At a time when Ford, GM and other car companies that have vigorously promoted three-cylinder engines have returned to the four-cylinder, Toyota has done the opposite. A three-cylinder engine was installed on the Corolla.
According to people familiar with the matter, at an internal meeting of Toyota Engine, a Japanese executive of Toyota said that if its employees could introduce the 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine to 10 relatives and friends around them, 100,000 users could realize the benefits of the three-cylinder engine through the fission of the company's 1600 employees. It can be seen that Toyota is full of confidence in its three-cylinder engine.
Some media believe that with the development of engine technology, for compact models like the Corolla, the three-cylinder engine should not be too much of a problem. It can be seen that the media is more looking forward to Toyota's three-cylinder machine, which reflects from the side that the media believes that Toyota's three-cylinder opportunity is more reliable.
When Corolla's total sales in 2021 reached 318203 units, the voice of "the three-cylinder engine did not affect Corolla's sales" spread on the Internet. Many netizens have said that Toyota really broke the "curse" of poor sales of three-cylinder engines.
So, is Toyota's three-cylinder engine really selling?
In fact, Toyota's three-cylinder engine is no different from other car companies, and it does not sell well. Toyota Corolla's total sales in 2021 reached 318303, but looking at the sales information, it can be seen that the engine 1.2L is still the pillar of sales, followed by the 1.8L hybrid selling better, and finally the newly launched 1.5L three-cylinder engine. Although Corolla sales are still high, the 1.5T annual sales of only more than 40,000 vehicles, obviously do not meet Toyota's expectations. It is worth noting that the 1.5L three-cylinder machine is relatively cheap due to the lower manufacturing cost than the other two, and the sale price is still not able to exchange for sales.
The above data shows that Toyota's three-cylinder engine has not been recognized by the market.
In fact, looking back at the sales of the three-cylinder engine after the major car companies promoted it, the Chevrolet Cowartz was equipped with a three-cylinder engine, and the sales volume was only 20,000 units in the whole year, and finally the Kovos on sale by Chevrolet was reduced by nearly 90%. The sales of the three-cylinder engine equipped with Buick Yinglang are also miserable, and from the three-cylinder machine, the sales of Yinglang plummeted by 38.7%.
Corolla, who "knows that there are tigers in the mountains, prefers to go to the tiger mountains" has not been able to change the "curse" of the market.
But unlike other car companies, Toyota, which has always been "conservative", has not promoted the three-cylinder engine to the Chinese market on a large scale like Ford GM, and the 1.2T model has ensured the sales of corolla. I have to say that Toyota's move is indeed more sensible.
For now, brands such as Ford GM Geely, which have seen a significant decline in sales, are returning to the four-cylinder engine. For example, GM has reduced the production capacity of Chevrolet of the three-cylinder engine, and the company's focus has returned to the four-cylinder engine and new energy, which also reflects from the side that GM has abandoned the promotion of the three-cylinder engine. Yinglang was the evergreen of the sales list before, and the sales volume can be comparable to Corolla and Langyi, which was abandoned by consumers because of the replacement of the three-cylinder engine, until 2020, when it was replaced by the old 1.5-liter four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine, and sales have picked up significantly.
The latest news from foreign media said that the overseas version of the modified Corolla Twin Engine will cancel the current model's 1.8-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine, and replace it with a 1.5-liter three-cylinder Dynamic Force gasoline engine hybrid. Whether the domestic Corolla will follow up, we have no way of knowing.
But the domestic Corolla's 2021 sales data seems to have given some signals.