From 2020 to 2023, the rapid rise of new energy will bring about the reshaping of the automobile industry pattern, and the short-term impact of the superimposed price war on the market will be fierce. And from being admired and learning for being good at stability, to ridiculing a few words of poor transformation from time to time, GAC Toyota is also self-aware.
However, in 2024, when the price war and aggressive independent offensive come to an end, a reshaping belonging to GAC Toyota has begun.
From the one-step pricing of the ninth-generation Camry in March, to the pricing strategy of the 2024 Sena and Highlander, GAC Toyota's three flagship products have taken the initiative to change, and installed China's intelligent "brain" to achieve pragmatic, rational and rapid adjustment on the product side. "volume" is not a blind "volume" price.
The story goes in the direction of expectation.
Sena sold 8,099 units in June and 8,320 units in July, setting a record monthly sales record for two consecutive months, and also hitting a new high with Fenglander, which sold 21,951 units in June, while Camry also achieved sales of more than 10,000 units for two consecutive months. Driven by this, at the end of the first half of the year, GAC Toyota was firmly in the forefront of the joint venture brand and pulled upward.
It's just a rehearsal and foreplay for a drastic change.
At the end of June, GAC Toyota held the first Science and Technology Day since its establishment 20 years ago, and Wen Dali firmly said that on the road of science and technology, GAC Toyota continued to iterate without sticking to the rules, moving forward bravely but not blindly radical: "Let users enjoy the 'excitement' brought by pioneer technology, and feel the 'reliability' of quality technology."
The price war is not a long-termism, and the "volume" price cannot become a long-term competitive strategy.
GAC Toyota naturally understands that only by accelerating the transformation and transformation of the field of intelligent electric vehicles, achieving scientific and technological breakthroughs, leading by new quality, and making a more thorough, comprehensive and courageous change, can we give direction and strength to the joint venture car companies that are wandering in the shadows, and finally lead the joint venture car companies into the 2.0 era.
Blindly "rolling" the price is not the real GAC Toyota
In 2024, "volume" is still the theme, but fate quietly diverges in different choices, as is the case with the joint venture brand that was once at a loss.
Some people don't want to wake up, some people bravely face the wave and make bold changes, and Guangzhou's GAC Toyota is embracing the new world. At the end of May, the 2024 Highlander lowered the price of oil blend to below 250,000 yuan, causing the market to chase.
While the market is familiar with GAC Toyota's new pricing strategy, it also experiences the decisiveness and resoluteness of seeking change - from the ninth-generation Camry to the 2024 Sena, they have taken the initiative to adjust prices, and use hybrid as the main force to cater to the consumer market.
Initiative and change get positive feedback from the market.
From January to July 2024, the cumulative sales volume of Sena was 47,657 units, an increase of 6.4% year-on-year, ranking in the forefront for 5 consecutive months; Highlander's cumulative sales were 43,661 units, an increase of 13.5% year-on-year.
At the same time, it also drives more products. In the first seven months, Fenglander sold 116029 vehicles, a significant increase of 40.6% year-on-year; The cumulative sales volume of Veranda is 74,259 units, with an average monthly sales of more than 10,000 units.
The mid-to-high-end models, including Camry, Highlander, Sena, Veranda and Weisa, sold 251252 units from January to July, maintaining the true nature of high-quality development and helping GAC Toyota to rank firmly in the forefront of joint venture brands. And it has made achievements in both fuel and hybrid fields. GAC Toyota's market share of fuel vehicles will rise to 8% in June 2024, ranking at the top. The sales volume of the intelligent electric hybrid dual engine model was 194539 in the first half of the year, an increase of 18% over the same period last year.
Importantly, GAC Toyota's initiative to seek change not only wins the market, but also provides a demonstration effect for the long-standing and passive joint venture brand.
Since 2020, with the rapid growth of new energy, the battlefield has also shifted from early public opinion to life-and-death market competition, but at that time, the joint venture brand still believes that the global strong strength and deep brand foundation will always win.
But soon they found that the new energy products they launched were difficult to cope with the new energy battlefield, and even if they confessed "in China, for China", they were still quickly broken down by the powerful Chinese forces.
In the past three years, they have tried various schemes, put down their bodies, told new marketing stories, launched new energy products, and added various "volumes...... But it has never been able to break through, and most of the results are exchanging price for volume.
However, blindly "rolling" the price will not roll up the future. As for the future of joint venture car companies, the market is confused.
It is understandable to exchange price for volume, as a temporary strategy for the transformation of joint venture car companies to ensure market share, but how to continue to try and polish products that truly meet market consumption in addition to the "volume" price, under the trial and summary, can finally go out of a new path for joint venture car companies to break through, is the way for enterprises to survive for a long time.
Then walk into GAC Toyota.
They are all concerned about the price of GAC Toyota's "volume", but they ignore that adjusting the price is only one part of the adjustment. In fact, GAC Toyota has also created a "Chinese cabin" to cater to the Chinese market - three new models, including the Camry, are equipped with a new generation of on-site developed in-vehicle systems, and jointly developed AI voice assistants with Huawei, bringing a smoother, more reliable, and safer intelligent cockpit experience.
At the same time, the new car is the first to use Qualcomm 8155 high-computing power chip in the joint venture model, and the response speed has reached the leading level of the joint venture car company, with about 40% performance redundancy, which fully meets the needs of subsequent OTA upgrades.
The intelligent cockpit has also integrated into the open application ecosystem, and Toyota has developed the world's first self-built app store, covering popular APP applications such as video, music, audiobooks, and stories. At the same time, the car machine supports the interconnection of Apple CarPlay, Huawei HiCar, and Baidu CarLife.
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Combined with the advantages of the original quality of large factories, and continue to speak out, marketing efforts. At the launch conference of the ninth-generation Camry, GAC Toyota for the first time labeled and disseminated the "original quality of large manufacturers"; The 2024 Highlander was released for the first time in the form of a "quality museum", revealing the secrets of the original quality of the 20-year-old manufacturers, and finally in the continuous digging of the advantages of the "original quality of the manufacturers", GAC Toyota walked out of the new path of "volume quality" and "volume technology" while "volume" price and "volume" configuration.
This road is to combine China's technological innovation advantages and its own global strength to create products that meet the preferences of Chinese consumers.
Comprehensive reform and rapid sword
Only thorough reform can have a chance to break through the new energy wave and the brutal price war, and lead the 2.0 era of joint venture car companies. Accelerating technological innovation in the automotive industry and achieving new quality leadership is the key to the transformation of the automobile industry, and it is also the answer for GAC Toyota after experiencing market baptism and attempts.
It quickly flashed its sword. On June 28, GAC Toyota displayed the transformation achievements and forward-looking technology layout of the joint venture car company in the 2.0 era at the first Technology Open Day, reflecting the deep accumulation of multi-path electrification technology, and presenting the answer: actively embrace market changes, accelerate the transformation and transformation of the field of smart electricity, realize the combination of global strength + China's advanced technology, and create products more suitable for Chinese consumers.
Take a look at GAC Toyota's specific answers and execution.
Electric is the first card, both now and in the future. At present, this card is the fifth-generation intelligent electric hybrid dual engine, which is characterized by extreme balance.
The first is the extreme balance of oil and electricity. The intelligent electric hybrid dual engine adopts the world's unique planetary gear structure to achieve seamless connection of the two power outputs, bringing incomparable high efficiency and smoothness.
The second is the ultimate balance between strong power and low fuel consumption. Measurements show an average fuel consumption of more than 4 liters for 150 kilometers, and strong power at full speed, such as the 9th-generation Camry 2.5L hybrid acceleration from 0 to 60 kilometers in 4.1 seconds, and 80 to 120 kilometers in 4.71 seconds.
The balance between performance and safety is the third point. The fifth-generation intelligent electric hybrid dual engine adopts a small battery with a capacity of 1.12 degrees, adopts a battery management strategy of shallow charging and discharging, and greatly improves the battery safety, and thanks to the small battery and overall lightweight design, all GAC Toyota hybrid models have achieved excellent braking performance, and the best braking distance performance is only 33 meters.
It is reported that GAC Toyota will realize the simultaneous development of HEV, PHEV, EV and FCEV, and the plug-in hybrid model that supports fast charging will be launched in China in October this year.
At the 2024 Technology Open Day, Toyota also unveiled the progress of next-generation electrification technologies, including performance lithium-ion batteries, popular lithium iron phosphate batteries, high-performance lithium-ion batteries, and all-solid-state batteries.
In front of a more detailed lens, the performance lithium battery is expected to be launched in 2026, with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers and a fast charge from 10% to 80% in just 20 minutes; The popular lithium iron phosphate battery is expected to be launched in 2026-2027, with a range of up to 600 kilometers and a fast charging time of less than 30 minutes from 10% to 80%.
The high-performance lithium-ion battery is expected to be launched in 2027-2028, with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers and a fast charging time as low as 20 minutes; The all-solid-state battery is being developed with the goal of launching it in 2027-2028, and models equipped with solid-state batteries will have a range of more than 1,000 kilometers and can be charged in just 10 minutes.
Toyota plans to launch 10 new electric models by 2026, with the next generation of electric vehicles to debut in 2026, which will expand GAC Toyota's ammunition depot.
Technology is not a one-man show, it is a team competition of cooperation. Therefore, in the field of intelligence, GAC Toyota gathered a circle of friends from the head, learned from others' strengths, focused on breakthroughs in intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit, and joined forces with technology companies such as Huawei, Tencent, Momenta and Pony.ai.
In terms of intelligent driving, GAC Toyota and Momenta have jointly developed an end-to-end high-end intelligent driving solution, which is based on a data-driven AI flywheel to create a safer and more reliable full-scene intelligent driving experience for users.
At the hardware level, based on NVIDIA's 254TOPS computing platform, the relevant vehicles are equipped with 11 ultra-high-precision cameras, 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars and 1 lidar (126 lines), providing 360-degree global perception and sufficient vehicle-end computing power.
At the algorithm level, Momenta-based data flywheel can continuously improve the upper limit of system performance through OTA through massive mass production data reflow, independent learning, and rapid iteration. This system will provide a full-scene high-end intelligent driving experience covering parking, highways, and urban NOA.
At the same time, GAC Toyota and Pony.ai have cooperated to carry out the commercial operation of L4 driverless taxis to promote the large-scale mass production of high-level autonomous driving technology. The fully unmanned Saina Robotaxi equipped with Pony.ai's autonomous driving system has been in continuous operation for 1 year with zero accidents.
In addition, GAC Toyota is promoting the rapid advancement of intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving technology, and plans to take the lead in joint venture car companies in 2025 to keep up with new forces; It intends to be among the first echelon of the industry from 2026 to 2027.
These are appearing in the social media accounts of GAC Toyota's management - since May, Wen Dali, GAC Toyota's deputy general manager Peng Baolin and other senior executives have successively settled in the media platform to face users, tell consumers about the latest technology and product achievements, and show a different, reformed and vivid GAC Toyota with new marketing.
This is what GAC Toyota looks like when it dares to lead the 2.0 era of joint venture car companies.
Source: CNR
*information