No matter how the consumer market changes, it seems that Highlander can easily stand on the top of the market.
Because of its excellent comprehensive quality and toyota brand laid a good market foundation, Highlander behind a large number of loyal supporters, for example, the simplest example, when you have a budget of 300,000 to buy an SUV, at least more than half of the people will support you to buy Highlander, perhaps they have not personally experienced this product, but can easily say highlander fuel saving, high retention rate, mature and durable, and even "not bad" and other characteristics.
Realistically speaking, in the field of medium-sized SUVs, Highlander is indeed thriving, based on its own excellent product quality, coupled with the official ten years of maintaining market reputation, making it difficult to find an opponent that can threaten it in the market segment to which it belongs.
However, after the launch of the fourth-generation Highlander, we can clearly perceive that highlander's competitiveness is much less than before, mainly because the 2.5L hybrid system equipped with the current model series has been further improved in fuel economy, but it ignores that the users who advocate Highlander are the recognition of Toyota's product quality, that is to say, this part of the population pursues highlander equipped with higher reliability and mature and stable traditional internal combustion engines.
The fourth-generation Highlander is equipped with Toyota's THS hybrid system, the details of the introduction of domestic has not been a few years, and the Asian Dragon Dual Engine, RAV4 Dual Engine has also made several "oil emulsification" problems in previous years, resulting in many users having negative emotions about the Toyota THS system.
In addition, Toyota's THS hybrid system also because the endurance of pure electric mode is less than 50km and can not enjoy the new energy car purchase subsidy policy, which further reduces the competitiveness of Highlander, after all, on the basis of the same guidance price, the purchase cost of blue and green cars is at least 10%, and in first-tier cities, it can also be exempted from the trouble of limiting numbers. Coupled with the guidance price of the fourth-generation Highlander compared to the third generation, its sales are not as good as before, and in order to improve the current situation of highlander, Toyota may add 2.0T pure oil power based on the fourth-generation model.
At present, netizens have taken road test photos of the new Highlander pure oil version model, from the new car tail "D-4S T" logo can be seen that this model will be equipped with the third generation Highlander 2.0T engine, the reference maximum power of 162 kW / 220 horsepower, peak torque of 350 Nm, matching the 6AT gearbox, the power performance will be basically the same as the third generation model on sale, but hindered by changes in the TNGA platform, The 2.0T version of the fourth-generation Highlander will significantly improve the driving control experience of the whole vehicle compared with the third generation.
In fact, the third generation of Highlander is currently on sale, but the quality of the product itself has been somewhat out of this era, especially compared with the fourth generation Highlander, the difference in strength is more obvious, whether it is space, configuration, design or comfort, safety or driving experience are a grade behind, but it still remains on sale, the fundamental is that Toyota is not willing to give up the market of Mounta equipped with traditional internal combustion engines.
So, how will the price of the fourth-generation Highlander equipped with 2.0T pure oil power change?
From the cost point of view, the complex structure of the THS hybrid system will inevitably bring higher assembly costs, and the supporting costs will naturally decline after the lack of this system to pure oil power, the current guidance price of the 2.5L hybrid model is 268,800 yuan for sale, and it is speculated that the price will be expected to plummet to 250,000 yuan after assembling the 2.0T engine, and 3-4 models will be launched according to the different configurations and seat layouts.
At that time, it will still be Honda Guandao that will be most affected, and it is not an exaggeration to say that this impact is fatal.
After all, the current Guandao 1.5T model sales are shabby, and the starting price of the 2.0T model is close to 280,000, which is not low, and the terminal only has a cash discount of 1-15,000 yuan, and the price of the user is also about 270,000, which is still a 2.0T entry-level version, and the configuration is slightly stingy.
After the launch of the new Highlander of 2.0T, the price has been further explored, if the starting price of the script is within 250,000, coupled with the empowerment brought by the advanced TNGA platform for the product and the strong appeal of Highlander itself, I believe that few people will consider Honda Guandao at that time, which is to force the Guandao to the rhythm of the dead end.
After the launch of the 2.0T model, it will bring a more comprehensive product matrix to Highlander, on power, there are mature and reliable traditional pure oil power, there are also more economical hybrids, but also can further lower the threshold, combined with Highlander's inherent reputation and brand endorsement, I believe that in the future it will continue to adhere to the joint venture medium-sized SUV field and 300,000 SUV field "leader" status, let us wait and see.