Editor's introduction: The "limited-time promotion" has been made into an "unlimited time", and FAW Toyota's official "limited-time promotion" is about to last for two full months, just like a stall clearance sale. Behind the "excellent" results of 4.1% year-on-year growth last year, FAW Toyota did not show a relaxed attitude.
Three consecutive official promotions in 2 months
From December last year to so far this year, FAW Toyota has continuously launched three promotional activities, which is the most frequent price reduction promotion of FAW Toyota in recent years.
On December 1, 2023, FAW Toyota launched a "limited-time promotion", covering the period from December 1 to December 18, in the name of "Double 12 Manufacturers Promotion", with its new Corolla, new RAV4 Rongfang, New Asia Dragon, Grevia, Crown Lufang, Lingfang, Ruifang, Asian Lion, Yize and other models participating in it, with a direct subsidy of 5,000 yuan for a time-limited purchase tax, as well as rich financial solutions such as low down payment/0 interest rate, and a replacement subsidy of up to 6,000 yuan.
The time of "limited-time promotion" has just passed a day, on December 19, FAW Toyota non-stop, and announced the launch of the "year-end promotion", the above-mentioned multiple models once again enjoy the "limited-time offer", purchase tax subsidies, financial policies, replacement subsidies and other policies remain unchanged, only the change in coverage time, for December 19 to December 31.
FAW Toyota's "limited-time promotion" is not stopping in 2023, just after 2023, a new round of "limited-time promotion" with a longer time, wider scope and greater intensity has started again. On January 1, 2024, FAW Toyota said that it would launch a "time-limited direct subsidy" policy for all models, specifically a time-limited direct subsidy of up to 5,999 yuan for all models, and a replacement subsidy of up to 7,000 yuan, with a deadline of January 31.
CRRC.com sorted out the car purchase policies released by FAW Toyota in the same period in the past two years, such as the same period from 2021 to 2022, FAW Toyota's preferential policies have obvious time faults, and they were previously more concentrated in financial policies, replacement subsidies, etc., and continuous and large-scale direct purchase tax supplements are rare. From December last year to January this year, FAW Toyota's official promotional campaign will last for two full months, and it is no different from a street stall sale.
FAW Toyota's pressure is highlighted
In fact, behind a series of promotions, the essence reflected is that FAW Toyota is still facing greater pressure - FAW Toyota's product competitiveness has declined in China.
The rise of domestic independent brands and the impact of new energy models have put unprecedented pressure on traditional joint venture car companies to deal with the "old-fashioned".
Taking FAW Toyota's flagship model Corolla as an example, the car will sell a total of 183,100 units in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 26% compared with 249,800 units in 2022, which is enough to illustrate the problem;
Including last year's FAW Toyota dealer turmoil, it is also proved from the side that FAW Toyota's cars are no longer easy to sell. In November last year, a proposal from dealers to protest to FAW Toyota fermented on the Internet. The article pointed out that FAW Toyota's annual distribution is out of reality and does not care about the life and death of dealers.
At that time, some industry insiders pointed out that "FAW Toyota hit the million sales target, which put great pressure on dealers' inventory, and the loss of a single car was nearly 10,000 yuan." "In 2023, FAW Toyota's management has set an annual sales target of 1.02 million units.
In response to the complaints of dealers, in November last year, FAW Toyota announced that it would help dealers alleviate inventory and financial pressure by reducing production. FAW Toyota sent a letter to dealers stating that in order to improve the inventory and financial pressure of dealers, it will reduce plant production from December 2023 to February 2024, including 66,000 units in December and 60,000 and 38,000 units in January and February 2024.
In the official caliber, FAW Toyota's retail sales in 2023 will be 800,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 4.1%, while the caliber of the passenger association shows that its retail sales in 2023 will be 802,000 units, a slight increase of 0.3%, and the upper risk caliber shows that FAW Toyota's sales will decline again in 2023, with sales of 763,900 units, a year-on-year decrease of 5.38%.
On the whole, FAW Toyota's final performance in 2023 is not outstanding, and the results of the reference material in 2022 are successively affected by factors such as repeated epidemics and supply chain problems that have led to production cuts. In this context, FAW Toyota's "limited-time" fire sale strategy is not difficult to understand.
This year, the new Crown and Prado are on the market
However, whether it is a financial policy or a direct subsidy from manufacturers, this is not a fundamental solution to the problem of the decline in the competitiveness of FAW Toyota's products.
From the perspective of FAW Toyota's planning, its product matrix will be further strengthened in 2024, including new energy vehicles and traditional fuel vehicles. Among them, the bZ Sport Crossover Concept of the bZ all-electric series is scheduled to be launched in 2024, but the competitiveness of FAW Toyota's new electric vehicles is still in question due to the poor market performance of the previous bZ4X and bZ3.
What's more important is FAW Toyota's two fuel vehicles, and in 2024, FAW Toyota will also launch a new Crown, a new Prado, and two classic models as the focus of 2024. The two models were unveiled at last year's Guangzhou Auto Show, when FAW Toyota announced that the new Crown will be launched in the first half of 2024, and the all-new Prado will be pre-sold on February 29, 2024, and the final launch time is expected to be in the second half of this year.
In particular, it is worth mentioning the all-new Prado from FAW Toyota. At present, the trend of domestic hard-core off-road vehicles is rising, and in the past 2023, fuel and new energy off-road vehicles are blooming. From the early 100,000 short-distance travelers, there are the Great Wall's Tank 400, BYD's Equation Leopard Leopard 5, and the million-level Mengshi 917 and other products, all of which show high popularity in the market.
From 2003, when FAW Toyota introduced the Prado to China, to 2020, the Prado has sold nearly 350,000 units in the Chinese market, and the car was once a popular presence in the domestic off-road vehicle market. The resurrection of the new generation of domestic Prado can help FAW Toyota win a place in the hard-core off-road market in the new era, which has also become one of the highlights of FAW Toyota this year.