Highlander fell, will Alpha be far away?

Toyota's myths will be busted one by one.

Written by: Lu Weijia

From a price increase of tens of thousands, to an official drop of 20,000, the once invincible Toyota Highlander, this time is really urgent.

This not only means that the era that belongs to Highlander has passed, but what is more exciting is that the self-brand SUV, which has always been looked down upon by Toyota, has finally risen.

Nowadays, under the repeated attacks of its own brand SUVs, Highlander can only sell feelings at the recent new car conference, and even the copywriting of "the road knows horsepower, see the big man for a long time" has been forced out. One netizen commented very well, "You play with him and he talks about faith."

The good man does not mention the brave of the year, if it is not for the new car without any bright spots, how can it tell history vigorously? Looking back at a sentence in previous years, "the only one who can beat the Highlander is the new Highlander", the Highlander was indeed defeated by himself, and it is inevitable that sales will be cut by the waist.

Similarly, Toyota Alpha is now facing a strong attack from its own brand, although this "god car" still increases the price by 100,000 yuan in the terminal market, but its monthly sales have dropped from 2,000 units to about 1,000 units. In the MPV segment of more than 500,000, the sales of Extreme Krypton 009 and Buick Century have surpassed Elfa, and this once markup god car is likely to become the next Highlander.

However, despite this, the new generation of Alpha still arrived as scheduled and was officially released on June 21. The silhouette of the new car has not changed much, and the front face is still covered with a sharp "ghost mask", which has a high degree of recognition. But it is disappointing that although this is the design style pioneered by Elfa, with this not very spiritual headlights, there is a sense of déjà vu of the Honda Lingpai, and the coordination of the entire front face part is not as good as the current model.

Inexplicably, the new Alpha abandons the iconic yacht-style B-pillar design in favor of a "Z" shaped polyline design, which creates a sporty feel rarely seen in MPV models, but it seems unnecessary to abandon the classic design that has been in use for more than two decades.

The silhouette of the rear part is still tilted forward, the taillights have been blackened, and the inside of the lamp cavity contains 24 diamond-shaped blocks, which is the first design element applied to Toyota vehicles. At the same time, the new taillights have been narrowed underneath, and the taillights separate the windshield from the lower part of the tailgate, and this concave shape "tunic" design is mostly used in small size models.

Judging from the actual car pictures exposed so far, the new generation of Alfa presents the temperament of a "copycat car", compared with the current series of self-owned brand high-end MPVs, the new Alfa lacks eye-catching elements and lacks the temperament that a high-end MPV should have.

In terms of interior, Alpha uses its own first-class second-row independent seats. However, the layout of the center console is slightly bland, still Toyota's old-fashioned design, neither luxurious decoration nor lack of technological configuration, which does not match its million-level price.

At present, there are two things to look forward to in the new Alpha, one is based on the TNGA architecture, and the driving quality and NVH performance may go further. Second, the power has ushered in an upgrade, the 2.4T turbo engine will replace the 3.5L V6 naturally aspirated engine, the maximum horsepower can reach 280 horses, and the transmission is expected to be equipped with an 8AT gearbox.

In addition, the all-new Alpha continues to offer a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated engine, as well as a 2.5-liter dual-engine hybrid version, the former mated to a CVT transmission, and the latter mated to an E-CVT transmission and an E-Four all-wheel drive system.

Of course, we must admit that Alpha has brought many pioneering designs and concepts in the past, and the own brand MPV of Trumpchi M8 and Denza D9 has borrowed more or less from Alpha in design. However, thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi, many self-owned brand MPVs are not only cost-effective, much higher than Toyota Elfa, but also comparable to Alpha in terms of products.

After two decades, Toyota Elfa, which has developed to the fourth generation of models, now looks more like a business card in the MPV field, a ticket for business and social networking, Chinese mainland the reason why there are still people in the market willing to buy Alfa at a higher price is actually because of the "brand effect", not because of how good the product power is. Once the aura of the star nanny car fades, Alpha's position in the MPV market will decrease.

Assuming that the self-owned brand MPV is sold to Hong Kong and is favored by Hong Kong celebrities, how long can the aura of Toyota Alpha last?

If the self-owned brand MPV opens up the Hong Kong market, then it is foreseeable that Toyota Alpha's competitiveness in Hong Kong will gradually decrease. In the past, Hong Kong consumers were willing to accept Alpha priced at HK$80-1.2 million when they had no choice, but in the future, if there are other options, it will be another story.

At present, there are two paths ahead of Toyota, one is to increase Elfa's quota in the mainland market, intervene in the price increase behavior in the terminal market, and reverse Toyota's reputation in the mainland market. The second is to maintain arrogance, take advantage of the residual heat, regardless of the way back, and make a wave.

If the first path is "lost and returned", then the second path is the point of no return. If Toyota chooses the second path, I believe that one day the myth of Toyota Alpha will be shattered. And the banners that Toyota has set up in those years will also fall one after another.