GAC Toyota SUV increased to 5 models, VENZA Weisa with the "luxury" gene to disrupt the high-end market

Economic Observation Network reporter Wang Shuaiguo's 200,000 to 300,000 yuan joint venture SUV market has ushered in another member of the tough general - GAC Toyota Wesa. According to the official introduction, Weisa originated from the American version of VENZA, relying on Toyota's TNGA-K high-end platform, the American version of VENZA is the global version of Toyota's fourth-generation Harrier. Hariier is well known worldwide, evolving over four generations and 25 years, and early existed as a rebrander for the Lexus RX.

With the arrival of the domestic version of Harrier Wesa, GAC Toyota's SUV products increased to 5 models, including C-HR, Fenglanda, Veranda, Weisa, Highlander, the price from 100,000 to 300,000 yuan, comprehensively covering small, medium, compact, medium and large SUV segments, greatly enriching GAC Toyota's SUV product line. In terms of positioning, the official price of Wesa is 216,800-30.38 million yuan, positioning between Veranda and Highlander, facing the mid-to-high-end SUV market.

Recently, the reporter test drove the GAC Toyota Wesa in the coastal city of Xiamen, which has just been listed for two months. Weisa's competitors are the mid-to-high-end SUVs of Volkswagen, Honda and other brands that are also mainstream joint venture brands, mainly including Volkswagen Tanyue, Tiguan L, Honda UR-V, Guandao and so on. As far as the test drive experience is concerned, the overall image of Weisa is quite elegant and exquisite, and it is a model that meets the daily driving of family users, and is decent in terms of design, power, space and intelligence. The dual engine system equipped with power is a major feature.

From the perspective of styling design, the appearance of Weisa is atmospheric and stable, and the logo is located in an independent protruding exclusive position on the front face, with a large area grille and sharp "double L" shaped headlights. The whole car is clearly lined, concave and convex, giving people a tough feeling. The interior uses a lot of leather fabrics, thick leather, metal chrome, piano paint and other processes to enhance the sense of luxury inside. The driver's and passenger seats are ventilated and heated. Such interior and exterior styling and configuration are actually commonly available in SUVs above 200,000 levels, and Weisa's performance is at the upper middle level.

However, in some details, we can see the unique intentions of Weisa based on the user car scene. For example, the new car is equipped with the only dimmable panoramic canopy of the joint venture brand, with a lighting area of 0.76 m, and the dimming mode and transmission mode can be switched in 1 second. Dimming mode reduces direct sunlight while ensuring light in the car, and the light transmission mode enhances the sense of openness for a wide field of view, which allows the driver to experience more daylight and relaxation during the driving trip.

In terms of power, Wesa is equipped with two major powertrains of 2.0L gasoline and 2.5L HEV, both of which are available in two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive versions. The 2.5L dual engine supreme version test driven by the reporter is a top-mounted model, the car has good power response and stable power output, whether it is in the narrow path of the island, coastal road or cross-sea bridge and other driving scenes, it can be retracted and placed freely. Toyota's 2.5L HEV powertrain is also mounted on the flagship SUV Highlander, which is quite stable and reliable in actual performance.

According to the official introduction, the 2.5L dual engine model adopts the new fourth-generation THS II. Toyota hybrid system, the fuel power system is TNGA 2.5L Dynamic Force engine matches the new generation of E-CVT electronic stepless variable speed system; the battery pack is a high-performance ternary lithium-ion with two motors before and after; the fuel consumption of 100 kilometers of comprehensive working conditions (NEDC) is only 4.5L, which is a fuel consumption level that even most compact cars in China cannot do.

As a medium-sized SUV, wesa has a body length and width of 4780mm/1855mm/1660mm and a wheelbase of 2690mm, which is not an advantage over its rivals Volkswagen Tangaku and Honda UR-V, but through Toyota's design, the car's interior seating space is also quite generous, and it performs well in riding comfort.

In terms of intelligent technology configuration, Wesa is equipped with two 12.3-inch color displays and a HUD head-up display system. The 12.3-inch instrument screen displays the vehicle status information in the middle left and right areas, of which the information displayed on the left side is the vehicle power running state, including kinetic energy recovery, EV, energy saving, etc., which can allow the driver to clearly understand the real-time operation status of the vehicle.

In the vehicle control options displayed on the center control screen, the driver can also view the real-time energy flow of the vehicle through the energy flow, such as in the initial acceleration stage, only the battery is used to supply energy to the vehicle; when the vehicle is braking, the front and rear motors will convert the energy recovered from the tire into electrical energy and store it in the battery. Other intelligent configurations such as car-machine interconnection, car-home interconnection, face recognition, remote control, etc., Weisaying's intelligent car machine can be described as everything.

However, compared with the current technology of some independent high-end electric brands in the interaction of people and vehicles, weisa as a joint venture product still has some room for improvement. For example, when the car voice assistant talks to the driver and occupants, the intelligent feedback is not completely sensitive. This situation is also one of the common problems in fuel and hybrid models.

In terms of active and passive safety, Wesa is equipped with toyota Safety Sense Safety (Toyota Collision Avoidance Assistance Kit) system, including PCS pre-collision safety system, DRCC dynamic radar cruise control system, LTA lane tracking assistance system and AHB automatic adjustment high beam system, which can realize quasi-L2 level automatic driving. With the help of these systems, the driver can more easily control the vehicle.

In addition, as a medium-sized SUV positioning luxury cars, Wesa is also equipped with the same ICS intelligent radar with auxiliary brake system of the luxury car, led front fog lights and ACA active steering assist system as standard, which improves the active safety of the vehicle by one level.

Looking back at GAC Toyota's recent product layout, its layout in SUV has accelerated significantly, and in January this year, it successively launched a small and medium-sized SUV Fenglanda and a medium-sized SUV Weisa, making the product line greatly enriched. On the other hand, this is due to the continuous deepening of the Toyota brand's "dual-vehicle strategy" in China. In FAW Toyota, there are Corolla Ruifang models corresponding to Fenglanda and Lingfang models corresponding to Weisa, and there is also a competitive relationship between them.

According to the plan, GAC Toyota will challenge the target of 1 million vehicles per year in 2022. To achieve this goal, GAC Toyota's sales growth rate needs to reach 19%. Faced with multiple adverse effects of chip shortages and rising raw material prices, GAC Toyota continues to import more competitive new cars into the market, which is the first step to achieve its goal.