Electrification and intelligence have completely changed the underlying logic of the automotive industry and brought about tremendous changes in the market competition pattern. For example, the market share of Chinese brand passenger cars exceeded 50% for the first time, China became the world's largest automobile exporter, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China exceeded 50% historically.
A series of signs seem to indicate that joint venture brands are being abandoned by consumers and their survival is in jeopardy. For example, in the mid-to-high-end sedan market, the Camry has won the sales championship for three consecutive years, and in the MPV market, the Sena is the fastest electric hybrid MPV to achieve sales of 100,000 units and has become the sales champion of HEV hybrid MPV.
There are many such cases, and what is even more slap in the face of the "joint venture extinction theory" is that compared with many independent new energy vehicle companies to sell a car to a net loss of 30,000 ~ 120,000 yuan, the product structure of mainstream joint venture car companies represented by GAC Toyota shows an obvious "high value" tendency, Saina, Highlander, Camry, Weisa and Veranda and other models of more than 200,000 yuan account for as high as 44.5%, such a "high value" proportion is very rare in domestic car companies.
The new force that has fallen, the Toyota system that stands upright
Singing about the decline of joint ventures and singing about high autonomy seems to have become the main theme of the current auto market. When it comes to joint venture brands, everyone is easily swayed by subjective emotions and trend-following remarks, taking quotes out of context and generalizing partially, which affects the judgment of the essence of things, and even the global hegemon Toyota has not escaped the fate of being sung down.
However, from the perspective of the global market, even under the background of the impact of the three-year epidemic, the impact of the electrification transformation of international giants and the strong rise of China's new energy vehicles, Toyota still ranked first in the world for four consecutive years, and was the only car company with annual sales of more than 10 million vehicles last year. Although BYD has entered the ranks of the world's top ten car companies for the first time and has been highly praised by public opinion, it is still 8 million units away from Toyota, the world's largest car company.
In addition, from the perspective of the Chinese market, in 2023, GAC Toyota has achieved the best record of Japanese brands in China, ranking first in sales of Japanese brands in China, third in sales of joint venture car companies, and sixth in sales of national car companies.
Contrary to public opinion, in recent years, a number of new car-making forces have fallen, such as Tianji, Ziyoujia, Weimar, Aiways and Gaohe, etc., have fallen into a life-and-death situation, and those car brands that have been proud of burning money and avoid talking about economic benefits will eventually be buried by the thinking of "short-sighted car manufacturing".
According to incomplete statistics, the number of new energy vehicle companies in China has dropped from nearly 500 in 2018 to only more than 40 in 2023, an embarrassing decline. Facts have proved that it is not the mainstream joint ventures that are really abandoned by the market and consumers, but those new car-making forces and niche car brands with broken capital chains and weak anti-risk capabilities.
Respond to market challenges with quality leadership
It is undeniable that the current industry environment still poses unprecedented challenges to joint venture car companies. In the face of the predicament, how did GAC Toyota withstand the pressure and repeatedly achieve good results in the market? The author believes that there are three main reasons.
First, compared with the new forces in the deep capital flow crisis, stable financial indicators are the cornerstone of GAC Toyota's risk resistance. As a practitioner of "long-termism", GAC Toyota has always been a company with excellent financial indicators, high operating quality and strong anti-risk ability among domestic car companies, and its growth resilience and market endurance are obvious to all.
Second, the original quality of GAC Toyota's major factories is the underlying advantage that is difficult to replicate by competing products. For example, the all-new 9th-generation Camry and the 2024 Seina injected with the original quality of the big factory not only fully evolve in the visible places, but also have higher quality guarantees in the invisible places.
Toyota has accumulated 20 billion kilometers of intelligent driving mileage around the world, 20 million intelligent electric hybrid users, and GAC Toyota's annual production and sales of millions of dollars.
GAC Toyota's high QDR gene (high quality, high reliability and high durability) is integrated into its blood, which opens up the synchronous development and full management from product design, parts to vehicle manufacturing, and ensures that higher quality standards are consistent.
GAC Toyota's "Global Model Factory" has won Toyota's "zero defect rate" quality evaluation for 3 times, and the first-pass rate of the production line is as high as 99.2%, about 10 percentage points ahead of the industry level;
Third, not only in the era of fuel vehicles, but also in the era of new energy and intelligent networked vehicles, GAC Toyota can still continue to launch products that are loved and welcomed by the majority of consumers, which is the key to its sustainable development. It is said that the electrification transformation of joint venture car companies is slow, but in fact, GAC Toyota's electrification penetration rate has reached 35%, and the intelligent coverage rate has approached 90%, and in the next three years, it will strive to achieve an electrification penetration rate of 60%.
For example, the new 9th-generation Camry launched in March this year has a very precise upgrade point, which not only brings a younger appearance design, but also makes up for the shortcomings of intelligence, and also has excellent driving performance, with intelligent electric hybrid orders accounting for as much as 80%.
For another example, the 2024 Saina, which was directly launched on the eve of the Beijing Auto Show, has achieved three hardcore innovations in safety, comfort and intelligence. Safety innovation, equipped with the E-Four electronic four-wheel drive system, greatly improves control stability and safety, comfort innovation, equipped with the same integrated airline seat as Alpha, adding rear double-glazing, and optimizing the interior texture, intelligent innovation, equipped with the mainstream 8155 chip, running more smoothly, and jointly developed with Huawei intelligent voice assistant, with stronger voice interaction capabilities, and can achieve seamless connection between people, vehicles and homes. The 2024 Saina redefines the "high-end family MPV value benchmark" with more competitive products and prices.
Reform of the joint venture system, from manufacturing to creation
In the past, joint ventures were mostly on the basis of take-or-leave, with the foreign party bringing in technology and products, and the Chinese side being responsible for the market. However, with the strong rise of China's new energy vehicles, consumers' trust and perception of brands are gradually weakening, and their understanding of technologies and products is becoming more mature, which has led to fundamental changes in the production and R&D systems of joint ventures.
In order to better meet the needs of the Chinese market, GAC Toyota is carrying out a self-innovation related to the system and mechanism, that is, from the past one-way "take-it-or-take" joint venture 1.0 to the two-way empowerment joint venture 2.0 era, so as to build a new joint venture system with a higher level of open cooperation.
GAC Toyota continues to deepen and strengthen localized R&D, keep up with the needs of Chinese users, and upgrade customized products specifically for the Chinese market, and "Made in Guangfeng" has also transformed into "Created in Guangfeng". Now, GAC Toyota's strategic innovation achievements in the system and mechanism are being implemented one by one, and changes are taking place, and the new 9th-generation Camry and the 2024 Race Na are the results of the new system.
Out of great importance to the Chinese market, GAC Toyota has also broken the traditional concept and rhythm of facelift, upgraded and optimized the Saina, and realized on-site iteration and on-demand update of core performance and configuration. It is reported that the 2024 Saina product is stronger than any foreign version and is the best Saina in the world, which means that GAC Toyota has truly realized the transformation from "global car, made in China" to "created in China, leading the world".
Since BYD launched the "first shot" of the price war in the car market in the Year of the Dragon, many independent brands, joint venture brands and foreign brands have followed up, but not everyone has the ability, confidence and confidence to show the "price reduction card".
And GAC Toyota is not afraid of war, not afraid of volume, and does not backstab users, and it is not ambiguous at all that the flagship model starts a price war. The 2024 Saina is not simply lowering the entry configuration to give a so-called shocking low price, but the official drop of the whole system, starting with high-end, increasing volume and reducing price, becoming the best choice for 300,000 yuan MPV.
Not only to fit into the trend, but to go beyond the trend
In recent years, MPV has suddenly changed from a "cold bench" to a "sweet and sweet", and a number of new power brands have launched MPV one after another, earning enough topics and traffic. However, whether it is Xpeng X9, Zeekrypton 009 or Ideal MEGA and other pure electric MPVs, they have failed to achieve market sales expectations, and even Buick GL8, which was firmly in the top spot, has also shown its decline.
What kind of MPV do Chinese consumers need? Is it a pile of bells and whistles? Or is it an unrealistic extreme performance? Or a balanced product that can take into account all members of the family? Everything speaks with data, and the sales of the Sena from GAC Toyota have been rising, with 6,730 units sold in March 2024, ranking third in the total domestic MPV sales list, second only to the Denza D9 and Buick GL8.
Under the strong impact of new energy MPV, why does the market position of Saina not fall but rise? That's because compared with the show-off skills and stacking of new forces, Saina truly meets the core needs of household MPV, such as space comfort, practicality, consideration of all employees, and worry-free service for all scenes and cycles.
In particular, the 2024 Seina launched this time has been comprehensively upgraded in terms of software and hardware, based on the "China solution" for in-depth development, bringing China's exclusive intelligent cockpit to global cars, and at the same time, it is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip, which is currently the mainstream in the market, with more than 4 times more computing power, 8 times faster response speed, and smoother operation of the car machine.
In addition, the 2024 Seina car machine is also more powerful, the intelligent voice assistant is jointly developed by Huawei, and can communicate naturally like a human at a time, and can understand the mix and match of Mandarin and dialects, the intelligent assistant can also realize the seamless interconnection of people, cars, and homes, and the intelligent experience is full, and for the first time, it is equipped with the same integrated airline seat of Alpha, allowing second-row passengers to enjoy a first-class sitting experience. It is worth mentioning that the 2024 Saina intelligent electric hybrid dual engine + E-Four electronic four-wheel drive dual sword combination, ultra-long battery life and stable driving control at the same time, to achieve 1+1>2 driving upgrade.
Although from the perspective of topicality, whoever is more unconventional will have high traffic, but from the perspective of market feedback, the products that really "go both ways" with users must be more cost-effective, safer and more reliable. The 2024 Saina reconstructs the price system of high-end family MPVs with a new pricing and gives users a new experience.
In fact, GAC Toyota has never been a follower in the MPV market, but a leader, whether it is Alpha or Saina, it is the benchmark of the market segment, and it has passed the test of time and the test of the global market. As the pioneer of family MPV, Seina has promoted the transformation of China's MPV from commercial to home, and created the consumption trend of China's high-end family MPV. Before Senna, although many MPV models came out, they failed to enter the family market, and it was not until the emergence of Sena that the terminal family MPV market was truly activated.
There is both first-mover advantage and late-mover tenacity
In GAC Toyota's view, the joint venture is not a backward representative, it has both first-mover advantage and late-mover tenacity, and the future is still promising. However, in the face of the great changes in Zhidian, GAC Toyota is also soberly aware that the joint venture must change, and it cannot afford to wait or slow down.
To this end, GAC Toyota is facing the intelligent and electrification track with a new system, new layout and new products.
However, there is no shortcut to change, only real product empowerment. Under the new joint venture system, GAC Toyota has carried out a more thorough transformation of intelligent electric vehicles, in order to create a new joint venture product that is the world's leading and better understands Chinese users.
As a result, we see the world's best Camry and Seina, which are relaunched specifically for the needs of Chinese users, and also see another possibility for the sustainable development of joint venture car companies in the era of intelligent electronics, which will provide a reference sample for the internationalization of the entire Chinese automotive industry.
Not betting on a single track, only meeting diverse needs, is the embodiment of GAC Toyota's diversified market layout strength. Whether it is fuel, pure electric or hybrid, consumers can find their favorite products in GAC Toyota. Especially with the launch of the 2024 Saina, GAC Toyota has opened up a new MPV market strategic depth.