The door to the era of electrification has long been opened, and as the backbone of the former fuel market, Toyota can't wait to show its determination to accelerate the transformation to electrification.
On December 14, Toyota held an electric vehicle strategy conference in Japan and released 16 pure electric concept cars, resolutely moving towards the electric era.
bZ takes the lead in creating a new concept of "carbon reduction vehicle" and "carbon neutral vehicle"
The release of new cars has always been the highlight of previous conferences, and at this Toyota electric vehicle strategy conference, the "drama code" of new cars has indeed earned enough eyeballs: 16 pure electric concept cars have been released in one go. Among them, in addition to the new electric vehicle of the new electric sub-brand TOYOTA bZ, there are also electric concept cars of Toyota and Lexus brands that are unveiled in the same frame.
At the press conference, the current President of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, also introduced the TOYOTA bZ electric sub-brand and the all-round BEV product lineup. Based on this, Toyota also divides electrified vehicles into two categories: "carbon-reducing vehicles" and "carbon-neutral vehicles". The former means that the energy used to drive the car is not green, and no matter what kind of electrification structure such models use, they cannot make CO2 become zero; the latter is that the energy used is pure green energy, in this case, even if the internal combustion engine is used, it can achieve carbon neutrality.
The bZ of the TOYOTA bZ electric sub-brand is an abbreviation of "beyond ZERO", which means "beyond zero emissions", which is what Toyota calls "carbon neutral vehicles". The bZ series is all based on Toyota's exclusive platform for pure electricity, and the series unveiled a total of 5 new models at the conference. They are the compact SUV bZ4X, the crossover style bZ Compact SUV concept car, the large SUV bZ Large SUV concept car, the small SUV bZ Small Crossover concept car, and the mid-size sedan bZ SDN concept car. Among them, the bZ4X is the first model of the bZ series, which has made its Chinese debut during the Shanghai Auto Show in April this year and plans to enter the Chinese market next year.
As we all know, Japan is a country dominated by thermal power generation, and conventional pure electric vehicle models in Japan cannot be counted as "carbon neutral vehicles", but can only be counted as "carbon emission reduction vehicles". In order to achieve the goal of "beyond zero emissions", the bZ series has installed a solar charging system while effectively utilizing energy recovery, which further strengthens the environmental advantages of pure electric models.
In addition to the bZ brand, the Toyota brand and the Lexus brand also brought a variety of models to the conference, covering all toyota product areas including cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, K-Car, and light commercial vehicles.
Set a small goal, such as selling it 3.5 million all-electric models
Since Wang Jianlin's sentence "First set a small goal, such as earning it a hundred million", everyone has a new definition of "small goal", that is, ordinary people seem to be unable to complete, but for the "big guy" is a relatively easy task. At the press conference, Toyota also set itself a "small goal" - it expects that by 2030, the global annual sales of pure electric models can reach 3.5 million.
It should be known that as early as 2017, Toyota made a global sales target for new energy by 2030, when it set a sales target of 4.5 million hybrid models and 1 million pure electric vehicle models and hydrogen fuel cell models by 2030. Last year, Toyota advanced the planned realization time to 2025, but the target is still 4.5 million hybrid models, pure electric vehicle models and hydrogen fuel cell models totaling 1 million. This time, Toyota has directly raised its 2030 sales target for electric models to 3.5 million units, which is enough to prove its ambition to continue to lead in the era of electrification.
In fact, Toyota's research in the field of electric vehicles has never stopped. As early as 1992, Toyota set up an electric vehicle division, and in 1996 launched the first pure electric model RAV4 EV to the market; in 1997, Toyota launched the world's first mass-produced hybrid electric vehicle Prius; after entering the 21st century, Toyota began to implement small EV "e-com" empirical tests... In the following years, Toyota has continued to promote hybrid models, plug-in hybrid models and pure electric models in various countries and regions.
For Toyota, after nearly 30 years of accumulated electric technology, it is not too difficult to introduce more pure electric models in the future to continue to expand the selection of "carbon-neutral models" and achieve the goal of 3.5 million vehicles by 2030.
Lexus has fully turned around and will become a pure electric brand in the future
As a business card of Toyota's high-end, Lexus has also become an important force in the transformation of the Toyota Group to electrification. In the next decade, Lexus will gradually complete the comprehensive transformation from traditional fuel models to pure electric models.
Akio Toyoda pointed out at the press conference: "As a brand holder of Lexus, I hope that Lexus will become the brand that people will still choose after reading thousands of sails. Lexus has always pursued a unique design and driving imprint, and as a pioneer in hybrid technology, it has always been committed to the unremitting exploration of electrification technology. Now, Lexus is about to open the next chapter and launch a new generation of BEV sports models, which will inherit the unique driving texture that has been refined in the LFA era, and we will also give each model a continuous driving pleasure and gradually evolve into a BEV-centered brand. ”
According to the plan, it is expected that by 2030, Lexus will provide pure electric versions of all its models, and achieve 100% pure electrification in China, North America and Europe, reaching the goal of global sales of 1 million units. By 2035, Lexus will complete the pure electrification transformation worldwide.
Once, most people were slamming Toyota's slow pace in electrification transformation, and finally today, Toyota has decided to "ALL IN electrification" and officially returned to the mainstream track of electrification. Nowadays, in addition to Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Volvo and other car companies have also planned a new era of electrification, but the competition between car companies in the future is far more than this, and there is pressure from many new forces. Can Toyota continue its glory in the fuel era? Let's wait and see.