In 2021, the annual sales reached 840,000 units, an increase of 11% year-on-year, and the sales of dual-engine hybrid models exceeded 180,000 units, doubling year-on-year... At the theme activity of the new Huanqiu Thought Exchange "Reviewing the Power of GAC Toyota Brand Upgrading" hosted by Huanqiu Automobile recently, Huang Yongqiang, deputy general manager of GAC Toyota, and other corporate executives introduced the latest operating data of the brand to us.
In the past year, under the situation of chip shortage, repeated epidemics, consumption contraction, international raw material turmoil, and the annual sales of major joint venture brands have declined, GAC Toyota has ended with double-digit growth. However, this eye-catching achievement is only the beginning, GAC Toyota aims to impact annual sales of 1 million units, is in the post-joint venture era, with the "three flagships and three major strategies" to build the first camp of the joint venture brand.
From brand evolution to brand upgrading, the three major strategies promote the achievement of GAC Toyota's "million system"
In 2019, GAC Toyota proposed "brand evolution", empowering customers through TNGA in products, moving customers from three aspects: high-value products, high-quality services and high-grade experience. Three years later, GAC Toyota advanced from 580,000 vehicles a year to 840,000 vehicles, the user base exceeded 6.18 million, the cumulative sales of TNGA models reached 1.75 million units, and the cumulative sales of dual-engine hybrid models exceeded 500,000 units.
Behind the rising sales volume are GAC Toyota's sedans, SUVs and MPVs, and gasoline vehicles, HEVs, PHEV and EV all-dimensional lineups and all-engine layouts. This year, GAC Toyota proposed the "brand upgrade", from brand evolution to brand upgrade, that is, from quantity to quality. In this regard, Huang Yongqiang, deputy general manager of GAC Toyota, has a more detailed interpretation: "From the brand evolution to today's brand upgrade, we believe that this is the common upgrade of quantity and quality, the upgrade of GAC Toyota's system capabilities, and the upgrade of the trend from quality moving the world to taste leading the trend." We hope to comprehensively promote the upgrading of services with high-value products, high-quality services and high-grade experiences. ”
Huang Yongqiang, deputy general manager of GAC Toyota
Standing on the stage of 840,000 annual sales, GAC Toyota's next goal is bound to enter the "million vehicles" club. However, this will pose different challenges to the company's R&D capabilities, manufacturing capabilities, logistics and supply chain management capabilities, channels and marketing capabilities.
To this end, GAC Toyota has made a comprehensive strategic layout.
Huang Yongqiang introduced: "Facing 2025, we have put forward three major strategies of comprehensive high-end, all-round electrification, and all-field technology, and improved the capabilities of GAC Toyota's system in all dimensions, making it the favorite automobile brand of Chinese customers. ”
The sales volume of the three flagships accounted for more than 40%, creating a joint venture brand value pyramid
If China's own brands, which have experienced rapid development in the past 10 years, begin to fully develop high-end in 2021, and they still need to continuously launch new brands to achieve it, then GAC Toyota has accumulated important resources in high-end under many years of operation.
Zhang Geng, head of the public relations department of GAC Toyota's marketing department, introduced: "The three flagships of GAC Toyota TNGA have been assembled, and we have initially built a high-end product pyramid. The three flagships he said were Guangfeng's perennial blockbuster models Camry, Highlander, and the newly imported Syna in 2021. At the price of 200,000, 300,000 and 400,000 respectively, they have built a complete product camp consisting of cars, SUVs and MPVs.
In 2021, Camry sold more than 210,000 units, an increase of 17% year-on-year, and regained the top spot in the mid-to-high-end sedan market. It is worth mentioning that the sales volume of camry models above 200,000 prices has reached 57%, and the sales of 2.5L+ hybrid models have also accounted for more than 50%, building a high-end moat for Guangfeng cars.
Similarly, Highlander, as the benchmark of the big seven home SUVs, will have cumulative sales of more than 100,000 units in 2021, an increase of 10% year-on-year, refreshing annual sales and records. The newly imported Toyota global flagship MPV XENA, the price of which ranks among the luxury brand range, plays a role in elevating the tone of the GAC Toyota brand.
Wu Yingqiu, chairman and CEO of Huanqiu Automobile
As Wu Yingqiu, chairman and CEO of Huanqiu Automobile, said: "In the past year, GAC Toyota's report card has a gold content, and it has not only sold a high quantity, but also sold a high quality. ”
Zhang Geng also revealed that from 2022, the sales volume of the three flagships will account for more than 40%. When the vast majority of joint venture brands are dragged into the "unlimited inner volume" of the low-end market by their own brands, GAC Toyota has "escaped from the bitter sea" and traveled in the ocean of high added value.
GAC Toyota, which is all-round electrified and high-tech, intends to win the next decade
The development of enterprises emphasizes the trend of follow-up. New energy and intelligence are the general trend of the automotive industry. At the event, Zheng Yun, senior partner of Roland Berger and vice president of Greater China, believes that the penetration rate of China's new energy vehicles will reach 25% in 2022 and 27% in 2023, and by the mid-term target of 2030, pure electricity and hybrid will become the main force in the market. Of course, this also includes more intelligent and scenario-based technical applications.
Obviously, in the three major strategies of GAC Toyota, in addition to comprehensive high-end, how to practice the two major strategies of all-round electrification and all-field technology is the key to winning the future.
Thanks to Toyota's 29 years of electrification technology accumulation, in December last year, Toyota Akiosha released more than a dozen new energy models in one go to show its determination to embrace electrification and intelligence. This will become a strong endorsement of GAC Toyota's future electrification and intelligence. Zhang Geng believes that Guangfeng's more specific approach is, first of all, to fully popularize the dual-engine hybrid. At present, hybrid models including Highlander, Leiling, Camry, etc., are the No.1 models in various market segments.
In addition, Guangfeng will also fully meet the wave of pure electricity, and will successively launch Toyota bZ series pure electric models starting this year. "By 2025, GAC Toyota's entire twin-engine hybrid sales will account for more than 50%, and cumulative sales will exceed 2.3 million units." Electric models account for nearly 60% of sales, and will be fully electrified by 2035. Not only that, but for the comprehensive technology, in the future, all GAC Toyota models will support OTA functions and will be 100% equipped with Toyota's latest Internet of Vehicles," Zhang Geng said.
Write at the end:
Jeff Hammerbacher, an early Facebook engineer, said, "The best minds in our generation are thinking about how to get people to click on ads." "The weight of marketing is becoming more and more heavy in business operations, but when all companies are doing their best to market, in fact, they are in the same running line again, and in the end, the fight must be products, technologies and services."
In 2021, we can count the major joint venture car companies: FAW-Volkswagen, SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, Dongfeng Nissan, Dongfeng Honda, etc., the vast majority of which are negative sales growth, ANDC Toyota's annual sales growth rate of 11% is valuable, which is the ultimate victory of products, technologies and services.
Standing on the ladder of stage success, GAC Toyota put forward three flagships and three major strategies to advance towards "annual sales of one million vehicles", from brand evolution to brand upgrading, step by step, to build the first camp of joint ventures. We look forward to seeing the latest achievements under GAC Toyota's new strategy this time next year."