April is the busiest month in China's auto market.
Xiaomi SU7 exploded after the launch, Zhiji made a mistake at the press conference and Xiaomi choked each other, the opening of the Beijing Auto Show, and Zhou Hongyi took advantage of the situation to attract attention...... For a whole month, all kinds of outrageous incidents emerged one after another, which really confused everyone in the car market.
At the same time, under this operation, in terms of market performance, many car companies have indeed been affected. In particular, many traditional large joint venture manufacturers, in the face of this wave of impact, not to mention a slump, at least the fluctuations in sales are still visible to the naked eye.
The market environment will definitely get worse in the future, and during this period, it will be particularly important for any joint venture brand to find a way to alleviate the problem as soon as possible.
Recently, GAC Toyota officially announced its April sales data. According to the data, in April 2024, GAC Toyota sold a total of 52,251 new cars. From this single data, as mentioned earlier, it will definitely deviate from the previous performance. A certain degree of volatility in sales is always unavoidable.
However, through another set of data released by it, it can be seen that for the grasp of specific markets and the control of brand image, GAC Toyota's advantages in the entire joint venture camp are still relatively obvious.
In April, GAC Toyota sold 25,598 electrified models, accounting for 49%; The sales volume of the three flagship models, Sena and Camry was 20,152 units, accounting for 39%; The SUV family sold 30,136 units, accounting for 58%.
In recent years, the degree of involution of China's auto market has actually been seen by everyone. Under the price war, the overall auto market is developing in a very paradoxical direction. In various market segments, after price battles again and again, almost all products are being shipped outside the country at an unprecedented price.
As a result, the grasp of brand image and the guarantee of product reputation have become a difficult problem hanging in the hearts of major car companies.
In the context of the unsatisfactory public opinion environment, joint ventures like GAC Toyota will definitely carry a much heavier burden than in the past. Or due to the acceleration of the electrification process, it cannot perfectly adapt to the cognition of consumers, or it has negative emotions in the high-intensity involution, which will invisibly become a stumbling block to its progress.
So what will GAC Toyota do in 2024?
While retaining the existing product lineup, it is most significant to actively promote the full adoption of its products into the era of electrification. Under the name of "intelligent electric hybrid dual engine", the whole series has added "inductors", and only the all-round electrocution of the ninth-generation Camry has touched the nerves of consumers.
Although GAC Toyota officially did not disclose the single sales volume of Camry in April, perhaps the feedback of the current terminal market will not be as high as the previous Camry's high sales level because there are too many new products in the market segment, but the price of its main sales model has hovered around 200,000 yuan, and the product itself has reached the forefront of the joint venture in terms of intelligent understanding, which shows that the entire GAC Toyota has left a back hand in the face of rapid changes in the general environment.
Of course, with the entry of the ninth-generation Camry into the market as a node, GAC Toyota also has a purpose to improve the Chinese users' perception of its too traditional brand, and on the other hand, it has to lay the foundation for future product renewal, and to mobilize consumers' enthusiasm for GAC Toyota's products.
During the Beijing Auto Show, we also saw that the newly upgraded Seina officially entered the market with a more competitive price and a new four-wheel drive model. In addition, the car machine system, which has been criticized before, has also been completely renovated here, and it has become very "Toyota".
As an MPV, Sena can not be the absolute sales pillar of GAC Toyota, however, from the pace of Saina's close follow-up Camry's localization transformation, we must be very clear that the response speed of joint venture brands to market changes is not consistent. Someone can be indifferent, but someone must slowly get into the groove.
Regardless of how the Chinese side convinces the Japanese side, which has always liked to act cautiously, within GAC Toyota, as long as the current GAC Toyota can adapt to the speed of transformation of the entire Chinese auto market as scheduled, everything will have a breakthrough.
In fact, at the just-concluded Beijing Auto Show, as long as you have been to Toyota's booth, you will definitely be able to see another pure electric vehicle belonging to GAC Toyota - Bozhi 3X. From this body, it is clear that GAC Toyota has responded positively to the development of China's electric vehicle market.
Previously, compared with the pure electric SUVs produced by many Chinese brands, the too "traditional" bZ4X is difficult to have any outstanding advantages, which has made Toyota deeply aware that the tastes of Chinese consumers are still very unique.
At the moment, no matter when this new car will officially end up, from the standpoint of GAC Toyota, it must be an undoubted thing to develop a new electric vehicle with the most selling point for the Chinese market.
Today, we all know that the rapid transformation of the market will definitely hurt many established companies. GAC Toyota, along with all similar companies, will also face an era of extremely severe changes. The repeated fluctuations in sales are all pouring out their anxieties.
But on the bright side, perhaps only such an environment can allow joint venture brands to come up with more powerful products to participate in the competition in the Chinese market. If you can, after years of involution development, I am still looking forward to the car market once again blooming with a hundred flowers. Regardless of joint ventures and independent, both traditional and new forces, they are all living in China in the best state.