In 2023, when new energy is advancing rapidly, there is such an interesting phenomenon in the domestic auto market, that is, whenever the market ** overwhelmingly affirms the strong growth of the independent new energy vehicle market, there is another voice that is Xi to sing the future of joint venture brands.
It is true that judging from the trend of the auto market this year, independent and joint ventures do show an opposing pattern. Whenever there is independent growth, it reflects the decline of joint ventures. So, is the joint venture brand really not good?
On an objective analysis, this is clearly not the case.
Although the fuel vehicle market has been gradually shrinking in the past two years, the current market share is gradually concentrating the head enterprises, which means that the influence of mainstream head joint ventures should not be underestimated!
The data proves it. According to the retail data statistics of relevant platforms in the past year, Volkswagen, Toyota, and Honda still occupy three positions in the ranking of the top 5 manufacturers in China's auto market in terms of sales.
Among them, Toyota is particularly noteworthy, not only with its 474The achievement of 40,000 units won the sales championship of the global automobile market in the first half of the year, and Toyota's two joint venture car companies in China, GAC Toyota and FAW Toyota, are still among the top 10 domestic car companies in the first ten months of retail sales, and the cumulative retail sales of the two joint venture car companies from January to October have been nearly 1.4 million.
This is not a small amount. You know, this sales scale is second only to BYD and Volkswagen. In other words, in the domestic auto market, joint venture car companies represented by Volkswagen and Toyota are still the main force for the steady recovery of the auto market in 2023, and Toyota is still continuing to write the legend of "where there is a road, there is a Toyota car" in the global market!Therefore, at this time, it is obvious that all joint venture brands are labeled as "backward".
Reject invalid involution and emphasize on-demand iteration
If you want to use a keyword to describe the appearance of the auto market in 2023, involution is more suitable. And the essence of the ** war, in the final analysis, is still involution.
Since the beginning of this year, from volume design to volume configuration, from volume service to volume **, in order to get out of the downturn cycle, almost all car companies have fallen into the trap of involution.
It stands to reason that due to the continued sluggish terminal consumption, 2023 for joint venture brands should be a year of great vitality, so why are car brands represented by Toyota and Volkswagen able to achieve steady progress in the Chinese market, especially Toyota, which has also achieved positive year-on-year growth in the world and overtaken Volkswagen and won the global championship?
The reason for this is inseparable from the long-term strategic thinking of joint venture car companies.
Taking Toyota as an example, since the beginning of this year, in order to meet the diverse and changeable needs of consumer groups, Toyota has not only accelerated the renewal, including Camry, Leiling, Sena, Grevia, R**4 Rongfang, New Corolla, New Asia Dragon and other popular models have been remodeled and upgraded, and the intelligent electric product camp is also accelerating the expansion and upgrading.
As the achievement of the latest generation of Toyota's electric hybrid technology, through the switch of technology this year, the fifth-generation intelligent electric hybrid dual engine has covered a number of best-selling Toyota models in the market such as Leiling, Camry, Sena, Fenglander, Highlander, Corolla, and R**4 Rongfang.
With the blessing of the above models, in October this year, Toyota's intelligent electric hybrid dual engine in the Chinese market also ushered in historic results, officially exceeding 2.5 million units!
In addition, according to the statistics of the Passenger Association in October, the sales volume of the domestic gasoline-electric hybrid market in October was 8130,000 units, North and South Toyota accounted for 5620,000 units, accounting for nearly 70%. That's an average of 7 out of every 10 hybrid cars sold by Toyota.
Although the growth of pure electric and plug-in hybrid in China is unstoppable, the active layout of intelligent gasoline-electric hybrid does not mean that Toyota is negative in electrification transformation.
After all, the construction of energy replenishment infrastructure cannot make pure electric vehicles "charging as convenient as refueling", and plug-in hybrid vehicles that also need to rely on charging piles are because of the technical logic of the two systems, which to a certain extent brings higher maintenance costs to the power system.
In order to meet the dual needs of the consumer market for economic energy saving and convenient energy replenishment, the fifth-generation intelligent electric hybrid dual engine not only does not need to rely on charging piles, but also further exerts the work efficiency of every drop of oil to the extreme through technological upgrades.
The most important thing is that because the Toyota HEV carries out intelligent and efficient control through the planetary gear structure and PCU, the synergy between the fuel engine and the electric motor is faster and smoother, and the Toyota HEV further inherits the smooth and delicate driving texture of Toyota cars on the basis of fuel economy.
It can be seen that although the trend of new energy transformation is becoming more and more urgent, Toyota's electrification transformation thinking is not blindly following the trend, but following its own pace, rejecting ineffective involution, and emphasizing on-demand iteration.
This is also why, with the blessing of the fifth-generation intelligent electric hybrid dual engine, Camry, Fenglander, R**4 Rongfang, Corolla and other models have always been the existence of the head level in their market segments.
This year, we will fight steadily, and next year we will strike hard
From the official launch of the first pure electric sedan Toyota BZ3 in April this year, filling the gap in Toyota's pure electric car, to the Shanghai Auto Show, two new BZ concept cars aimed at Generation Z users were unveiled, and through the design of avant-garde technology, Toyota's intelligent image in the smart electric vehicle market was continuously deepened, and then in August this year, Toyota officially changed the name of Toyota Motor R&D Center (China), China's largest R&D base, to "Toyota Smart Electric Vehicle R&D Center (China)**".
Looking back at Toyota's actions in the field of electrification transformation this year, we can find that while Toyota is actively deploying intelligent electric hybrids, it has not neglected to think about intelligent and electrification transformation.
It's just that under the impact of independent new energy, Toyota's enthusiasm is always unconsciously ignored by the market.
In particular, the change in the naming of Toyota's R&D center, although seemingly insignificant, is of far-reaching significance to Toyota.
On the one hand, whether it is intelligent or electric in the new name, these two keywords have almost clarified Toyota's future R&D direction and R&D focus.
On the other hand, the deep integration of China's R&D headquarters with intelligence and electrification also means that Toyota will further integrate the needs of Chinese consumers in the Chinese market in the future.
Previously, in order to deeply meet the needs of user groups for intelligent vehicles in the process of travel, Toyota China and GAC Toyota have signed a signing ceremony with Pony.ai, announcing that they will jointly establish a joint venture company, with a cumulative investment of more than 1 billion yuan, laying a firm foundation for intelligent localization research and development.
In addition to cooperating with leading business owners, at this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, Toyota's two joint venture car companies in China proved Toyota's determination to anchor intelligence.
During this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, GAC Toyota not only released a new new energy brand "Bozhi", but also the first pure electric model, the Bozhi 4X, is equipped with a number of Toyota's latest R&D achievements in the field of intelligence, such as T-Pilot intelligent driving assistance, Toyota Space intelligent cockpit and Toyota Connect intelligent interconnection.
In addition to the Bozhi 4X, the new ninth-generation Camry, which was launched simultaneously in the world, is enough to prove Toyota's localization and advancement in the field of intelligence.
It can be seen that in order to meet the needs of cars in the era of electrification and intelligence, the ninth-generation Camry is also equipped with the leading 8155 chip at the same level on the basis of the design of more electric technology, and for the first time for the suspended central control screen, the light touch sensing technology is adopted, which further integrates the thinking of science and technology from the details of the experience.
In terms of intelligent driving, based on the continuous improvement of the industry's intelligent driving standards, the ninth-generation Camry is equipped with a fully upgraded T-Pilot intelligent driving assistance system, which integrates PDA predictive active driving assistance, LCA automatic lane change driving assistance, and EDSS emergency driving stop and other assistance systems, with 360-degree panoramic image, the vehicle can not only predict in real time, intelligently and smoothly decelerate, but also accurately assist automatic lane change to achieve intelligent deceleration and braking.
It is worth mentioning that on the basis of the blockbuster product of the ninth-generation Camry, FAW Toyota also unveiled and released the new Prado and the new Crown at this year's Guangzhou Auto Show.
According to the plan, in 2024, blockbuster models including the ninth-generation Camry, the all-new Prado and the all-new Crown will be lined up for launch. This means that on the basis of steady progress this year, Toyota will usher in a big year of products next year, and further help Toyota gradually complete the transformation road from the perspective of electrification and intelligence.
Red Dot Observation:
It is not difficult to find that although the joint venture brand has been branded as backward in the era of great changes, in fact, the joint venture car companies represented by North and South Toyota have never been silent and turned a blind eye, but are actively embracing the trend of intelligence and electrification in their own way.
The low-key layout and steady transformation are in fact the experience of traditional joint venture car companies in the era of fuel vehicles. Therefore, even if the joint venture brand is still in the accumulation stage in the electric vehicle market, it does not mean that the joint venture car company has lagged behind. On the contrary, through forward-looking layout and systematic thinking, Xi joint venture brands that are accustomed to being ready to start again are more long-term.