Lexus will transform into a pure electric brand, rumored for many years of localization to usher in the turnaround?

Source of this article: Time Weekly Author: Chen Yanyu

As the world's largest automobile manufacturer, Toyota Motor has always had reservations about the wave of electrification, and the head of toyota Akio has questioned the development path of pure electrification more than once, such as its carbon emissions and cost problems.

However, at a press conference just a few days ago, Toyota Motor was unusual, sending out a number of pure electric new cars in one go, and announced that it is expected to introduce 30 BEV (pure electric) models by 2030, and the annual sales of pure electric vehicles will reach 3.5 million units worldwide. The day after the press conference, Akio Toyoda also posted on Weibo, "Toyota is sometimes considered to be not positive enough with pure electric vehicles, and we will accelerate our efforts on BEV vehicles." ”

In Toyota's strategic blueprint, Lexus was once again pushed to the front row of the electrification transition. According to the plan, by 2030, the Japanese luxury brand will achieve 100% sales of pure electric models in China, North America and Europe, and global pure electric vehicle sales will account for 100% of the brand's sales by 2035.

For the next electrification plan, Lexus said in an interview with the Times Weekly reporter on December 16 that the RZ model is Lexus' first pure electric vehicle built by the BEV exclusive platform, which will be announced in the first half of 2022. As for when it will be introduced into the Chinese market, it did not reply.

It is worth noting that behind the full liberalization of the domestic stock ratio policy next year, the recent discussion about Lexus will use this to promote the localization process has also aroused heated discussion. Lexus also admitted to the Times Weekly reporter that it has been conducting research on localization issues, but there is no specific timetable for localization.

On December 17, Ren Wanfu, a senior automotive industry analyst, told the Times Weekly reporter that Lexus' current main market is in Europe and the United States, and the development prospects of the domestic market mainly depend on its emphasis on the Chinese market. From the current point of view, if Lexus is domestic, the products invested will all be new energy products, which will be conducive to the transformation of its pure electricity.

Fuel and hybrid models will be a masterpiece

In the industry's view, the Lexus brand has been deeply branded with environmental protection in the past, and Toyota's hybrid technology has been tested by Lexus in the high-end market before it is gradually more widely used in affordable models.

Official data shows that since the launch of the RX450h in 2005, the cumulative global sales of Lexus's electrified models have exceeded 2 million units. However, compared with the eye-catching results in the hybrid market, Lexus is currently only selling the UX 300e, a pure electric model.

The transformation into a pure electric brand in 2035 means that Lexus will stop many of its main models in the next 14 years, and this time will be reduced to about 9 years in China, North America and Europe. In the eyes of the industry, Lexus and even Toyota seem to be behind the radical transformation, or also caused by the trend.

According to jibang consulting research data, the global new energy vehicle market sales in the first three quarters of 2021 totaled 4.2 million units, of which 2.92 million were pure electric vehicles, with an annual growth rate of 153%.

Coincidentally. In addition to Lexus, a number of international auto brands have also proposed quite radical electrification transformation strategies. Taking the second-tier luxury brand camp as an example, the reporter combed the public information and learned that Jaguar announced that it will start to produce all electric vehicles from 2025; Volvo Cars said that it will achieve full electrification in 2025, when the proportion of pure electric models will reach 50%, the rest will be hybrid models, and become a pure electric luxury car company by 2030; Cadillac is expected to stop selling fuel vehicles before 2030 and transform into a pure electric brand.

In this regard, Zeng Piquan, a senior automotive industry analyst, told the Times Weekly reporter on December 16 that various brands competed to announce that the radical electrification transformation strategy is a performance of competing for the market, and the later the start, the more there is no market.

Other industry insiders believe that compared with other second-tier luxury brands, Lexus' transformation also retains the parent company Toyota Motor's consistent restraint and rationality in electrification, and gradually promotes the electrification transformation strategy in a limited time according to regional characteristics.

"Lexus is in the second line among traditional luxury car brands, and has always tried to hit the first line without success. In the case of the backward start of the pure electricity market, it is necessary to face the competition of traditional first-line luxury brands, but also to compete with luxury brands such as upstart Tesla, and it is acceptable and realistic to be able to stand in the position of the second line in the future. Ren Wanfu told the Times Weekly reporter that the advantage of Lexus is that Toyota is not short of money and can quickly invest a lot of money for layout. The disadvantage is the lack of accumulation in pure electricity, and it will take some time to grope forward.

Electrification may speed up localization

As the world's largest auto market and the largest electric vehicle market, competition in the Chinese market is intensifying. For Lexus, it is obviously facing a lot of challenges to stop selling its competitive fuel and hybrid models in 9 years and turn into a pure electric brand.

According to public information, Lexus entered the Chinese market in 2005, and the cumulative sales of the brand in China reached one million units in 2019, followed by the cumulative sales of its hybrid models in the domestic market in July 2020 reached 300,000 units.

According to the Times Weekly reporter learned from Lexus, from January to November this year, the cumulative sales volume of Lexus in the Chinese market was 207091 units, an increase of 2% year-on-year, of which 78278 electrified models based on oil-electric hybrids, accounting for 37.8%.

However, the only pure electric model on sale, the UX 300e, has not been able to find relevant sales data in public channels. On December 18, a Sales person from a Lexus 4S store in Guangzhou told the Times Weekly reporter that the current pure electric vehicle has a cash discount of 30,000-40,000, and if it participates in the manufacturer's group purchase, it can also discount part of the cash, but the real transaction price will also be more than 300,000 yuan. This price is significantly higher than the main sales of Tesla Model 3, Xiaopeng P7, BYD Han EV and other models, and the UX 300e is not competitive in terms of space and endurance.

In the industry's view, Lexus, which has been selling domestically in the form of imports, is difficult to form a price advantage. In order to make up for this disadvantage, domestic production will be the most direct solution. In less than a month, the domestic equity ratio policy will be completely liberalized, which is a development opportunity for Lexus, which is exploring the transformation of electrification.

According to the Provisions of the Special Administrative Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List) (2018 Edition), the restriction on foreign ownership of passenger cars will be abolished in 2022, and the restriction on no more than two joint ventures will be abolished. At that time, Lexus's domestic form will have more choices, both the traditional joint venture form and the sole proprietorship factory.

As a representative of the wholly-owned factory, Tesla seized the policy dividend to build the factory at the fastest speed after the domestic liberalization of the new energy vehicle share ratio restriction in 2018, thus quickly occupying the market. As of September this year, Tesla China's cumulative sales in 2021 have exceeded 300,000 vehicles. Among them, domestic sales alone have exceeded 200,000 vehicles, and export models have exceeded 100,000 vehicles.

In this context, for the Lexus brand, which is extremely strict in process production and flaunts the "craftsman spirit", the sole proprietorship may also be the most acceptable way. In fact, Lexus localization rumors have a long history, according to public reports, as early as 2015, Lexus China had responded to this problem for the first time, saying that domestic production is only one of the means, not an end, and they are not against domestic production.

On December 16, the Times Weekly reporter interviewed Lexus on the latest rumors of localization, and its response said, "Lexus has been conducting research on localization issues, and will fully consider many factors including local demand, parts supply, quality control, talent training, sales and service system." However, there is no specific timetable for localization. ”