As we all know, with the development of the general trend of electrification, many car companies that were not very interested in electric vehicles before were forced to launch electric vehicle research and development projects.
Toyota Motor is one of them, before Toyota's new energy focus has been on hybrid and hydrogen energy, in the field of pure electricity, although involved in but not heavy costs. With the deepening of electrification in the major consumer markets in the United States, China, and Europe, Toyota had to catch up, and the first action was not chilling, and the shot was very generous.
Toyota unveiled 17 concept cars in one go last year, muffled its guns, and announced that it would launch 30 electric vehicles worldwide by 2030.
However, these electric vehicles are not all developed by Toyota, but are developed jointly with alliance manufacturers according to the characteristics and levels of each model. These alliance manufacturers include Subaru, Daihatsu and domestic BYD.
Recently, the Internet exposed a group of suspected Toyota bz SDN pure electric car spy photos, this car is not small, known as Toyota similar to the Corolla "pure electric global strategic products", and this car is the product of cooperation between Toyota and BYD.
(Toyota bz SDN concept car)
Although this car is very tightly wrapped, it is not difficult to see its relationship with the Toyota bz SDN concept car from many details. The waistline of the new car in the spy photo is very similar to the bz SDN concept car, especially the slightly raised window line in the C-pillar position and the concave rib line line under the door, which is the same as the concept car.
At the rear, you can see the slip-on design, the through-type light group shape, the raised side wing area, and the overall style of the new car is similar to that of the bz SDN concept car.
The interior design of the new car was also exposed for the first time, and the huge central control screen, dashboard, steering wheel and the first model of the Toyota bz series, the bz4X, have many similarities, but this big screen has a bit of BYD flavor.
From the exposed parameter table, we can see that the length, width and height of this car are 4725/1835/1475mm, the wheelbase has reached 2880mm, and the front and rear wheelbases are 1580mm, which is in line with the positioning of the pure electric medium-sized sedan of the bz SDN concept car. At the same time, from the parameter table, we can also see that the rim adopts an 18-inch specification, the tire model is 225/50 R18, the vehicle has a maximum speed of 160 km/h, and the list of vehicle manufacturers of the new car is displayed "BYD Automobile Industry Co., Ltd."
In fact, as early as 2020, Toyota and BYD established a joint venture company BYD Toyota, each holding 50% of the shares, to jointly develop electric models such as cars and SUVs and the power batteries required for these models. Therefore, this mid-level car of the spy photo should be the first model mass-produced by Toyota and BYD. According to the current situation, this model is designed and led by BYD, and it is likely that toyota logos will be hung and produced by Toyota. The core components of electric vehicles, such as battery packs, are provided by BYD.
At this pace, we should be able to see the car at the Beijing Auto Show in April and complete a series of activities such as the launch this year. The price of the new car is said to be less than 200,000 yuan, so that its competitors will target models such as the Xiaopeng P5 and GAC AION S PLUS.
Toyota's quality control + BYD's electric technology, which is a new cooperation model in the era of electrification. Who would have thought 20 years ago that domestic brands could one day be branded by Toyota?