On March 25th, BYD Toyota Electric Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd. was quietly incorporated with a registered capital of 345 million yuan. According to the agreement signed in June last year 165438+ 10, BYD and Toyota each sent relevant business personnel to hold core positions. ?
The chairman of the joint venture company is An Shanghong, president of Toyota Global Powertrain, and the legal person and general manager are Zhao Binggen, assistant to the president of BYD Automotive Engineering Research Institute. Chairman of Toyota China Ueda Dalang, General Manager of Toyota Electric Project Akio Toyoda, Senior Vice President of BYD and President of Automotive Engineering Research Institute Lian Yubo are directors of the joint venture company. ?
The main business of the joint venture company is: the design and development of pure electric vehicles and their derivatives, as well as the parts of pure electric vehicles and their derivatives; Import and export, sales and after-sales service of pure electric vehicles and their derivative automobile parts and assemblies.
Specifically, the two sides will jointly develop pure electric vehicles for cars and SUVs, as well as the power batteries needed for these products. The new model jointly developed by both parties will use the Toyota brand, and it is planned to be put into the China market before 2025.
As the second-largest car manufacturer in the world, why does Toyota take a fancy to BYD, which focuses on new energy vehicles in China? And why can BYD be favored by international manufacturers such as Daimler (:Dai) and Toyota?
Chen Qingtai, Chairman of China Electric Vehicle committee of 100, told Voyager that China was ten years ahead in the field of electrification. Without the experience of foreign enterprises to learn from, foreign partners to look for and ready-made foreign parts to buy, China enterprises were forced to realize the great transformation mainly relying on independent innovation under the open conditions.
However, some observers pointed out that compared with Tesla's overwhelming advantage in the global power market, China and the entire Asian auto industry had to bid automatically. The most direct collision of the electric vehicles produced after the joint venture between Toyota and BYD will be the new models put into production by Tesla in Shanghai, and the new competition drama in the Asian electric vehicle market will really be staged.
What does Toyota lack and want?
In the era of limited stock ratio in China's auto industry, if foreign auto companies want to enter China, they can only cooperate with local auto companies, and a large number of joint venture auto companies have mushroomed. From April 2065438 to April 2008, the stock ratio policy of China automobile industry began to loosen.
Under the policy, all parties are in chaos. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has been granted the privilege to independently set up a factory and sell it in China, and BMW Group has increased the shareholding ratio of the joint venture company in China to 75%. The living environment of domestic independent brands will encounter unprecedented impact. ?
This is the worst time and the best time. Let go of competition. For car companies with technical strength, this is a good opportunity to show their muscles. ?
Fang, a global partner of roland berger, told a brigade reporter that in the face of the impact of automobile modernization (electrification, intelligence, networking and enjoyment) and the uncertainty of future technology, cooperative research and development has become the mainstream for major automobile companies to avoid risks and unify standards.
Toyota, the car company, has not escaped the above rules. When electrification gradually became the mainstream of the world, Akio Toyoda, the head of Toyota, was very anxious. As the head of the third generation, Akio Toyoda believes that "the automobile industry is undergoing a once-in-a-century great change, and electrification is the main body of this change", and it is too late for Toyota to cut into pure electric. ?
The terrible thing is that the technical route is not completely accurate, but the times gave Toyota regret medicine, and BYD is this medicine.
Wang Chuanfu, the head of BYD, and Akio Toyoda's paranoid personality and thinking about electrification have made the leaders of the two sides have a spiritual fit. On April 20 19, when Akio Toyoda gave a speech in Tsinghua University, Wang Chuanfu came from Shenzhen to meet him. ?
As a battery supplier of Toyota hybrid cars, BYD has always been in Toyota's field of vision. Once the person in charge of the company thought it was time to promote electrification, this stuffy car company showed super efficiency. In 20 19, Toyota successively reached a battery supply agreement and a cooperative research and development agreement with Panasonic Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. (300750). SZ) and BYD.
However, it is not enough to master the battery if you want to do an electric car well. However, if Toyota invests heavily in building an R&D platform for electric vehicles from scratch, is this platform competitive? With such a long development cycle, is this platform still advanced? How to speed up the electrification strategy and achieve the sales target of electric vehicles in 2025? This series of problems forced Toyota to cooperate. ?
At this time, BYD's e-platform, which has been developed for many years, is a necessary condition to impress Toyota.
The so-called e-platform is a platform with highly integrated hardware, and its core is "3311". Wang Chuanfu explained the kernel of "33 1 1" to a traveler at the closed meeting of Beijing Auto Show on 20 18. ?
The first "3" refers to the integration of drive motor, motor controller and reducer 1. The second "3" refers to the DC-DC of the high-voltage system in 1 These high levels of integration are conducive to reducing vehicle weight, reducing costs and improving efficiency.
The last three "1" refer to the 1 panel which is highly integrated with more than ten control modules such as instrument, air conditioner, stereo and intelligent key. 1 The plot is equipped with "DiLink system" intelligent automatic rotating large screen; 1 ternary lithium battery module with high energy density, long battery life and stable performance.
From the overall layout of e-platform, it integrates all key components of electric vehicle production. For Toyota, once such a platform is used, its research and development cycle and product launch cycle will be greatly shortened.
What does BYD want?
The cooperation between BYD and Toyota actually represents that China automobile enterprises have the technical strength to compete with international automobile companies.
In the early joint venture era, China automobile enterprises exchanged a large number of markets for technology. In the game, some car companies have learned some skills to become competitive domestic car companies, and some car companies have become vassals of foreign car companies.
When BYD turned opening up into a new company strategy, BYD was only a supplier. For example, BYD provides power batteries and core electronic components to many car companies.
Simple business relationship is not conducive to the long-term development of China car companies. BYD's Open 2.0 model appears: Openness does not mean blind output and flattery. Car companies should form a technical cooperation relationship with partners, that is, everyone comes up with core technologies, complements shortcomings, and participates in cutting-edge technology research and development.
This point was revealed in the cooperation between BYD and Daimler on 20 10. ?
On 20 10, BYD and Daimler jointly established Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Co., Ltd., with each party holding 50% of the shares and establishing Tengshi platform. Since then, the two sides have repeatedly injected capital into Tengshi, and the proportion of capital injection between the two sides has also remained consistent. ?
The cooperation with Daimler has enabled BYD to learn advanced vehicle manufacturing technology and chassis adjustment technology. The cooperation with BYD has enabled Daimler to have a technical reserve in the manufacture of electric vehicles, especially in the three electricity (batteries, electric drives and motors). It paved the way for the birth of the first electric car EQC of Mercedes-Benz. ?
The sluggish sales also made BYD understand that even if the genes are good and the brand power is insufficient, the car can't be sold.
Therefore, this cooperation with Toyota can be regarded as drawing on and absorbing the above precedent.
BYD's core technology in the field of electric vehicles will help Toyota quickly cut into electric vehicles. For BYD, the cooperation with Toyota has not only won the endorsement of global big car companies, but also the brand power brought by Toyota logo. Shu Youxing, general manager of BYD's international cooperation division, said in an interview with travelers that Toyota's reliability, durability and robustness are the places BYD needs to learn.
Race against time, the real opponent is only Tesla?
Although the company has been established, there is not much time left for BYD and other car companies, especially with Tesla's only factory outside the United States settled in Shanghai, the competition in the Asian electric vehicle market will be real and cruel.
Mobile phone products, which represent the smart lifestyle in the future, have experienced many iterations, but the iteration speed of indispensable automobile products in the future society is far behind.
Traditional vehicle enterprises have been living a comfortable life relying on the technical advantages of the past 100 years. However, the vigorous development of renewable energy and internet technology has forced the automobile industry to usher in a new round of revolution. ?
With the addition of new technology, it is easy to build a car, and the advantages of internal combustion engine technology for a hundred years began to lose. Fang said that electrification has made a subtraction for automobile production technology. In the future, cars are not only industrial products, but also consumer goods. Whoever can grasp the needs of consumers will win.
In addition, the global auto market has entered the cold winter, and the engine of China, the world auto market, has also stalled. According to the data of China Automobile Industry Association, the annual automobile sales in 20 19 was 25.769 million, down 8.2% year-on-year. Among them, the sales volume of new energy vehicles was 6.5438+0.206 million, down 4.0% year-on-year, showing negative growth for the first time in ten years.
A consultant who did not want to be named said that the sales of new energy vehicles represented by pure electric vehicles will face a huge test due to the rapid decline in domestic subsidies for new energy vehicles. At present, there is no small uncertainty.
In the case of sluggish market, foreign big car companies began to use their own advantages to crush small car companies. ?
For example, audi ag announced that it would open its modular platform MEB for pure electric vehicles to all automobile manufacturers, and Ford became the first automobile company to use the MEB platform. Ford plans to launch a new electric vehicle based on MEB platform in 2023. At the same time, the two sides have also formed an alliance in the research and development of autonomous driving technology. ?
An expert in the field of new energy, who works in a think tank of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told a brigade reporter that in the forward-looking research and development of batteries, global giants such as BMW and Toyota have deep technical reserves in related fields. ?
In addition, Daimler and BMW Group jointly invested 654.38 billion euros to set up five travel joint ventures; The joint venture company 1 1 100 million euros is committed to the development of small-scale vehicles; Concentrate on developing resources and jointly develop autonomous driving related technologies, including using an extensible platform to cope with the industry situation of falling profits.
Shen Wei, an auto industry analyst at UBS Securities, pointed out to a travel network that it is a good way for auto companies to join some mature R&D platforms and then improve their competitiveness through the creativity of modeling or electrical equipment. ?
Therefore, in the face of the aggressiveness of European and American car companies, if China car companies do not build their own platforms, the balance of future car companies will continue to be biased towards European and American car companies. ?
Shen Haijun, co-founder and CEO of Singularity Automobile, also told a travel reporter that electric technology is open, and it is the mainstream direction for car companies to make differentiated products themselves. If the mobile phone industry was not open, there would not be today's Android smartphones. ?
For domestic car companies, the alliance of foreign traditional manufacturers is an important obstacle for domestic car companies to change lanes successfully in the future. If we can't seize the commanding heights, China car companies will be mired in the quagmire.
At present, domestic car companies are building their own exclusive electric vehicle development platform. Geely Automobile and Volvo jointly developed a brand-new exclusive architecture for pure electric vehicles-PMA. Great wall motor builds ME platform. SAIC is also building the exclusive architecture of electric vehicles, and is also specializing in three electric technologies.
When all car companies are building their own electric platforms, it is not easy to convince each other to develop together. After all, who dominates the underlying architecture determines the standard of electric vehicles in the future.
In addition, how to standardize products, how to build modular products and how to build a standardized platform system are challenges that domestic vehicle companies including BYD need to face. ?
"I am not a prophet. I don't know what will happen in the future. " Regarding the technical route selection of electric vehicles, Akio Toyoda said that the China market is changing rapidly. Facing this biggest challenge, Toyota cooperates with Qi Xin through various technical routes, allowing consumers to choose independently. (Editor/Yang Peiqian)
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.