Author Li Anding/Zhu Zhongqi
1 Leiling Double Engine, China Champion in Hybrid Market
At the end of the year, GAC Toyota's 2022 Leilinghuan was newly listed. The euphoria was palpable.
For Leiling, especially the Leiling dual engine hybrid, the author was deeply impressed. First, when GAC Toyota first introduced the Leiling model into the Chinese market in 2015, the author participated in the market planning, and GAC Toyota "historicly" lowered the price of the Leiling "double engine" hybrid model to the 130,000 yuan range, completely "smoothing out" the price "gap" between the price and the ordinary gasoline vehicles of the same level, achieving "zero price difference", and thus triggering the trend of domestic hybrid popularization.
Second, in the exchanges with GAC Toyota in the past two years, the manufacturer has repeatedly stressed to the author, "The best-selling hybrid model in the Chinese auto market today is not a hybrid Camry, nor a hybrid Accord, but a hybrid Leiling." According to a set of data provided by GAC Toyota, since 2020, as the first model in the domestic hybrid market, the sales volume of Leiling Shuangqing has reached 66,563 units from January to November this year, accounting for 43% of GAC Toyota's "hybrid family", and it is also the first sales volume of GAC Toyota.
2 From "carbon reduction vehicles" to "carbon neutral vehicles", multiple solutions go hand in hand
More than 130 years after the birth of the automobile, it is currently facing a major change. The "four modernizations", characterized by electrification, intelligence, networking and sharing, have evolved into the inevitable trend of the global automotive industry.
At present, due to the national strategy of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality "double carbon strategy", the automotive industry aims at electrification, accumulating thick and thin, and moving forward every day. The data predicts that this year's domestic electric passenger car sales will be around 3 million, and the market penetration rate will exceed 15% for the first time; next year, the sales of domestic electric passenger cars are expected to exceed 5 million units, and the market penetration rate will exceed 20%.
As the world's largest automotive group by sales and one of the earliest automotive companies to make electric efforts, Toyota Motor has always adhered to the "multi-way simultaneous" approach to electrification – HEV (hybrid), PHEV (plug-in hybrid), EV (pure electric) and FCEV (hydrogen fuel cell) "blossoming on each line". Since 1997, Toyota Motor has been working tirelessly for 25 years to develop hybrid models, and its hybrid technology has become the industry leader.
In the past two years, Toyota Motor's investment in the EV field has also increased significantly due to the "accelerated start-up" of electrification trends in China, North America and Europe. The planning and market share targets for EV models in the future market are becoming clearer and more specific.
"The energy situation is different in different regions, and Toyota motor hopes to respond to all the situations and needs of each country and region, and provide a variety of options for achieving carbon neutrality." At the just-held Toyota Motor Electrification Strategy Sharing Conference for 2035, Toyota Motor President Akio Toyoda said so. "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 finally correct route is clear. ”
Toyota's road to electrification, electrified vehicles are clearly defined as two categories, one is the "carbon reduction vehicle" that can reduce CO2 emissions, and the other is the "carbon neutral car" that can make CO2 emission zero. Toyota Motor, on the other hand, is clearly classified as a "carbon-reducing vehicle" with its confident and even proud hybrid technology models. Since the launch of the Prius in 1997, Toyota Motor's hybrid models have sold more than 18 million units worldwide, making a significant contribution to global emission reductions.
3 GAC Toyota's hybrid dual-engine "strategic arsenal"
GAC Toyota is Toyota Motor's most important business unit in the Chinese market. The government's clear route of the "dual carbon strategy", the strong implementation of the "double carbon strategy" by both Chinese and foreign shareholders, coupled with the empowerment of Toyota's world-leading hybrid technology, make the hybrid technology undoubtedly become the pioneer force of GAC Toyota's promotion of the "double carbon strategy" and the company's electrification strategy. "In the context of the 'dual carbon strategy', GAC Toyota will promote a full range of 'electrification strategy', that is, dual-engine hybrid and pure electric dual-line parallel; while introducing the e-TNGA architecture and accelerating the layout of pure electric models, we will also deepen the popularization of dual-engine hybrid, so that dual-engine hybrid becomes the standard of each TNGA model." The relevant person in charge of GAC Toyota recently told the author.
The author understands that since the introduction of the first Camry hybrid in 2010, GAC Toyota has been developing the domestic hybrid market for more than ten years, and has formed a dual-engine hybrid "family" including the new four-generation Highlander hybrid dual engine, Weisa hybrid dual engine, 2022 Willanda hybrid dual engine, new Camry hybrid dual engine, new Leiling hybrid dual engine, C-HR hybrid dual engine and other six major vehicle series. And in the future, dual-engine hybrid will become the standard of GAC Toyota's TNGA product line, and all subsequent TNGA models will be available in the dual-engine hybrid version.
Dual-engine hybrid has become the "strategic arsenal" of GAC Toyota's "carbon emission reduction vehicle". In this "strategic arsenal", Leiling Shuangqing, which has burst into the largest mid-level car segment in the Chinese auto market and has the largest proportion of hybrid sales volume, has become a "strategic killer" for GAC Toyota's all-round electrification in the author's eyes. I heard that the newly listed 2022 Leiling has many upgrades in terms of intelligent network configuration and practical scientific and technological functions, and there have been new expansions in the power and color of the model, which is intended to create a "smart home car value benchmark".