive, rather than the concept of pure electric vehicles with ternary lithium-ion battery packs as a source of electric energy as we now understand, and electric vehicles in this structural form can only be called "battery cars".
The core definition of electric vehicles is electric motor drive, and the source of electrical energy should be diverse, which can be batteries, hydrogen fuel, and of course, internal combustion engines. In essence, electric vehicles are the same as the four-wheel drive cars we played when we were children, and the performance we focus on is electric motors, but it doesn't have much to do with whether the battery used is Nanfu or Rimula.
In 1997, Toyota officially launched the mass production of electric vehicles, and the first generation of Prius was officially launched, becoming the world's first mass-produced hybrid model. Since then, Toyota has begun the industrial layout of electric vehicles.
Today, Toyota hybrid models are sold worldwide. According to the current rhythm, in the next two years, Toyota is afraid that there will be no more pure fuel models on the market. For example, the new generation of Toyota product sequences, Xena and Highlander are already full hybrids.
In the process of more than 20 years of hybrid industrialization promotion, Toyota first solved the problem of electric vehicle power management system, which is why Toyota's hybrid models can still efficiently use nickel-metal hydride batteries to achieve long-term charging and discharging, and there will be no power attenuation. It is no exaggeration to say that the new energy vehicle brands that use ternary lithium-ion batteries now have no one who can understand the multi-frequency charge and discharge of nickel-metal hydride batteries.
In addition, Toyota has also accumulated a rather "not cheap" industrial base in the field of electric motors and batteries; this is also a Toyota hybrid model, which can be sold for the same price as a fuel vehicle. In other words, toyota has considerable pricing power in the field of electric motors, power management systems, and batteries.
On the basis of the industrialization of hybrid systems, Toyota achieved a breakthrough in fuel cell technology a few years ago. A new bamboo charcoal material successfully replaced platinum as a hydrogen fuel cell proton exchange membrane, greatly reducing the cost of hydrogen fuel cell technology and enabling mass production of this technology.
It can be seen that in the future, hydrogen fuel cells are the final stage of zero emissions - their energy density can be three to five times that of gasoline, and more than a hundred times that of lithium-ion batteries.
Whether it is a primary hybrid or a top-level hydrogen fuel cell technology, it corresponds to the fundamental premise of electric motors driving vehicles. In terms of electrification, Toyota's position and insight are quite clever. Previously, many media and companies 'ridiculed" and ridiculed Toyota, in fact, it was only limited to "ternary lithium-ion batteries".
Yes, in the ternary lithium-ion battery, Toyota is indeed lagging behind. Akio Toyoda's previous "stubbornness" for electric vehicles is also derived from ternary lithium-ion batteries.
Why is Toyota suddenly radicalized?
Obviously, Toyota's battery technology is about to usher in a major breakthrough, and Toyota must grasp the pricing power of the market.
To put it bluntly, whether it is the new forces building cars now or the "embrace of new energy" of traditional automobile companies, their model of creating new energy vehicles is essentially different from huaqiangbei's "assembly of mobile phones" more than a decade ago.
The industrial chain of new energy technology has provided a complete set of "black box" solutions, as long as you are willing to pay money, there will be a systematic ternary lithium-ion power technology solution in front of you. This can be understood by looking at how many companies and CATL have signed strategic cooperation agreements.
In other words, for Toyota, which already has a mastery of electric motors and power management systems, it is not difficult to buy a set of ternary lithium batteries tucked on the floor of the car to become an electric car – of course, not advanced. Of course, what is reflected behind this difference is how to look at the matter of car building - whether to really build a car with excellent performance, or to build a car as a "game" carrying capital.
Since a few years ago, Toyota has placed the power source of this type of pure electric vehicle on the technology of solid-state lithium-ion batteries. Compared to the model of ternary lithium-ion batteries, solid-state lithium-ion batteries turn the internal electrolyte into a gel. In this way, the charge and discharge efficiency of the solid-state battery pack and the stability of long-term use will get a qualitative leap. Charge for five minutes, you can really achieve the same mileage as a fuel car.
For the ternary lithium-ion battery industry, solid-state battery technology is an industrial upgrade, including the domestic popular Ningde era is also studying solid-state batteries.
Toyota is not stubborn, but betting on more potential areas. Looking back now, "teasing" Toyota is Nokia's enterprise or media, which is inherently very unobjective.
At present, Toyota has suddenly become aggressive about electric vehicles, which is a problem that solid-state battery technology may usher in an industrialization breakthrough. According to the previous Toyota plan, solid-state batteries will achieve mass production around 2023, so combined with the end of 2021 this node, Toyota's electric vehicle strategy release, is not as simple as the new domestic forces brush the sense of existence.
Toyota is going to play really.
Just like toyota hybrids sweep the market now, hydrogen fuel cells are positioned at the high end, the arrival of solid-state batteries will make up for Toyota's large-scale market shortcomings in the era of electric vehicles. Under such a premise, Toyota electric vehicles will not be just the kind of products that need capital gimmicks, policy support and subsidies to survive.
Interestingly, I remember 2 years ago, at the Toyota Global Conference before the 2019 Tokyo International Auto Show, a reporter proposed that Toyota's electric vehicle strategy was "lagging behind", and Toyota Motor Vice President Shigeki Tera smiled and said, Who makes money doing electric vehicles at present? The implication is that the development of electric vehicles and electric vehicle companies must be based on a virtuous circle.
If I remember correctly, the founder of a new domestic force car has publicly ridiculed Toyota, and after he forwarded Toyota Akio's view that electric vehicles are more polluting than fuel vehicles, he added comments that he could not help but think of Microsoft's announcement of the acquisition of Nokia. However, the latest news is that the operating income of the above-mentioned new forces in the third quarter was 5.72 billion yuan, up 187.4% from the same period in 2020, and the net loss was 1.595 billion yuan, and the loss widened again.
The founders of the new forces ridiculed Toyota for earning enough eyeballs and public opinion, but still could not stop the fact that the loss was made. But business is not charity, there is no virtuous circle, how long it can go is still a big question mark. And this also reminds me of a passage by Guo Degang: For example, I said to the rocket expert, your rocket is not good, the fuel is not good, I think you have to burn firewood, it is best to burn coal, coal also has to select coal, water washing coal is not OK. If the scientist takes a straight look at me, he loses.
Written in the back: In the face of the goal of "carbon neutrality", Toyota believes that the energy situation is different in different regions, and Toyota hopes to be able to cope with all the situations and needs of various countries and regions, and provide diversified options for achieving carbon neutrality. The decision on what kind of car to choose is not in us, but in the market and consumers everywhere. We want to provide consumers with as many options as possible before the final correct route is clear.
Toyota's sudden and "lethal" embrace of electrification is beyond many people's imagination – this sudden contrast to the previous "stubbornness" – but this is exactly the style of Toyota.
We often hear a saying that "the narrow road meets the brave to win", but have you ever heard another sentence "Resist the army, and the mourner wins"?
Note: Images are from the Web