For a long time, the domestic ultra-luxury car segment with a price of more than 2 million yuan has been firmly occupied by European brands. However, this pattern may be about to be broken.
Because, Toyota is planning to harvest high-end "leeks" - to make "Century" an independent ultra-luxury brand, and use it to benchmark Bentley and focus on the top market. As the brand's first flagship SUV, the guide price of Shiji is as high as 1.98 million yuan, and there are new cars licensed in China, and its landing price is closer to 4 million yuan!
Friends who are familiar with Toyota's history may know that the century, which was born in 1967, is the most luxurious model in Toyota's history, and its level is much higher than that of Lexus and Crown.
As a top-of-the-line luxury sedan among Japanese brands, the car is priced at around 1 million RMB. However, the production of the century was extremely low, and it was basically limited to the use of the Japanese imperial family, political and business people, which is why the car was called the "Japanese Rolls-Royce".
At the Guangzhou International Auto Show in 2023, the first SUV of the Century brand made its domestic debut, and the Chinese name was "Shiji".
Of course, the latest model is clearly not a spin-off of the aforementioned Century sedan, but a new ultra-luxury flagship SUV. Positioned as the brand's flagship model, Seji will focus on the ultra-luxury market, offering a number of expensive options in addition to the guide price starting at 1.98 million yuan, and introducing it to the Chinese market as an import.
In terms of appearance, the front face of the new car is stocky enough, and has a chrome grille similar to armor, and its ** is hung with the brand's exclusive phoenix logo; At the same time, the headlights on both sides adopt a double-layer split design, and the four independent light groups look full of aura. In addition, the shape of the front surround is more traditional, which looks simple and luxurious.
Looking at the side of the car, Shiji uses flat straight lines with close-spoke rims, which further highlights the heaviness of the vehicle. In terms of dimensions, the length, width and height of the car are 5205mm, 1990mm and 1805mm, respectively, and the wheelbase is 2950mm.
As for the rear part, it is also dominated by a simple style. Among them, the tail lights adopt the same design as the headlights, and the four independent light groups are highly recognizable when lit, and form a front and rear echo.
In terms of interior, the design of Shiji is more luxurious and comfortable, and its color style is mainly light colors, and the details are wrapped in a lot of leather, showing the luxury of the flagship model; At the same time, the car is also equipped with a full LCD instrument cluster, a large central control screen and an electronic gear lever, and a large number of touch or physical buttons are still retained on the center console.
In terms of power, the car will be a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and will come in a 3The 5L V6 naturally aspirated engine is paired with dual front and rear motors, with a combined power of 303 horsepower and a "zero hundred" acceleration time of 67 seconds; At the same time, Seji is also equipped with the e-four all-wheel drive system.
As for the cruising performance, the car's CLTC pure electric range is 70 kilometers, and the comprehensive fuel consumption under WLTC conditions is only 32l/100km。
It is reported that Seji will produce it at the Tawara plant in Japan, with a limited production of 30 vehicles per month. As the highest Japanese model at present, the starting price of the car announced at the debut last year was 25 million yen (about 1.24 million yuan).
After the car was introduced into the Chinese market, the high tariffs on imported cars, dealer profits and "monthly limited **" were destined to be 1.98 million yuan, which seemed to be the only "guide price". In addition, Toyota's best-selling models such as Wilfa, Alpha, and Lexus LM all have to be priced up - so how can ultra-luxury brands be an exception? ......
Previously, Shiji has a new car in Shanghai, and its price increase is rumored to be as high as 1.7 million yuan, which also makes the car's landing price reach about 4 million yuan, which is enough to directly "benchmark" the top version of the Bentley Bentayga model - it seems that this is the rhythm of piercing the "ceiling".
At present, almost all ultra-luxury brands have launched their own SUV models. Among them, Bentley Bentayga and Rolls-Royce Cullinan are already considered "veteran players", and even Ferrari, which has always been regarded as a "pure sports car brand", has sent purosangue to the battle.
As for the reason why Toyota Century launched Shiji, it is also the increasing demand for SUV products from users in the market segment. However, in addition to the brand and product power, the ultra-luxury model also needs to have a certain "social attribute" - from this point of view, it will take time to test whether Shiji can really find its place in the corresponding circle.