Not long ago, Toyota decided to provide hybrid system technology to Guangzhou Automobile Group. In fact, Toyota has provided hybrid system technology to Suzuki and other companies before, but this is the first time Toyota has licensed this technology to companies outside Japan. This means that the E-CVT gearbox equipped with 1.8L Atkinson engine and planetary gear in GAC Chuanqi sedan or SUV will be in the near future.
Consider the same hybrid system? The official guide price of Toyota Corolla/Ralink engine in China is less than 654.38+0.4 million yuan, which is considered as the cheapest HEV model on the market. Therefore, the price of HEV model will be further lowered after the new hybrid model of Guangzhou Automobile Chuanqi is listed in the future.
I feel that Toyota is dealing with a man as he deals with you. When this wolf comes back, it is likely to eat Toyota's HEV market share-according to Toyota's official data in September, the cumulative sales of this part of the market in China has exceeded 6,543,800+100,000 vehicles; In Toyota's new car sales plan in 2025, the global sales of HEV and PHEV models will exceed 4.5 million, of which HEV accounts for a large share. In the global planning of HEV models, the China market is very important.
In this case, why is Toyota willing to license the core hybrid technology to GAC?
Why Toyota chose GAC.
Some people say that the reason is that the patent of Toyota hybrid technology has passed the protection period of 20 years. Since you can't protect it, you might as well take it out as a favor.
In fact, not only the hybrid technology, but also the hydrogen fuel cell technology at the bottom of Toyota's closet will be licensed to GAC in the future-this point was written in black and white when Toyota and GAC signed the strategic cooperation framework agreement in September 20 19.
Toyota's hydrogen fuel cell technology has no patent protection period. In the final analysis, Toyota's move is by no means a simple "doing human feelings." The key is that Toyota also depends on what it can get from each other.
What Toyota is most likely to obtain from GAC is the authorization or transfer of pure electric vehicle technology. In the cooperation of electric technology, the two sides have had an intersection before-AEON S independently developed by GAC New Energy. After the whole set of technology was introduced into the joint venture company GAC Toyota, the electric vehicles manufactured were listed in the name of GAC Toyota iA5, which is still the GAC standard.
According to the traditional mindset, the cars made by GAC Toyota should be Toyota standards, but Camry, Highlander and Willanda were not like this before. In fact, the technology of these models comes from Toyota, which is a serious Toyota car, so it is natural to hang the Toyota logo. In addition to Toyota, GAC Toyota's joint venture partner is GAC-since cars made after Toyota introduced GAC Toyota can bear the Toyota logo, cars made after GAC electric vehicles introduced into the same joint venture company can certainly bear the GAC logo.
From this point of view, Toyota has not put on airs in front of GAC, and the cooperation between the two companies is equal and mutually beneficial. The root of equality lies in GAC's own material, and its self-developed electric vehicle technology can enter Toyota's eyes, and Toyota really respects GAC.
Someone asked, Toyota is one of the first car companies to implement the electrification strategy, and it still needs to rely on GAC's electric vehicle technology. In fact, from the beginning, Toyota regarded FCV (Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle) as the ultimate new energy technology model, while pure electric drive was defined by Toyota as the basic technology supporting HEV, PHEV and FCV. In the field of commercial application technology of electric vehicles, Toyota has not developed in depth for a long time, thus forming a strange phenomenon of "technology without products".
So far, Toyota has no electric vehicles with its own platform. What are the only two electric vehicles, including the Lexus brand? "Oil to electricity". Compared with Volkswagen's upcoming MEB offensive, Toyota can be said to be powerless. Although electric vehicles are not the ultimate new energy solution in Toyota's eyes, the problem is that this market is getting bigger and bigger, and various ecosystems are beginning to form, so that Toyota can no longer sit idly by-it's all money!
Toyota has the technology, and it has said before that it will develop an exclusive platform for e-TNGA pure electricity. But the problem is that e-TNGA is still in the development stage. Even if e-TNGA is now ahead of Toyota, it will take time to realize commercialization. What is likely to happen in a high probability is that when the Toyota e-TNGA electric vehicle is developed, I am afraid it will be two years later. During this time, Toyota can only watch Volkswagen, GM, Tesla and even Hyundai make big profits in the electric vehicle market.
Before e-TNGA becomes a fighting force, Toyota needs a relatively advanced, mature and market-tested electric vehicle technology to cope with the global market. The GAC GEP pure electric platform of Aian S was born, which can meet the needs of Toyota's "short-term mercenaries". Before introducing GEP platform into GAC Toyota to produce iA5, it can be regarded as Toyota's technical test of GEP platform.
Toyota can see clearly that, except Tesla, other European and American brands of electric vehicles are "scum" in front of China electric vehicles, and they are either too low in endurance or too expensive to play. Toyota may not want to compete with Tesla for the title of "electric Ferrari", but Toyota really wants to be "electric Toyota". Relatively speaking, the GEP pure electric platform, which combines cost and endurance advantages, meets Toyota's expectations. Therefore, cooperation is natural.
As for why Toyota doesn't give hybrid technology to FAW, the reason is simple: FAW has nothing that Toyota values.
This is not the first time Toyota has done this.
When 20 16 hybrid Ford Mondeo was tested in Chengdu, it was found that the planetary gear E-CVT gearbox of hybrid Mondeo could not bypass Toyota's patent at all. I specifically asked the relevant people of Changan Ford about this matter. In this regard, the official did not mention the issue of Toyota patents at all, but vowed that Ford did not have any legal risks.
The patent of planetary gear mechanism in Toyota hybrid technology is registered in 1997, and the patent protection period is 20 years, so the patent expires in the United States and Europe on February 20, 20 17. However, before the patent expired, Toyota didn't say anything about Ford's "patent infringement" on the planetary gear structure of E-CVT-in fact, we can see this planetary gear E-CVT gearbox on the hybrid Ford Escape launched in 2005.
Later, I looked up a lot of information to find out the reason-Toyota's performance in the European market is far less smooth than that in the Asian market and the North American market. The biggest reason is that the European market favored diesel passenger cars at that time, and Toyota's small diesel engine technology was "slag", so Toyota granted its own planetary gear patent to Ford in exchange for Ford's small diesel vehicle technology, hoping to turn over in Europe.
This is why Toyota planetary gear patents can be seen in Ford hybrid cars before 20 17.
However, at that time, Toyota's patent had not been issued, and Ford had not suffered. But now that Toyota's hybrid system technology has basically passed the patent protection period, there is no need for GAC to exchange with GEP pure electric platform. Now it seems that it is GAC that suffers.
Guangzhou Automobile has the blessing of "mixing"
Previously, China's new version of the "Measures for the Parallel Management of Average Fuel Consumption of Passenger Car Enterprises and New Energy Vehicle Points" put forward the concept of "low fuel consumption passenger car" for the first time, and clarified the preferential rules of point accounting. In other words, starting from New Year's Day next year, non-plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) represented by Toyota Corolla/Lei Ling will also be included in the list of environmentally-friendly vehicles that car companies can earn "points".
Undoubtedly, Toyota's planetary gear power split hybrid technology is the best hybrid technology in the world at present. I checked the big data on the fuel consumption of Bear. 1 1 In the market segment, the most fuel-efficient models in the six market segments are all from Toyota/Lexus. Five of the six cars are hybrid models.
As for the most fuel-efficient car in China market, there is no doubt that it is a hybrid Toyota Corolla/Ralink twin engine, with an average actual fuel consumption of only 4.5 liters per 100 kilometers! If GAC only relies on the market sales of electric vehicles, I am afraid it is difficult for GAC to earn enough points. And if some pure gasoline cars are converted into hybrid cars, it is easy to earn this.
Compared with other domestic independent car companies, GAC will have more advantages because of "mixing".
As for Toyota's hybrid patent, netizens think that GAC can blatantly imitate technology, which is unrealistic in my personal opinion. Because there are many subsidiary technology patents around Toyota's hybrid technology patents, these subsidiary technology patents have not been released. Without these supporting technologies, it will be very difficult to digest Toyota hybrid technology.
For example, I'll give you a bowl of rice noodles for free, but I won't give you chopsticks. How do you eat?
With the help of Toyota, it is believed that GAC will master the hybrid technology faster than those "legally copied" car companies and realize the commercialization of independent hybrid vehicles faster.
In addition, if GAC is really willing to change the GEP pure electric platform, just to let Toyota's electric vehicles catch their breath, it means that GAC's next-generation pure electric platform has been developed. Everyone uses "internally outdated" technology for exchange, and no one suffers.
Toyota intends to guide the technical standards in the China market.
Careful readers may notice that Toyota and GAC signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement in 20 19, and Toyota will also provide GAC with hydrogen fuel cell passenger car technology, which is Toyota's closet technology and is still in the patent protection period. In addition, Tesla also announced the opening of all electric vehicle patents, while Volkswagen directly announced the opening of the MEB platform. ...
The general feeling is that capitalists have become living Lei Feng.
In fact, the fundamental reason is that these car companies try to guide domestic relevant technical standards by opening some patents. Hydrogen fuel cell technology is a very long and huge system, and even if Toyota is willing to spend all its money, it can occupy an advantageous position in the follow-up research and development. Once a large China enterprise enters the pit, the relevant technology may become the standard of China market, from which the right to speak in the market, the right to supply affiliated technology and the right to technology evolution will be derived ... all of which are equal to huge benefits.
At present, there is no hydrogen fuel cell passenger car in China market. Imagine that if Toyota's hydrogen fuel cell technology is commercialized by GAC in China, even if only a few hundred vehicles are produced, it will affect the product standards of China's hydrogen fuel cell vehicles-this is completely different from importing hundreds of Toyota hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. When China's hydrogen fuel cell passenger car market grows, it will in turn have an impact on the global market.
Whether Toyota is a car company or a technology supplier, its motivation is nothing more than a word "money". Of course, in this process, GAC is also a beneficiary, which is a win-win situation.
Finally, it is emphasized that this article is an exclusive "internal guess". If there are similarities, it is purely coincidental.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.