Today, in the "inward-rolled" automobile market, major auto brands are racking their brains to win more market share. In order to get more opportunities, a number of joint ventures invariably played the "two-car strategy".
In particular, the Toyota brand, after entering the TNGA era, has launched a series of dual-vehicle combinations, such as RAV4 Rongfang and Willanda, Highlander and Crown Landplay and other products have received good market feedback.
Last year, for the Toyota brand, the most important product was the Toyota Xena. After the introduction of the new Sena into China, this car has brought huge heat and topics to Toyota, and may also see the opportunity of the MPV market, recently, there is news that FAW Toyota will also launch the corresponding MPV models.
Judging from the exposed news, FAW Toyota is about to produce a new MPV or be named Granvia, and the new car will also be imported into the Crown car series to hang the Crown logo, becoming the third product after the Crown Law and the Crown Land Release, and the new car is expected to be officially released within the year.
Mention the name Granvia, may be unfamiliar to domestic consumers, but if you talk about HIACE (sea lion), everyone is not unfamiliar. In 2019, Toyota's Granvia ushered in the debut, the new car is based on Toyota Hiace, positioned as a luxury business MPV model, and the main American market SIENNA is different, Granvia is mainly sold in Asia and Australia.
Because Granvia carries the pedigree of Toyota Sea Lion, in terms of design style, Granvia has a very tough body line, horizontal and vertical design in line with people's impression of the image of MPV "square box", and Xena's home style is completely two types. Of course, more similar to the sea lion is its size, body size, the overseas version of Granvia's length, width and height are 5300/1970/1990mm, and the wheelbase reaches 3210mm, which is much larger than the competition.
The boxy body shape and huge body size naturally bring a spacious interior. From the picture of the Australian version of Toyota Granvia, the rear longitudinal space and head space of this car are very exaggerated, and the new car provides 2+2+2 six-seat and 2+2+2+3 nine-seat seater layouts, of which the second and third rows of the six-seat top-mounted models are equipped with "aviation-class seats", and support long-track sliding, leg rests and other configurations, which seems to have no one to achieve in the current MPV market.
In terms of interior design, Granvia takes a minimalist design style, the overall layout is simple, and the various functional partitions are clear at a glance. It is not difficult to see from the Australian version of the Granvia interior that the storage space is still its strength, there are several large storage spaces in the center console area alone, and in order to enhance the sense of luxury, Granvia uses more advanced materials in the interior. The overall interior design is not a sense of technology, but it is still Toyota's consistent stable and practical route, which is enough for commercial use.
As for the power, the overseas version of the Toyota Granvia has two versions of 3.5L naturally aspirated and 2.8T diesel, the transmission system matches the six-speed automatic transmission, and the suspension uses a combination of front McPherson + rear four-link independent suspension.
It is not difficult to see that the overseas version of the Toyota Granvia is very similar to a "hardcover" version of the Sea Lion in all aspects, corresponding to the domestic MPV market, which is easily reminiscent of Mercedes-Benz's Vito. So, with the name Granvia, does Toyota really want to directly produce the overseas version of Granvia?
In the MPV era, in fact, the possibility of the introduction of the original Granvia is not very likely. Although FAW Toyota used the name Granvia, it is more likely that this car is based on the American version of SIEENA to create a sister model of Guangfeng Xena.
First of all, at the product level itself, the overseas version of Granvia is essentially a high-end luxury version of the van. Such a design is actually not popular in today's domestic MPV market, not to mention that FAW Toyota positions it as a flagship MPV, if a flagship MPV uses the bottom of the van, I believe that not many people will pay the bill.
Secondly, from the perspective of Toyota's current family product line, almost every Model of Guangfeng has a corresponding Version of Yifeng. And whether it is Highlander Land Release or Camry Asian Dragon, each model of Yifeng under the two-car strategy will be higher than Guangfeng in positioning. Although there is no difference between the two in the core platform and power form, the adjustment of the details is still corresponding to the more advanced partition of the Ichiho version.
Therefore, FAW Toyota's Granvia is also likely to be this route. For the current Syna, although the market heat is very high, the actual sales situation is not optimistic. At this time, if Ichiho had based on the American version of Sena, put some effort into the details, and brought a more "advanced" Syna through the name of Granvia and the logo of the crown, it might have a better effect.
Although the current information about Granvia is very limited, it is certain that in the face of the hot MPV market, FAW Toyota will definitely launch an MPV model with luxury attributes, as to whether it is an overseas version of Granvia or a crown label "Xena", I believe there will be an answer soon.
The image comes from the official