Introduction | electrification, intelligence and youthfulness
Recently, Toyota's big turn has surprised everyone.
On September 22, Akio Toyoda said at a meeting of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association that if the electrification is rushed, it will seriously affect the Japanese automobile industry, and more than 5 million employees in the automobile industry may face unemployment in the future.
On December 14, Toyota Motor held an electric vehicle strategy conference. Akio Toyoda brought 16 new energy models to the public and said that by 2030, 30 electric vehicles (pure electric, plug-in hybrid, hydrogen fuel and ordinary hybrid) will be launched; at the same time, the Lexus brand will be transformed into a pure electric brand.
After less than half a year, Toyota's big turn was really unexpected, which also showed that it began to "panic"! The reason is probably related to Lexus's sales in China.
With the release of luxury car data in November, Lexus once again "cut the waist": sales of 12,366 units, down 50.9% year-on-year. And this is the second consecutive month of its "waist chopping". Its October sales fell 59.0% year-on-year to 8,642 units, falling out of the second-tier luxury brand camp.
Once is accidental, twice is coincidence, and three times is regularity.
The decline in Lexus sales is an inevitable event. It is true that "lack of core" is the main reason for its sales plunge, but its two-month decline is at the top of the list, presumably there are other reasons besides "lack of core", right?
Simply put, it deviates from the three mainstream trends of the current automobile: electrification, intelligence and rejuvenation.
1 Electrification
In the luxury car market, the BBA has always had an absolute dominance, but its dominance is gradually weakening. From January 2020 to November 2021, its market share fell from 71.4% to 51.9%, down nearly 20 percentage points, and fell to 45.8% at the trough.
Who is eating into its lost market? New energy vehicles.
In the luxury car market, the market share of new energy vehicles has risen significantly: from 3.3% in early 2020 to 22.8% today, soaring nearly 20 percentage points in less than two years, and reaching 25.1% at the peak. This is quite consistent with the share lost by BBA.
Judging from the trend chart, the two show a high "mirror relationship": you rise and I fall, you fall and I rise.
This shows that the era of electrification has come, and if it is charged, it will be born, and if there is no electricity, it will fail.
As an example, there were 3 electric vehicle brands in the top ten luxury brands in November, of which the biggest impact on BBA was Tesla, the pioneer of electric vehicles.
The originator of this new force, Sales in November has reached 73% of Audi's, and surpassing Audi in December will be a high probability event. In fact, in the luxury car ranking in September, Tesla surpassed Mercedes-Benz and Audi with sales of 52,000, rising to the second place, shocking four seats for a while.
Two other new Chinese forces are not to be outdone: Weilai is approaching Lexus and idealizing over Volvo. You know, they've only been around for six or seven years, and now they're selling more than 90 years of world-class brands.
It can be seen that "electrification" has brought about a profound change in the definition of the automobile.
Among the three BBA, BMW's new energy vehicles are relatively the most successful, and it is also the only traditional luxury brand on the list of the top 20 new energy insurance in November. This also allows it to still dominate the entire luxury brand.
Even those who are as strong as BBA cannot shift the general trend of electrification, let alone the second-line Lexus?
Lexus ES Entry Edition 0-100km/h accelerates 10 seconds away, has always been a topic of "talking about". This small example reflects the trend of this brand and electric vehicles gradually drifting away.
2 Intelligent
Traditional luxury has been replaced by "intelligence". The top-selling luxury model in November was the Model Y, with 23,000 units 50% more than the runner-up.
Model 3 ultra A4L, HS5 ultra Q5L, ideal ONE ultra GRC...
If we are simple and rude than intelligent, you can take a popular look at the size of the central control screen. Leading models generally have larger screens. Model Y is 15 inches, HS5 is dual 12.3 inches, ideal ONE quad screen size up to 50.9 inches.
Although the screen does not necessarily reflect 100% smarter, the screen is certainly not very smart.
For example, Lexus intelligence has always been relatively backward. The central control screen of the best-selling model ES is only 8 inches, which is not as good as the mainstream self-brand car. Correspondingly, its level of assisted driving has always been like a chicken rib.
The screen is hardware, it is a window into the strength of the software. The small screen also proves its lack of confidence in software. Software strength is an important measure of intelligence.
The Toyota system includes a small screen for Lexus, which is a kind of thinking that strives to reduce errors. Because more electronic products will lower the reliability ranking, affecting the gold signs cast over the years.
But times have changed.
Tesla's big screen Caton, black screen, and even recall chips (of course, this needs to be improved), but still changed the use habits of young consumers, and autopilot and OTA behind the big screen have become the bible of the industry to catch up.
Of course, there is also the ease of use of cars and machines, and the humanization of human-machine dialogue, which is the strength of Chinese brands, especially new forces. At this point, almost all foreign luxury brands are vulnerable and completely incomparable.
Weilai has also created the anthropomorphic interactive image of NOMI, which is a manifestation of intelligence.
One more important point: assisted driving.
BMW's ADAS level has always been relatively leading in the BBA, such as in the Euro NCAP 2021 assisted driving test, BMW iX3 won the only Very Good. So its sales have been dominating the first place, and it has been confirmed again.
In the same way, the entire Ford ADAS level has developed by leaps and bounds in recent years, and it has also given way to Lincoln. The Newly launched Lincoln Z at the Guangzhou Auto Show has both a high-precision map and a V2X, which also reflects Lincoln's efforts - the return is: it is the only international traditional luxury brand to achieve positive growth.
Lexus, which is "smart can't", has received the largest decline among all luxury brands: -51%.
3 Younger
Luxury car data has a clear feature: BBA, Lexus, Volvo and other "traditional luxury" sales are declining, while Tesla, Hongqi, Ideal, Weilai led by the "new luxury" sales are soaring.
Why?
Relying on administrative images, luxurious interiors, price increases or price reductions, it is becoming more and more difficult to impress young consumers, who pay more attention to the sense of the times, performance, technology, minimalist experience, etc. The identity label of traditional luxury brands is gradually eroded by the freshness of "pursuing self", so now the new luxury has a new definition.
The definition of "new luxury" can be divided into two types:
▎ One is the transformation of traditional luxury into a younger, more contemporary luxury brand, such as Hongqi, Lincoln has this trend. While digging deep into the traditional luxury way, they actively embrace new technologies, and at the same time, the pricing is quite sincere, neither high nor low, nor sitting on the ground, which is in line with the direct and cheerful personality of young people.
▎ The second is the new forces, the luxury they bring is no longer the traditional leather punching, chrome trim, a variety of palace sense, but a more concise, smarter, more dreamy sense of space, with technology instead of tradition, with silicon instead of carbon-based, with intuition instead of preaching, with the lizi instead of face, with the sensual experience instead of physical stacking, while from a rational point of view to make users feel that they have taken advantage.
In fact, in the final analysis, it is "rejuvenation".
This is not to say that the new forces are only suitable for young people to buy, but to say "young mentality". Rich middle-aged uncle, as long as there is still a wind-chasing teenager in his heart, and he does not reject new things, then he has the strength and willingness to buy electric vehicles, smart cars, young new force cars, and also recommend relatives and friends to buy.
According to the "2015-2016 White Paper on the Characteristics of Chinese Luxury Car Brands" released by the Hurun Research Institute, among the nine luxury brand owners in China, the average age of BMW car owners is the smallest, and the average age of Lexus car owners is the largest. Five years on, this scenario is not expected to have changed much.
Therefore, the smallest decline in traditional luxury brands is BMW, and the largest decline is Lexus, which is not wronged at all.
If "traditional luxury" does not change the status quo, then being cannibalized by "new luxury" will be an inevitable trend in market development.
brief summary
Toyota has sent so many electric vehicles in one go, do you think it wants to learn Evergrande? Of course not, it is just pushed to the cliff: Lexus' share of China's luxury market has fallen to 4%, and while being surpassed by ideals, it will soon be surpassed by Weilai.
It was neither Cadillac nor Volvo who defeated Lexus, but the new forces in China. For example, nokia was defeated by not Motorola nor Siemens, but Huawei and Xiaomi.
What's even more frightening is that in October Lexus was even thrown out of the second-tier luxury with less than 10,000 vehicles. You know, it is ranked 4th in the best history, and it was once the well-deserved big brother of the second-tier camp. It is now ranked 9th, falling out of the tenth place at any time.
Can it not panic?
Akio Toyoda is a clever businessman, and if he can't beat it, he will join it. In one fell swoop, Lexus will directly become a pure electric brand in 2030. One word: absolutely.
Electrification, intelligence and youthfulness are not only a trend in the luxury car market, but also a microcosm of the development of the entire world's automobile to today' node.
Article transferred from: Cheju Network
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