Author: Gao Hao
Throughout the more than 100 years of automotive industry history, the Corolla may not be the most brilliant, but it must be the highest-selling model, since its introduction in 1966, the cumulative global sales of 12 generation models have exceeded 50 million.
In China, the three words "Corolla" are a golden signboard for all ages, and for those who do not want to spend too much effort on choosing a car, corolla with balanced development is an infallible choice.
As a global model, the Corolla has spawned hatchbacks, sedans, SUVs, and travel versions, forming the "Corolla Universe". Faw Toyota Corolla, which was launched in January this year, can be understood as Corolla's SUV feeder product, corresponding to the AMERICAN version of the Corolla Cross.
Ruifang, opening China's "Corolla Universe"
Carola Ruifang's name is very flattering, under the aura, directly eliminating the self-introduction link, taking the lead in occupying the minds of consumers. Although ruifang, which starts at 129,800 yuan, is an entry-level product, it has important strategic significance to improve the layout of FAW Toyota's SUV product system and strengthen the Corolla family.
First of all, Ruifang has reduced the burden on IZUA Yize's shoulders, and will work with RAV4 Rongfang, HARRIER Lingfang, and Crown LandFang to focus on different SUV market segments.
Secondly, the advent of Ruifang also opened Up China's "Corolla Universe". Under the excellent product strength and good user reputation, Corolla is no longer just a single model in China, but more like a high-quality "brand" that users can fully trust in their subconscious. Combined with Toyota's growing appeal in China, the acceptance of users will be significantly improved when the corolla family launches new products in the follow-up.
Ruifang's joint venture entry-level SUV market competition has been very sufficient, so that Yize such a prominent car and the top three Qashqai (January-February sales of 30,229 units, an increase of 19.1%), Binzhi (January-February sales of 29,841 units, an increase of 38.8%), XR-V (January-February sales of 26,222 vehicles, down 6% year-on-year) is also enough to compete on the same stage, it is also enough to be difficult.
After the listing of Ruifang, this situation has been fundamentally reversed. Under the trend of turbocharging with small displacement, Ruifang has obvious advantages over competitors, and the standard 2.0L engine of the whole series can be described as unlocking the biggest knot in consumers. The longest body length of 4460 mm in its class and excellent spatial layout completely dispel the public's doubts about space. It can be said that Ruifang uses the most "rough" and direct methods to meet the space and power needs that consumers value most.
Such an all-round SUV that only starts at 129,800 is also hanging a "bull head label", and RENA Media believes that Ruifang, which understands the needs of the Chinese people, has enough strength to disrupt the already fierce joint venture small SUV market.
What is valuable is that unlike the inertia of thinking, Ruifang has not lost its personality because of the mission of "walking quantity".
Not long ago, RENFA visited the Beijing Beiyuan FAW Toyota 4S store, and learned from the sales staff that the more expensive version of the two-color car paint (compared to the same configuration model) has been ordered a number of units, and the customers who came to the store to see the car showed a high interest when they learned that there was a two-color car paint. With the rejuvenation of consumer subjects, emotional consumers have not given up their right to express their personality while taking into account practicality.
I then made an appointment with the staff for a test drive, and the TNGA architecture performed unsurprisingly to my satisfaction. With the support of the mature power system of the 2.0L engine + CVT transmission, the sharply tightened but high-grade chassis can filter out unnecessary and annoying vibrations and clearly transmit the sense of road to the driver. The staff said: "TNGA models have accounted for 89% of FAW Toyota's sales last year, and everyone is increasingly recognizing the Toyota brand, which also has a lot to do with TNGA's driving experience." ”
Bucking the current, 2022 hit millions of sales
In the past year, FAW Toyota has achieved sales of 860,000 units in the ups and downs of the car market with the blessing of a variety of new cars, and various operating indicators have reached the best in history. Subsequently, FAW Toyota set an annual sales target of 1 million vehicles, which means that FAW Toyota is about to become a company with tens of millions of users.
In the first quarter of 2022, FAW Toyota was mixed.
Happily, taking advantage of Toyota's sponsorship of the Winter Olympics, FAW Toyota keenly seized the opportunity to link the brand with sports, resonate products with champions, sharpen brand recognition, strengthen brand strength, and achieve a good story outside the Winter Olympic Games.
The worry is that the repeated epidemic situation has caused FAW Toyota's Tianjin plant and Changchun base to stop production successively, and under the current severe prevention and control situation, faw Toyota's "lost" production capacity gap is far from healing.
Under these unchangeable objective existences, FAW Toyota can only maintain a high degree of anti-risk ability and stabilize its own system.
This year, FAW Toyota enters the first year of electrification, and the first model bZ4X built based on the e-TNGA architecture will be officially introduced to the market. Including the Corolla Ruifang, which has been listed, FAW Toyota's new vehicles in various forms of energy drive will also be launched one after another, and continue to exert efforts on the product side. In addition, FAW Toyota will also accelerate marketing transformation, accelerate research and development self-reliance, continue to comprehensively promote the transformation of user thinking, and take users as the center to improve user experience in an all-round way.
The listing of Corolla Ruifang is the first shot in 2022 that FAW Toyota will continue to seek high-quality development. Although it did not take the lead in the entry-level SUV market, Ruifang allowed the industry to see FAW Toyota's accurate grasp of user needs. At this stage, it is too utilitarian to set a short-term sales target for Ruifang, but RENFA Media believes that in the small SUV segment, Corolla Ruifang is entirely likely to overtake in a straight line and rank among the top of the list with strength.