On the 15th of this month, Wang Lihong officially released the news of his divorce, and for a time, the major platforms exploded, and the small partners who had originally believed in love began to doubt life again.
Things like this kind of "punching in the face" don't just happen in the entertainment industry. Just one day before Wang Lihong returned to singlehood, Akio Toyoda finally decided to electrify ALL IN! On December 14, Toyota Motor Corporation announced its latest electrification strategy, expecting to introduce 30 all-electric models by 2030, with annual global sales of 3.5 million units.
For the "conservative" Toyota, under the trend of new energy, the "punching face" at this time has received strong attention from the industry. However, some people also doubt that under the wave of global automobile electrification, in the face of the steady rise of new car-making forces, the high-end pure electric transformation of China's local independent brands and the multiple attacks of traditional car giants to turn around first, can Toyota achieve the goal of catching up?
shock! 16 pure electric models appeared on the same stage
At the electric vehicle strategy conference, Toyota Motor President and CEO Akio Toyoda unveiled 16 new electric models, including cars, sports cars and SUVs, and this product array covers almost all travel areas. Toyota has also introduced the TOYOTA bZ pure electric exclusive series for this purpose, and created a BEV exclusive platform for bZ series models.
Akio Toyoda said that by 2025, 15 bZ series models will be launched, including 9 new models, and 30 pure electric models will be reached by 2030. By 2030, sales of new energy vehicles are expected to account for 75% of total sales and annual sales will reach 3.5 million units, a significant increase of 75% from the 2 million units announced in May this year.
At the same time, Toyota's high-end brand Lexus will also transform into a pure electric brand in the future. According to the plan, by 2030, all of its models will be available in pure electric versions, and the first to achieve 100% pure electric vehicle sales in China, North America and Europe, with annual global sales of 1 million vehicles; by 2035, it will be fully electrified in the global market.
It seems that this time, Akio Toyoda is really anxious.
In the domestic market, the prospects of the new energy vehicle market in recent years have been very good. New energy vehicle companies represented by BYD and Tesla have also increased steadily in terms of sales. Looking at Toyota, although there are also pure electric vehicle models in the domestic market, it can be described as very dismal in terms of sales.
Toyota's gasoline-electric hybrid models are not currently included in the ranks of new energy vehicles, and can neither be on the green card nor enjoy subsidies. There is also Toyota's old rival Volkswagen, which has also launched the ID. series of models in the domestic market, ready to fully develop the new energy vehicle market. Not only the domestic market, but also in Japan, announced that it may ban the sale of fuel vehicles in 2035.
At the just-concluded 19th Guangzhou Auto Show, compared with the door of the Cadillac booth (Cadillac LYRIQ pre-sale), the DoorKloaf of the Lexus booth (Lexus' new generation NX listing) is indeed lamentable.
All this has forced Toyota to transform as soon as possible and enter the era of electrification. However, a closer look at all the new cars unveiled shows that the Toyota brand will form two major product routes in the future on the electrification road, the bZ series and the Lifestyle series, and the latter will adopt a more personalized setting.
In particular, Akio Toyoda highlighted the first new car in his "bZ" model sequence, the Toyota bZ4X.
The car is based on the Toyota e-TNGA platform and was officially unveiled at this year's Guangzhou Auto Show. Tatsuro Ueda, chairman and general manager of Toyota Motor China, once said that BZ pure electric exclusive series models have planned a total of 7 models, of which 5 models will be introduced to the Chinese market in the future. In terms of pure electric models, Toyota and Lexus will have 10 EV models in China by 2025.
At present, Toyota has registered its commercial name with the patent institute in Europe: TOYOTA BZ. According to media reports, subsequent models will follow the naming method of BZ+ numbers, BZ1, BZ2, BZ3, BZ4 and BZ5. Of course, four-wheel drive models will also add the letter of cross-border characteristics - X. The previously exposed Subaru pure electric vehicle Evoltis will also be built from the e-TNGA electric platform.
lag? Toyota has not yet revealed its killer skills
Despite the intensive release of new models, the first mass-produced pure electric vehicle will not be launched until 2022, and Toyota's progress in electric vehicles seems to have lagged behind its counterparts in the Chinese and European markets, and has also been surpassed by the new power giants that are leading in the pure electric market in the capital market.
This is also related to Toyota's conservative line. Compared with the firm pace of other car companies on the road of electrification transformation, Akio Toyoda has been "resisting" pure electric vehicles before this, and even publicly stated on important occasions that "pure electric vehicles are over-hyped" and "carbon neutrality goals are unrealistic", and said that hydrogen energy is the future development trend.
At this electric vehicle strategy conference, Akio Toyoda also changed his tone: according to the energy used, the electrified vehicles were divided into "carbon reduction vehicles" that can reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and "carbon neutral vehicles" that can make carbon dioxide emissions zero.
So, is Toyota late? Perhaps not, when the first generation of Prius was officially launched in 1997, Toyota has begun the industrialization layout of electric vehicles since then.
When pure trams were still in their infancy, Toyota had already used HEV technology to contribute to the world's "carbon emission reduction", and now, Toyota is just moving from "carbon reduction vehicles" to "carbon neutral vehicles" - in essence, this is also the essence of Toyota's conference, and electrification is only a form.
Only multiple aces in hand at the same time can exert their true power. When HEV (dual engine), PHEV (dual engine E+), EV (E into the engine), FCEV (hydrogen engine) technology group, people will find out why Toyota can become a car company that goes against the current.
cooperate! The Chinese market is proofed first
Of all the models unveiled, the bZ SDN concept is a special presence. Because this model will be the first pure electric vehicle built by Toyota and BYD, its mass production version is expected to be launched at the Beijing Auto Show, which opens in April next year, and will be released by the end of 2022.
The whole vehicle research and development and manufacturing will be responsible for BYD, the core components are manufactured by BYD, including BYD lithium iron phosphate blade battery, the vehicle LOGO will use Toyota, simply put, is BYD's core, Toyota's shell.
Toyota's cooperation with BYD actually began as early as 2015, when Tang DM was launched, Toyota's then-executive vice president Shigeki Terashima and other senior executives test-drove a number of BYD cars, including Tang DM, but Toyota believes that the long-term quality of BYD's products still needs a question mark, but in fact, in recent years, BYD's design and quality have been very mature, and the price is still low.
However, BYD's development speed was unexpected, especially the advancement of blade battery technology, which gave Toyota the idea of further forming a joint venture, so in July 2019, the two sides signed a contract to develop pure electric vehicle models for cars and low-chassis SUVs, including the power batteries required for the above models. In March 2020, the two companies formally signed a contract to establish a joint venture pure electric vehicle research and development company, each with 50% of the capital, and the cooperation between Toyota and BYD was officially launched.
Back to the bZ SDN product, as a Corolla model that may be electric, coupled with BYD's battery technology endorsement, if the interior and other aspects do not pull the crotch, the car can basically be said to be not worried about selling, the key is the battery production problem. BYD's blade batteries are not enough for their own models, DM-i models have been in a long-term shortage of goods, the people are very skeptical about how much BLADE battery production BYD can give to this car.
In any case, BYD is a pioneer in the pure electric market, and Toyota can not keep up with the pace in pure electric vehicles, in the face of the gradual solidification of market share, Toyota to take a shortcut with BYD is also forgivable.
However, Toyota is not entirely dependent on BYD's batteries, and Toyota has increased its investment in battery development by 500 billion yen to 2 trillion yen (about 112 billion yuan). Toyota's operation is very far-sighted, endurance can be said to be one of the most important parameters for consumers to buy electric vehicles at this stage, high endurance, high battery energy density of the car will certainly be favored by consumers, once launched will be a big seller, can quickly occupy the market.
The people evaluate the car
All in all, the "big brother" who was once the era of internal combustion engines has become a follower in the field of electric vehicles, and in the eyes of the industry, it is not difficult to catch up with Toyota's technical strength in the field of pure electricity. In the face of many fierce competitors who are leading the starting line, if Toyota Motor's dense product line plan can be landed as scheduled, it is worth looking forward to achieving a late catch-up in the field of pure electricity.