With the increasing congestion of the new energy track, the acceleration of the transformation of traditional mainstream car companies, and the strong disruption of technology giants, the competition in China's auto market this year is more diversified and fierce.
The "price war" in the first four months of this year has never stopped, which is undoubtedly a concentrated manifestation of the current fierce market competition, and it is also the inevitable pain of China's auto market in the process of transformation from high-speed growth to high-quality development.
How to "deploy troops" to get through the current era of great change, how to seize new growth opportunities, so as to make forward-looking layout, is a difficult problem in front of every car company, and we urgently need to give answers.
On April 24, on the eve of the Beijing Auto Show Media Day, FAW Toyota released the new evolution of the IT'S TiME 2.0 intelligent electric hybrid technology brand (hereinafter referred to as IT'S TiME 2.0) and the new crown brand slogan, and the flagship model of the new crown was officially launched, and the new Prado released the official guide price.
This indicates that in the current era of great changes, FAW Toyota will respond with a new attitude of comprehensive intelligent hybridization and comprehensive high-end, and open a new chapter in the brand's intelligent electric development.
IT'S TiME 2.0全方位进阶
If memory serves, FAW Toyota just released the technical proposition of "IT'S TiME Now, Smart Future" last year, which highlights FAW Toyota's thinking about the era of great change. In such a short period of time, IT'S TiME has completed further advancement and entered the 2.0 era, which shows that under the drastic market changes, FAW Toyota's response speed is accelerating.
How to understand IT'S TiME 2.0 can start with three major sections: third-order intelligent electric hybrid technology, Toyota Pilot high-end intelligent driving, and Toyota Space. Let's put it this way, I understand these three core competitiveness, and I also understand how FAW Toyota will survive in the fierce Chinese auto market in the future.
First of all, let's take a look at the newly evolved third-order intelligent electric hybrid dual engine technology. Zhu Xichan, a professor at the School of Automotive Engineering of Tongji University, once said that with the gradual increase in the proportion of new energy vehicles in China, the energy drive structure of China's automobile market will show a market pattern of one-third hybrid, one-third plug-in hybrid and one-third pure electric in the future.
This opportunity is seen with the newly evolved three-stage intelligent electric hybrid technology, which includes the THS II. for daily comprehensive use scenarios, Toyota's first-of-its-kind multi-stage HEV for high-performance vehicles, and the all-new Prado 2.4T 1MT HEV super hybrid that takes into account off-road, acceleration and environmental performance. FAW Toyota has become a joint venture car company with a full layout of Toyota's third-order intelligent electric hybrid technology, and is a veritable synonym for Toyota's hybrid technology.
Secondly, looking at the new Toyota Pilot high-end intelligent driving, I have to talk about Toyota's pragmatic and honest side as an old global head car company. As Wang Linhu, deputy general manager of FAW Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd., said at the press conference, in the field of intelligent driving, FAW Toyota may not be the fastest in the industry, but it must be the most stable in the industry.
This is all thanks to Toyota's mature system that has been tested and verified by 20 billion kilometers of intelligent driving system, with 20 intelligent functions, which enables it to intelligently escort users like old drivers, extend safety, comfort and convenience to a variety of car use scenarios, and let users feel at ease on every trip.
There is also Toyota Space smart space, Wang Linhu also said that the car machine system is not intelligent enough has always been a shortcoming of joint venture car companies criticized by consumers, but from this moment on, consumers' perception of FAW Toyota will completely change.
Indeed, with the hardware blessing of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip, as well as the cooperation of the automotive intelligent ecosystem that supports the seamless connection of "people, cars and homes" jointly built with top domestic technology companies such as Huawei and Tencent, users can experience 28 ecological resources including voice interaction system that supports continuous multiple rounds of dialogue, on-board customized WeChat, QQ music, etc., plus all FAW Toyota products also support CarPlay/CarLife/ with LastMode memory function. HiCar wireless interconnection takes the intelligent experience to the next level.
The new crown has been reinvigorated
In addition to comprehensive hybridization, comprehensive high-end is also one of the solutions for FAW Toyota to embrace the era of great change.
This is based on the increasingly obvious trend of consumption upgrading in the automobile market in recent years, which is manifested in the current car market young consumer main group affected by factors such as growth environment, consumption concept and technological development, which determines that this part of the population will not use the car as a simple means of transportation, they are more accustomed to using the car to transform their lifestyle, so as to create a new value concept and life content.
Judging from the official price of the new crown officially launched this time, only the 2nd version of the Supreme Edition and the Supreme Edition are available, with prices of 349,000 yuan for the Supreme Edition and 299,000 yuan for the Supreme Edition, respectively. It can be seen that the new crown gives a relatively pragmatic price, and does not discriminate at the configuration level as much as possible, showing sincerity.
As far as the actual experience of the event site and the auto show booth is concerned, the sense of luxury presented by the new crown is more obvious than that presented in the pictures on the Internet. For example, with the blessing of the "NEW FORMAL" design concept, the lower and wider body is matched with a long front and a large slippery back, with a stretched and smooth side line of the body, supplemented by a straight taillight design, creating a wide sense of sportiness while maintaining a majestic demeanor.
In terms of interior, from the instrument panel to the left and right doors to the floating center console, the new crown adopts a large area of wood grain panels arranged in a continuous row, highlighting the characteristics of the "island structure", pursuing the trend but retaining it.
Echoing the interior "IKEA IKEA" is the new crown quiet, fuel-efficient, and smooth driving texture. Thanks to Toyota's first-of-its-kind 2.5-liter multi-stage hybrid system, the 2.5-liter engine and two electric motors provide a direct and responsive dynamic response during acceleration through a combination of stepped gears, while keeping engine speed low at high speeds.
Looking at a set of data, the new crown equipped with the hybrid system can achieve a low fuel consumption of 6.24L/100km under the WLTC comprehensive working condition, which is the only fuel economy in its class for a C-segment medium and large luxury sedan with a wheelbase of 3 meters.
In this way, the new crown inherits the DNA of "innovation and challenge" of Crown, and shows the new vitality of traditional luxury brands in the new era in multiple dimensions such as design concept, hardware configuration and core technology.
The all-new Prado "The Return of the Divine Car"
At this press conference, the all-new Prado, which has attracted much attention, also officially released the official guide price of 459,800 yuan-549,800 yuan, and the four major versions cover different market segments such as personalization, fashion and high-end.
At the moment when the "square box" models are emerging in an endless stream, the original niche market segment of hard-core off-road is becoming more and more lively, and the arrival of the new Prado is undoubtedly of extraordinary significance.
After all, since its birth in the early 50s of the last century, the Toyota Land Cruiser (LC) series has sold more than 11.3 million units worldwide, and the Prado has also achieved sales of more than 340,000 units in China since it entered the Chinese market in 2003.
The all-new Prado has achieved a new look from the inside to the outside, such as its front overhang length and exterior mirror width are lower than the LC150 model, which has the advantage of ensuring handling agility and narrow road passability, while the 2850mm wheelbase balances the vehicle's passability and comfort, coupled with the expanded distance between the 2nd to 3rd rows and the trunk space, which improves the convenience, comfort and practicality of the ride; the horizontal design of the dashboard in the car brings a wider view and improves driving safety.
In terms of powertrain, the all-new Prado is equipped with a 2.4T 1MT HEV super hybrid system, mated to a DC electric motor and an 8-speed automatic manual transmission, plus a full-time all-wheel drive system with Torsen limited-slip center differential, which increases the maximum power by 18% to 243kW, and the maximum torque by 72.6% to 630Nm, while reducing fuel consumption by 15.8%.
In other words, the all-new Prado achieves both strong power and low fuel consumption, which makes it stable and safe to drive even in complex road conditions such as mud, sand, and snow, with strong off-road performance, all-range acceleration performance and environmental performance.
In addition, the all-new Prado is based on the GA-F non-load-bearing platform, which not only uses a new splicing stamping process on the girders and body construction, but also improves the level of structural strength and lightweight. At the same time, a disconnectable stabilizer bar and a full-time all-wheel drive system based on Torsen differentials will also appear in the chassis structure of the new car, bringing a comprehensive upgrade of extreme off-road ability.
According to Wang Xia, President of the Automotive Industry Branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and President of the Automotive Industry Chamber of Commerce of the China Chamber of International Commerce, the global automotive industry is still changing, the competition is still continuing, new opportunities are still emerging, and the competition of profitability and sustainable business models will gradually become the focus of competition. As far as FAW Toyota's breakthrough strategy with comprehensive intelligent hybrid + high-end as the starting point, it has stepped on the node of the times, and perhaps it will seize the new opportunities in the future auto market, we might as well continue to pay attention.