Why are you reluctant to buy a joint venture electric vehicle? The Toyota bZ4X, which has just been pre-sold, has been "exposed"

As we all know, in the domestic new energy vehicle market, in addition to Tesla, the overall performance of domestic new energy vehicles, especially domestic electric vehicles, is very good, compared to sole proprietorships and domestic brands such as Tesla, the performance of joint venture brands in the field of electric vehicles can be described as inexhaustible!

Take the sales data of March 2022, there is no joint venture brand in the top 10 of the domestic new energy vehicle sales list; in the top 15 of the list, only FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen are on the list, but they rank one or two from the bottom, and the sales of the two joint venture car companies add up to only 1.37 vehicles, which is already the best brand (Volkswagen) of the joint venture brand new energy vehicle sales. In addition to Volkswagen, other joint venture brands have achieved almost nothing in the domestic new energy vehicle market, including Toyota, the world's number one brand in terms of sales.

We have been wondering, why do consumers not recognize and buy joint venture brand electric vehicles? Before we used Volkswagen's electric vehicle and domestic electric vehicles of the same level to compare, came to some conclusions, but the conclusion at that time seemed to be insufficient, until Toyota launched the bZ4X series of electric vehicles at the same time in the two joint venture brands in China, and at the same time announced the price of 220,000 yuan - 400,000 yuan, on why the joint venture electric vehicles can not be sold, it seems to have a new answer.

GAC Toyota bZ4X has not yet announced the configuration information, and FAW Toyota bZ4X has announced the configuration information, we take faw Toyota bZ4X as the object of explanation. As a mid-size pure electric SUV, the bZ4X has a length of 4690mm and a wheelbase of 2850mm, which is an entry-level mid-size SUV model. Of course, this is not a problem, large size models have large size prices, small size models have small size prices.

However, the configuration of this car is indeed a bit shabby. Let's take the entry-level model with a pre-price of 220,000 yuan, the entry-level model is equipped with a 50.3kWh battery, the pure electric mileage is only 400 kilometers, in the more than 200,000 pure electric SUV models, this mileage is obviously relatively short, because 400 kilometers is only the nominal endurance, the actual endurance must be only more than 300 kilometers, 220,000 yuan pre-sale price, can only run more than 300 kilometers of cruising range, indeed a little short.

In the past, we have been emphasizing a reality, that is, Tesla and domestic electric vehicles have taken the lead, defining the basic product quality and configuration level that electric vehicles should have. Therefore, to a certain extent, the idea of reducing the configuration cost or low allocation and high price of the joint venture brand in the era of fuel vehicles is unlikely to work in the era of electric vehicles.

The configuration level of FAW Toyota bZ4X is actually difficult to reflect the cost performance. The entry-level model with a pre-price of 220,000 yuan has no reversing radar, no sunroof, with plastic steering wheel, ordinary remote control key, leather-woven mix-and-match seats, front seats do not support electric adjustment, do not support GPS navigation! Of course, what is more important is that as a 220,000-level pure electric SUV model, this entry-level does not support OTA upgrades. From this perspective, the overall configuration of FAW Toyota bZ4X is still relatively low, especially compared with domestic electric vehicles of the same price, there is basically no advantage.

As we said before, in the era of fuel vehicles, because the joint venture brand has mastered the core technology related to fuel vehicles, it is higher than the independent brand that lacks core technology at the brand level, so consumers have a high overall recognition of the joint venture brand, and even the strong joint venture brands including Toyota and Volkswagen have continued to reduce the allocation at the product level in recent years, and have not affected sales. Such market recognition may largely give joint venture brands an illusion, that is, as long as the brand is "hard" enough, then even if the new car product is a little weak, the price is higher!

But in the era of new energy vehicles, the situation is completely different. In essence, electric vehicles do not have too high-tech technology, so there is no highly exclusive core technology, or even if there is a core technology, it is basically scattered in the hands of different manufacturers, and most of these manufacturers are from China. In such a case, in fact, the core technology of electric vehicles has long been out of the hands of the joint venture brand, and it can even be said that the joint venture brand has lagged behind Tesla and some domestic brands and models in terms of electric vehicle technology, so the brand influence of the joint venture brand in the field of electric vehicles is far less than its performance in the field of fuel vehicles.

However, these joint venture brands do not seem to have woken up from the dream of the era of fuel vehicles, taking the Toyota bZ4X and Volkswagen ID series electric vehicles, compared with tesla, new car manufacturing forces, BYD and other manufacturers in the domestic market, there is basically no product advantage. So we see the vigorous development of domestic new energy vehicles, but almost nothing to do with the joint venture brand, the rigidity of the joint venture brand in the thinking of electric vehicle products, and the reluctance to give up the brand baggage, so that the joint venture brand in the electric vehicle area is difficult.

Although FAW Toyota bZ4X has not yet been officially listed, and the official price of the new car has not been announced, it is basically certain that the gap between the new car price and the pre-price should be very small. So if the official price of this new car and the pre-sale price are not much different, then we can boldly predict that this car is likely to repeat the mistakes of the Volkswagen ID series of electric vehicles and continue to play a marginal role in the domestic electric vehicle market.