When the market in 2024 accelerates towards the direction that Chinese car companies expect, consumers’ awareness of the joint venture seems to be focused on words such as old-fashioned and old-fashioned.
With the trend of electric and intelligent transformation of the industry becoming more and more obvious, is the word “joint venture” in our eyes really only the halo of the brand, or the user reputation that has not been completely covered up? How to live? In other words, how should we counter today’s market changes? For any joint venture car company, it has become a very thorny issue.
In the past two years, it is true that many joint venture car companies have lost their ideas in panic and changed their main business to export, or reduced their size in the simplest and rudest way, or simply withdrew from China.
But on the other hand, based on the technology accumulation and system construction in China over the years, as well as the in-depth study of the automobile industry, we can still see clearly that Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda and other first-tier brands have not thrown in the towel.
As a rational observer of the development of the industry, blindly bad-mouthing the future of an enterprise has never been desirable.
Through observation, you will find that the rapid change of technology and the rapid change of consumption trend have not eroded the ambition of the joint venture car company.
On the contrary, in China, most of the time, for the promotion and landing of new technologies, these enterprises are not as stubborn and rigid as the outside world think.
In the impression of many people, unlike the radical Volkswagen, Toyota’s style of doing things has the unique caution and stubbornness of Japanese car companies.
As China’s new energy industry enters a new stage of white-hot development, Toyota is slowly lagging behind.
However, in the era of JV 2.
0, if you say that Toyota is willing to give up catching up with the electrification process or lost momentum for the transformation, it must be with too much subjective emotion.
As the core carrier of Toyota’s joint venture business in China, it is only GAC Toyota’s insight into new technologies, new trends and new-generation consumers.
At this stage, if some people like to show themselves with great fanfare, there must be people who are keen to dig deep into the technical fish ponds.
Since last year, the concept of “intelligent electric hybrid engine” put forward by GAC and Toyota has been determined to finalize its own science and technology day, which is mainly in line with the future development direction of China’s auto market.
In other words, in terms of technology change, from the introduction of the fifth generation THS hybrid technology to the realization of multi-path development of PHEV, EV and FCEV, and even the creation of a leading industry with subversive cool techs, such as solid-state batteries, for the intelligent evolution of consumer recognition, from choosing to work with Huawei and Tencent to build China’s exclusive intelligent cockpit, to hand in hand with Momenta to promote the end-to-end high-end smart car to land as soon as possible, and even continue to drive fully autonomous with Horse Zhixing.
In fact, such Guangzhou Auto Toyota is in line with our proper impression of a new era car company with a sense of hardship and a strong willingness to transform.
“joint venture” should not be a word that is opposed to “autonomy”.
For auto companies in China, when the Chinese auto market actively shows that it is faster than the evolution of the global industry, every auto company that has the ability to keep pace with the times and has ideas to provide advanced products to Chinese consumers, are worthy of respect from the outside world.
From “production in China” to “Research in China”, “in the era of joint venture 2.
0, flat development is not desirable.
” This is a wake-up call for all joint ventures in the Chinese car market, but for Toyota, some decisions fell early from the moment the electrified transformation began to have a full impact on the Chinese market.
Different from the idea that many Chinese car companies move forward, it does not take add-program hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure electric technology as the first contact, and does not put the concept of refrigerator color TV sofa in the cockpit, which will give people the wrong impression.
Toyota’s research on the new consumption trend is not enough.
But in fact, from the perspective of “technology driving life” alone, the logic of Toyota-style technological evolution has entered the joint venture system unreservedly in recent years.
The fuel era came to an end and electrification opened a new chapter in the industry.
New car companies all want to achieve corner overtaking through the advantages of Sandian technology, so as to bring the market share that originally belongs to traditional car companies into their own sphere of influence.
Today, however, I dare say that many people have overlooked the fact that the industry has never given room for electrified transformation to complete the delivery of old and new forces.
The relationship between joint ventures and autonomous car companies is not a matter of “who wants to replace whom”.
Its real purpose is how to optimize the car experience of consumers, and finally put the environmental protection issue of “sustainable development” into the future ecology of the automobile industry.
With the rapid iteration of all kinds of new energy technologies in China, what kind of energy-driven form is the best solution? Nowadays, we do not deny that when rechargeable and refueling PHEV and REV models occupy the core of public opinion, it always makes consumers think that this is the most cost-effective power solution at present.
However, for the Chinese market, which sells 25 million new cars per year, can we put forward a point of view: using the most reliable technology to meet the diversified consumer needs of various regions as far as possible, in fact, it is far more important than only emphasizing the one-sided product advantage of “charging is cheaper than burning oil”.
On this year’s Science and Technology Day, the reason why Guangzhou Auto Toyota once again emphasizes the technical key points of “intelligent electric hybrid engine” is to change consumers’ perception of the intelligent advanced level of traditional car companies and what consumers really pay attention to in hybrid technology.
The fifth generation of intelligent electric hybrid twin-engine, which deeply integrates the advantages of oil and electricity and truly realizes the ultimate balance, is the optimal solution of hybrid.
Peng Baolin, deputy general manager of GAC Toyota, not only said, “as the number one brand of intelligent electric mixer in the world, the biggest feature of GAC Toyota intelligent electric mixer is the ultimate balance.
” He further explained, “the intelligent electric hybrid dual engine is not the superficial subversion of a single point of data, but the ultimate balanced depth satisfaction!” In terms of development, the hybrid technology, which has experienced more than 20 years and five iterations, has once again consolidated the conclusion that there are only two kinds of hybrid technology in the world, one is Toyota, the other is the other.
I dare not say that such a judgment can be passed on to everyone, but it is clear that Toyota’s deep digging of the “hybrid” must be omni-directional.
To put it colloquially, “can you get a green card” is not what the technical term “Toyota’s fifth-generation THS” is pursuing.
Its so-called omni-directional evolution is aimed at “providing Chinese consumers with the best new energy car experience”.
Almost includes the engine, motor, battery, the overall structure and other key components of the continuous optimization and upgrading.
It is not simply driven by motor or engine, and the vehicle is given abundant power output by the cooperation of oil and electricity.
not with the thermal efficiency of the single point extreme value in the laboratory as the propaganda point, but with a wider working range of high thermal efficiency, to achieve low fuel consumption in the full-speed domain that consumers care about most.
Perhaps, these two aspects are the biggest characteristics of Toyota’s latest hybrid technology, there is no hype about the technology, let alone the supplement of brainwashing marketing, but through long-term market verification and comparative testing under real working conditions, since the hybrid technology can perfectly cover the current consumer pain points, for consumers, in the daily use stage, as long as GAC Toyota can not lower the standard.
Isn’t it a good thing to give enough advanced technical support? It is very difficult for Chinese consumers to serve.
Indeed, after so many years of development in the car market, the picky eyes of consumers will more or less make various car companies feel pressure.
But at the same time, to this day, car companies such as Guangzhou Auto Toyota have made it clear that it is always right to strengthen territorial research and development and speed up the iteration of localized technology rather than being forced to compete.
As a matter of fact, the path to help consumers reduce the cost of using cars through the fifth generation THS hybrid technology is now mature, so another momentum I can feel at GAC Toyota Technology Day must be the improvement of all the experiences related to intelligence.
In the past, it was understandably difficult for joint ventures to cooperate with Chinese technology companies on intelligent technology.
Now, when GAC Toyota chooses to have a deep integration with Huawei in the car engine system, and hopes that Tencent can add more popular application APP to its car engine system, there will only be one reason, that is, as a joint venture company and more as a Chinese company, GAC Toyota will not ignore any Chinese consumers’ thinking about the new experience.
In the era of joint venture 2.
0, we need the example of Guangzhou Auto Toyota.
As we all know, 2024 is a difficult time when everyone is in anxiety, but has to face a struggle between two and two, and bayonets become popular.
By contrast, joint ventures are always entangled in constant war of words and price attacks.
With similar car companies, GAC Toyota is inevitably disturbed by these external factors.
However, throughout history, since the development of China’s car market is still rational, it is obvious that GAC and Toyota can decide to cater to the latest requirements of the market and superimpose the skills of Chinese technology companies to build a new ecology with new technologies.
Will the joint venture company be a little inexperienced when it holds a science and technology open day for the first time? In this era when everyone has a science and technology festival, perhaps this is the first impression of GAC Toyota’s move.
However, if you look at it for purpose, I would think that GAC Toyota is more likely to show that in the face of the impetuous environment of the car market, compared with the pie-like technical propaganda of other start-ups, I am really providing constructive measures and forward-looking technology for the development of the industry.
Not for traffic, just to respond to questions, not to crusade against anyone, just to be down-to-earth.
In China, everyone says that a new era has come.
New energy is the core force to promote the transformation of the industry, and intelligence is the prerequisite to dominate the future of the whole industry.
In this regard, cautious joint ventures will be a little confused, but you have to say that they should unconditionally make way for newcomers, I think, this is mixed with some radical elements.
How on earth does the joint venture company plan for the follow-up development of China’s auto market? At this stage, with iterations of existing technologies, such as the fifth generation THS hybrid technology mentioned above, or building a new ecology with local enterprises, as mentioned earlier, Guangzhou Auto Toyota has brought in Huawei and Tencent to empower the intelligent cockpit, and most joint venture car companies have chosen to change their past work efficiency and ideas as soon as possible in order to keep up with the development trend of the industry.
For the future, there is no doubt that these measures will only be further accelerated as competition heats up again.
In Guangzhou Auto Toyota’s new moments, Huang Chi, vice president of marketing for Momenta self-driving company, first said that the end-to-end high-level smart driving program created by the two sides will soon be installed in the new Platinum Intelligence 3X.
On the hardware only, based on the Nvidia 254tops computing platform, the vehicle is equipped with 11 ultra-high precision cameras, 5 millimeter wave radar, 12 ultrasonic radar and 1 lidar (126lines), providing 360-degree global perception and sufficient computing power at the vehicle end.
at the algorithm level, the Momenta-based data flywheel can improve the system performance limit through OTA after mass production data reflux, autonomous learning and fast iteration.
In the eyes of consumers, there may be no idea of the pros and cons of these parameters, but we just need to know that when Toyota is willing to extend an olive branch to Momenta, China’s top smart driving company, in order to keep up with the changes in the Chinese car market, and to improve the high-end smart driving that Chinese consumers love, GAC Toyota has not been lazy.
By the same token, since August last year, we announced the establishment of a joint venture with Horse Zhixing and Toyota (China) to support the mass production and large-scale deployment of Robotaxi in the future.
up to now, we can really experience taking a self-driving taxi in Nansha, Guangzhou, and the whole process automation service from placing an order to arrival must also be evidence of the forward-looking layout of GAC-Toyota for the future automobile life in China.
Looking back over the past 20 years, like most joint ventures, GAC and Toyota have tasted the dividend of “market for technology” and actually experienced a lot of labor pains produced in market segments.
During this period, it is impossible for GAC and Toyota to explore the subject from “made in China” to “developed in China” without ideas.
Therefore, no matter whether the results announced in this Science and Technology Open Day are detailed or not, it is said that Guangzhou Auto Toyota now has the ability to upgrade its new models in China, to strengthen fast and flexible annual products, and to comprehensively develop new joint venture cars on the spot.
There is no doubt about it.
Moreover, only from the upcoming bZ3X, it is already obvious that the GAC Toyota local development team is deeply involved in the research and development of each new car and provides the best solution based on the needs of Chinese users.
In China, listen carefully to the voices of Chinese consumers.
BackCalls about “there is no retreat for joint venture car companies” will definitely become more frequent.
Is this cruel? Yes.
However, this does not mean that the balance between joint venture and autonomy will tilt unconditionally towards the latter.
As I said, the joint venture company is essentially a Chinese car company.
The industry is rolling and the market is rolling.
Excuse me, who will be indifferent? Second-tier players have not given up yet, and it is obviously even more impossible for GAC Toyota to bring all black technology from behind the scenes to the stage.
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