Toyota Electric Vehicle Alliance Establishes Chinese Car Company to Face "Wolf Coming"

Toyota Motor, which had been criticized as saying that it was "conservative" and "swinging" in the field of electric vehicles, has made great strides in promoting industrial development soon after it announced its plans for electric vehicle products. According to foreign media reports, four companies, including Japan's Suzuki, Subaru, and Toyota Group’s Daihatsu and Hino Motors, decided to join the new electric vehicle technology research and development company led by Toyota Motor Corp. to share knowledge, reduce costs, and speed up the development process. .

Although this is reasonable, but unexpectedly, many people have lost sight of their glasses. They did not expect that once they decided to embark on the Toyota Motor Road development of pure electric vehicles, will set up such a large-scale alliance in Japan. Some domestic people began to worry that after the Volkswagen, Toyota Motor's action is also so rapid, in the domestic market has slightly advantaged its own brand electric car companies, will again face the "wolf" situation?

Recently, according to Kyodo News and the “Nihon Keizai Shimbun” report, Japan’s Suzuki, Subaru, and Toyota’s Daihatsu and Hino’s four companies will bear some R&D funding, and will dispatch one after another to the new company after January 2018. Several technicians, but the above four companies will not inject capital into the new company for the time being. Instead, they will make decisions based on research and development. As a result, together with the original Toyota, Mazda and Denso companies, the new electric vehicle company will become a coalition of seven large Japanese companies. It is worth emphasizing that while sharing the latest technologies in the field of electric vehicles, they will also give full play to their respective strengths. Suzuki and Daihatsu will focus on small cars, Subaru will focus on medium-sized cars, and Hino will focus on commercial vehicles to build a new model. A complete set of basic electric vehicle technology systems suitable for various models.

If you don’t, it’s already amazing. Always adhering to the Toyota Motor's "ambition" in the field of hybrid vehicles and fuel cell vehicles, the layout is as broad and deep as possible.

Why does Toyota have this move? the reason is simple. The Chinese auto market is playing an increasingly important role in the global auto market. Even if the Toyota Motor Corporation, which is developing in the United States, has had a "wind and water rise", it will have to restart the review of China after losing the 2016 global sales championship. The world's largest producer and seller of goods, its president Akio Toyoda has repeatedly stated publicly: “The Chinese market is Toyota’s most important strategic market and is the top priority for the development of traction companies.” China’s current special national conditions determine that pure electric vehicles are the only The main force of the new energy automobile market is neither Toyota's hybrid powertrain nor the fuel cell vehicle it is proud of. According to statistics from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, from January to November this year, China's new energy vehicles sold a total of 609,000 vehicles, of which the total number of pure electric vehicles was 504,000, accounting for more than 80%.

At least in current China, pure electric vehicles are kings. The Volkswagen Group, which has become the world’s most-selling automobile, has also made timely adjustments. As early as the 2016 Paris Motor Show, it announced the launch of the ID pure electric vehicle brand, and promised that the first production car will be launched in 2020, and through the North and South Volkswagen and JAC. Volkswagen quickly launched its layout in China. For ten thousand years, for too long, just in time, how can Toyota stand still?

Then the question arises. As the multinational car companies pay more and more attention to the Chinese auto market and frequently move, will the future of China's electric car companies be worrisome?

We can use Chairman Mao's slogan to answer this question: "Strategically despise the enemy and tactically attach importance to the enemy."

First of all, from the perspective of consumer demand, the fact that SUVs have used iron has proven that independent brands are not inferior to joint venture brands, and Chinese consumers have already passed the irrational consumption stage with only joint venture brands. Today, there are more and more Car consumers are willing to choose their own brands, and believe that independent brands, exclusion of subsidies and other factors, this trend will become even more obvious in the field of pure electric vehicles.

Second, from the perspective of production, only Chinese companies can better understand the needs of Chinese consumers. In recent years, self-owned brand auto companies have made great progress in product quality and performance, which is obvious to all, and it is also true in the field of pure electric vehicles. Moreover, “early birds have worms”, autonomous electric car companies with first-mover advantage have already occupied a certain market position in China’s pure electric vehicle market, and have gained recognition and recognition from consumers, whether it is the public or Toyota, from From the strategic layout to the launch of the product, I am afraid that in the near future it will be difficult to fundamentally leverage the market position of self-owned brand pure electric vehicle companies.

The last and most important point is that we should face up to the current status of China's pure electric vehicle companies in terms of R&D system and product competitiveness. There is still a lot of room for improvement. Only the wrong concept of disposing of one's own politics should be faced, and the three cores of batteries, motors, and electronic control should be taken seriously. The continuous collaborative innovation work in the technical field can maintain its dominant position on the basis of the existing ones, and it also has a better performance in the international arena.