With the blessing of the TNGA architecture, Toyota, which has always been conservative and stable, has begun to embark on the fast track of product launch. After some "pushing and pulling", a batch of new cars with different sizes and styles, but almost the same core, dumplings are generally introduced to the market.
Today's scene also makes people feel as if they have seen a bit of the shadow of the public.
After more than ten years of market testing, the "multi-car strategy", "sister models" such operations have been repeatedly verified by Volkswagen, although the market reputation is mixed, and has been named "matryoshka doll", but "suspect is the buyer", the design of the verbal criticism is still difficult to stop the success of sales.
Ten years later, can Toyota's "copy operation" still reproduce Volkswagen's success?
Architecture blessing, the first taste of sweetness
In the matter of car building, it is often said that the German system is the master of the Japanese system, but Toyota, as the world's leading car company, has not missed the ability of Volkswagen's "matryoshka doll".
As early as 2012, Toyota Motor corporation had announced the launch of TNGA's new global architecture strategy, but it was not until 2017, under Toyota's continuous publicity and promotion, that this somewhat abstract-sounding strategy gradually became understood by some people.
Although this complex-sounding architectural strategy is born out of Ford's assembly line and sublimated by Volkswagen's platform, in essence: improving the versatility of core components, reducing research and development costs and production cycles is still its most essential benefit.
As a result, Toyota no longer needs to waste time on platforms and combinations that are not very different. It is only necessary to develop and produce core components such as engines with the best performance in an important market segment, and match them with similar segments.
Such basic research and development capabilities have also laid a solid foundation for Toyota's subsequent "multi-vehicle strategy", and Leiling, as a sister model of Corolla, has officially become the first model of Toyota's multi-vehicle strategy in China.
From the perspective of sales over the years, if we do not talk about the impact of political events on Toyota, since gac Toyota launched Ralink, the corolla and ralink two models have embarked on the fast track of sales, once sold 15,000 units a month Corolla, jumped to about 25,000 units per month, and the monthly sales of Ralink have also been stable at about 15,000 units for a long time.
In this way, the so-called "two-vehicle strategy" has undoubtedly achieved great success in Toyota. Toyota is also riding on the east wind of victory, and with the blessing of the TNGA architecture, the confident Toyota has entered the explosive period of product launch in China.
The battle of the same door, forgetting each other
So many models are thrown to the market like dumplings, and together with the expansion of the product territory, there is Toyota's ambition to compete for market share.
Among the existing models, North and South Toyota has a layout in small SUV, compact SUV and mid-size SUV.
The small SUV market has IZZOA and C-HR; the compact SUV market has RAV4 Rongfang and Wilanda; the medium-sized SUV market has Crown Landplay and Highlander, and even launched the more luxurious Weisa and Lingfang.
At the beginning of this year, Corolla Ruifang and Fenglanda further divided the market, and Toyota's product territory continued to expand.
However, it should be noted that although Toyota has tasted sweetness in the "sisters" of Leiling and Corolla, in the limited market share, there are more "children" and they will inevitably encounter land grabs and fights.
Although the original intention was to be consistent with the outside world and dream of achieving the effect of 1+1>2, from the fact that the brothers were on the wall, the insults of the outside were not as smooth as imagined, and the "multi-vehicle strategy" could not be fully developed according to the ideal situation.
In 2021, China's auto market handed over a beautiful answer sheet, and narrow passenger cars achieved a year-on-year increase of 4.4%, reaching 20.146 million units. Toyota, with its sales of more than 1.6 million vehicles in China, ranks first in the Japanese series, and the growth rate even exceeds volkswagen.
However, behind the high-gloss sales, not to mention the impact of oil emulsification and more than ten recalls, several price increases and low-priced product positioning are also slowly offsetting Toyota's reputation of "leather and durability", and Toyota is hiding a crisis in rapid development.
From the perspective of subdivision models, the important sales volume contributed to the north and south Toyotas are still The main models of Leiling and Camry, Corolla and Rongfang, which have reached their twilight years, although they have long been laid out in electrification and high-end, but the current effect can still be said to have risen early but caught up with a late set.
In this context, looking at the dumpling-like delivery method under the "multi-vehicle strategy", there is some taste of making a final struggle in the era of fuel vehicles.
Che Wen said:
The market competition after the inner volume will become the competition of categories.
Bringing these new cars with very different styles and sizes, but most of them with similar configurations and the same core, to the market, on the surface can occupy a larger market share and get more competitive opportunities.
But if you enlarge the field of vision, you will find that today's automobile market has long been different from the past, whether it is Europe or China, the transformation of new energy is happening in real and rapid, and the Volkswagen that has eaten and seen has begun to turn the bow of the ship to electrify, and the electric model that really belongs to Toyota is still missing.
After such a big move, how much time is left for Toyota? How much space is there?