However, compared with the actual sales volume, it seems that it is difficult for the target figures to set off too many waves in the market. Although Toyota has long been at the forefront of the industry in terms of electrification, if we only talk about electrification, Toyota will still be classified as a conservative by most people for a long time.
In fact, in this market, it is hard to say that you will definitely win if you come early. More often, it is better to come early than to come opportunely.
Just like many people saw BYD's success in the past year, but they didn't see that it had been standing for more than ten years. Ten years ago, when electric vehicles first started to be promoted, how many brands were left on the best-selling list?
In the past three years, Toyota's actions in the field of electric vehicles have never stopped.
From thinking about the feasible business model of electric vehicles, to exploring the road of carbon neutrality, to opening up the patented technology of electrification, as many Toyota executives have repeatedly emphasized on different occasions: "Only by popularizing environmentally-friendly vehicles can we contribute to the environment." Toyota's thinking and layout has never been just the sales of a single model, but a big game.
Toyota bZ4X is one of the most important models.
With the arrival of bZ series, Toyota HEV, PHEV, BEV and FCEV all have a full range of electrified product layouts, which can provide consumers with diversified choices and make the market accept and use electrified vehicles. This is the direction that Toyota strives for.
Very Toyota, but not Toyota.
What should a traditional brand electric car look like? How to integrate the innovation and breakthrough in the electric age with the genes passed down by the brand in the past decades or even centuries is not an easy task.
Toyota gave the answer.
On bZ4X, we can still see the presentation of three electric technologies accumulated by Toyota for many years on the e-TNGA architecture. Similarly, the reliability, safety and durability accumulated by "double engines" have also continued to the pure electric bZ4X.
Focusing on battery safety, Toyota has made multiple redundancies in the design, and laid cold air pipes on both sides as buffer zones to ensure the safety of battery cells and high-voltage circuits during side collision. At the same time, the integrated structure of battery and car body can also improve the protection performance of battery pack. In addition, Toyota also designed a triple monitoring system to monitor the status of batteries, modules and total voltage to cope with possible unexpected failures.
In the aspect of extending battery life, Toyota aims to maintain 90% battery capacity in 10, and suppress battery aging through battery materials, battery pack structure and control system.
At the same time, relying on the technical experience accumulated in the field of HEV, the energy recovery system designed by Toyota is more reliable and safe. In the recent test drive experience, we experienced two states of strong kinetic energy recovery mode: on and off. After opening, it can realize the common "single pedal mode" of electric vehicles, and at the same time it will not make people feel dizzy. After closing, you can find the familiar driving experience of fuel vehicles and HEV vehicles, and you can make a seamless transition. The two modes also meet the needs of consumers with different driving orientations.
BZ4X adopts BEV exclusive platform based on e-TNGA concept, which continues the characteristics of low center of gravity, high rigidity and excellent driving experience under TNGA architecture. At the same time, it is equipped with X-MODE four-wheel drive off-road auxiliary mode and Grip-Control intelligent crawling mode, which makes driving pleasure and off-road experience better integrated.
During the test drive, we also experienced the ability of bZ4X to get rid of difficulties. It can also be driven very easily when only one wheel has grip, and its off-road capability exceeds that of most fuel city SUVs.
If bZ4X continues Toyota's reliable gene in the three-electric system, as the first model of a bZ pure electric exclusive series, bZ4X brings more breakthroughs to the traditional design.
For example, with the design concept of "activity center", it has created an innovative appearance full of strength and a cockpit experience of intelligent technology. At the same time, in the digital field, it has surpassed everyone's previous cognition of Toyota, such as the in-vehicle ecosystem that supports speech recognition and human-vehicle interaction; Relying on the number keys of smart phone, you can lock the car up and down, start the engine, transfer the authority of family and friends, remote control, door-to-door service and other functions.
In addition, in terms of driver assistance system, bZ4X is also fully equipped with "Toyota Safety Assistant Kit" and provides OTA remote software upgrade.
Details such as external power supply function and solar charging dome also appear on bZ4X.
An egg, OMG(One Motion Grip) driving suit composed of racing driver's steering wheel and steer-by-wire system, was revealed at the online press conference on April 28th, and it is likely to be introduced to China market in the future.
In China, we use electricity to "mass produce happiness".
Through bZ4X, we can actually see many changes in Toyota.
After the bZ4X test drive experience meeting, Toyota China organized the media to connect with Japanese technicians, and the Japanese side paid close attention to the test drive experience and the feedback from China media.
This kind of communication has been more than once. In the whole process, we can strongly feel that the voice from China is becoming more and more important around the development and marketing of electric vehicles.
10 after president Akio Toyoda put forward "China is the most important", Toyota is accelerating the practice of this slogan.
For example, in the field of electric vehicles.
BZ4X is equipped with many configurations that meet the needs of domestic consumers. Especially in terms of intelligence and digital ecosystem, the overall performance of bZ4X is in the forefront of joint venture brands. The development of its entertainment system is completely completed in China, and even provides functions such as App remote parking, which are often regarded as smart highlights by China brands.
Next, the pure electric vehicle products jointly invested by Toyota and BYD are coming soon. Toyota will be more integrated into China in the whole R&D system and structure.
Another example is the Beijing Winter Olympics and the past Winter Paralympics.
The COSTA hydrogen engine FCEV applied in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou has withstood the environmental tests of low temperature, severe cold and rugged mountain roads. This car was completely developed and tested by Toyota R&D Center in China.
The second generation of domestic products was first introduced in Mirai. In the process of import, Toyota also provided assistance within its capacity for the formulation of domestic standards for 70Mpa IV hydrogen storage bottles.
Following Toyota's first participation in China International Import Expo (CIIE) on 20 19, the cooperation between Toyota and local enterprises in China is also accelerating.
In the field of hydrogen fuel cells, Toyota, FAW, Dongfeng, GAC, BAIC and Yihuatong jointly established "United Fuel Cell System Research and Development (Beijing) Co., Ltd." to promote the research and development of commercial vehicle fuel cell systems.
In the field of batteries, we have established a partnership with Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., focusing on battery supply, new technology development, battery quality improvement, recycling and other fields.
In the field of complete vehicles, we jointly develop pure battery models and power batteries with BYD; Deepen cooperation with FAW and GAC in the field of electrification and interconnection.
In terms of mobile travel, Toyota also cooperated with Didi and Momenta strategically to invest in Ma Xiao Zhixing to explore the development of mobile travel services and autonomous driving.
All this comes down to Toyota's hope that through more localized layout and more open cooperation attitude, environmentally-friendly electrification products will be accepted by more consumers and the future of mobile travel will become better and happier.
Rebate the opening sentence again: eco-cars can only contribute to the environment if they are popularized.
Write it at the end
After the release of bZ4X online, GAC Toyota and FAW Toyota successively launched the pre-sale of bZ4X, with the pre-sale range of 220,000-300,000, even lower than the price in overseas markets, and provided rich pre-sale gift packages and service rights.
If it is said that it is better to come early than to come opportunely, then at this time node in 2022, new energy vehicles are occupying the market at a faster speed. Both the cost of car use and consumers' acceptance of electric vehicles have built an overall environment for electric vehicles. Well, the next step is the competition between product strength and service.
Could be a Volkswagen ID. Series has been cultivated in the market for a year, but the results are still unsatisfactory, while China brands and new power enterprises are still attacking the city. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for Toyota.
Compared with other joint venture brands, Toyota can do better in brand strength and product strength, bringing consumers a more electrified experience. Compared with China brand,