When it comes to electrification, Toyota should be considered a pioneer in the industry. As early as 1997, Toyota had launched a hybrid model equipped with a THS system, starting Toyota's electrification process; and all of this came earlier than most car companies. Just when Toyota was immersed in the good results of hybrid power in the market, the "monster" of pure electric power arrived unexpectedly, and governments around the world began to tilt towards electrification; all combined, it directly disrupted Toyota's strategy. position.
In fact, Toyota is not unprepared in the field of pure electric vehicles. In 1997, Toyota had already launched the RAV4 EV model. In the following years, Toyota continued to actively explore new energy models, from LNG to pure electricity to hydrogen energy. Toyota's technical reserves can be said to be A kaleidoscope of existence.
The reason why Toyota was late on the pure electric road can be regarded as a deviation in technical focus
As mentioned above, Toyota was late on the pure electric road. In retrospect, it was not because of insufficient research and development in the technical field, but because Toyota suffered too many losses in the early development of pure electric models and understood that with the existing resources and technology, it was heading towards pure electrification. Development is unrealistic. It is precisely for this reason that Toyota has chosen to prefer the development of hydrogen energy technology in new energy technologies. The later establishment of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Association and the launch of Mirai are the best evidence; in addition, Toyota is also in the field of hybrid power. Continuously improving technology has made THS a dominant presence in the industry.
From Toyota's perspective at that time, this judgment was very correct. Hydrogen energy was like a desert, while pure electric power was like the frozen soil of Antarctica. It was clear at a glance which area was more likely to succeed. . If things go well, hydrogen energy will gradually replace gasoline with its excellent cleanliness and convenient charging methods; the pure electric thing will also be loved by everyone.
What Toyota and many established car companies did not expect was that the pure electric trend would be so strong that the government’s policy orientation began to tilt towards pure electric vehicles; subsequently, It is due to the rapid development of related industries. The three-electronics industry is experiencing a blowout, and there are more and more breakthroughs in this part. Electric vehicles have begun to change from being purely policy products to products with real product power and recognized by consumers. . Thanks to the efforts of the entire industry, flowers have bloomed on the Antarctic frozen soil; Toyota’s misjudgment this time is understandable.
Let’s start with some appetizers
After accepting that electrification is currently the most obvious form of new energy, Toyota did two things. First, work together vertically and horizontally to cooperate with first-line technology companies such as Guangzhou Automobile Group, BYD, Panasonic, and CATL for technology development, and integrate existing resources as much as possible to launch pure electric models in the shortest possible time to ensure that new pure electric models are launched on the market before they are launched. Maintain attention in the market and avoid product window periods.
Under this purpose, Toyota first jointly launched the pure electric model iA?5 with Guangzhou Automobile Group; then, it announced its cooperation with BYD to quickly launch pure electric models in the form of technical cooperation; in addition, It has also launched a pure electric model C-HR EV model based on the C-HR, which has attracted great attention and has a younger car buying group and a high degree of acceptance of new things.
Secondly, develop new pure electric platforms and new models as quickly as possible. Previously, Toyota has announced that it will launch 10 new pure electric models before 2025, all of which will be developed on the new E-TNGA platform and will have major breakthroughs in space, endurance and power performance. Previously, Toyota's new car patent pictures have seen a medium and large pure electric SUV and a compact pure electric SUV. Judging from the new car release plan, these two models will also meet us in the near future.
Although it is an appetizer, the performance is still very good
We are actually very familiar with Toyota's existing pure electric models, among which the iA5 is still among us as a long-term test car. The company has taken on the important task of "daily life", and we have given high praise to its performance. In a test drive event invited by Toyota this week, the organizer GAC Toyota even brought the representative Ralink PHEV, iA5 and the much-anticipated C-HR EV to the scene.
Whatever! Convenience! try!
Ralink PHEV, iA5 and C-HR?EV, these three models have gone through a lot of detailed test information and articles on our website; from dynamic, static, articles to videos and even performance tests , have been included in detail in our test area, and interested friends can check it directly in the search bar of the website. Therefore, in this article, I will not go into details about the driving details of the bicycle.
For the above three models, I have been in contact with the iA5 and Ralink PHEV for a relatively long time, and I have a relatively clear understanding of their overall vehicle performance; as for the C-HR EV, during the event, I I spent almost a whole day with it, from highways to traffic jams, from smooth paved roads to potholed roads, I experienced almost all road conditions with it. Combining the new models I have experienced with Toyota's three models, I finally understand the advantages of Toyota's electric family.
Toyota’s iA5, Ralink PHEV and C-HR EV are not very eye-catching among models of the same level if you look at the data alone. In fact, the conservative data is exactly the result of traditional cars like Toyota. The characteristic of the company is that everything is based on safety. In terms of eye-catching data and durability, the choice of established car companies is the latter.
In addition, Toyota’s thinking is also different from that of new forces in terms of car building logic. The idea of ????new forces is to develop automobile products based on electronic technology; so we can see a variety of new and novel functions. For this type of models, we discuss more about the length of battery life and the intelligence of autonomous driving functions. . Toyota's idea is to add technological products based on cars; taking C-HR EV as an example, this car is excellent in terms of chassis quality, ergonomics and driving experience, even in large segments. On bad roads or occasionally passionately splitting mountains, the feeling given by the whole car is very outstanding.
This idea of ????Toyota also determines that its current models will not give us much surprises in terms of technology; looking at today's new power car companies, various autonomous driving systems are emerging one after another. , in addition to the basic function of automatically correcting the steering wheel to follow the car, it can even complete high-level functions such as the vehicle following the navigation and automatically driving to the destination; but at present, Toyota's electrification family still chooses to do the car honestly and let the automatic Functions such as driving become the icing on the cake.
In general, these two ideas have their own merits. The new force’s idea determines that the new car is more like a technological product, with various highlight experiences, and driving and the vehicle itself have become secondary. Things to consider; Toyota's thinking greatly guarantees the attributes of the car itself. The form of energy used is not the focus. The focus is that it can give you an excellent experience from riding to driving. This is what major car manufacturers can do. Possible car-making background.
Break the situation, Toyota’s real main force is coming!
For now, the pure electric models launched by Toyota have not changed much in terms of the attributes of the car itself, except that the energy supply method has changed from burning oil to consuming electricity. Of course, although the appetizers are not enough to fill your stomach, for a large company like Toyota, the color, flavor and flavor are still all-inclusive; and now, Toyota also understands whether the food is good enough, such as automatic serving machines, RGB colorful dishes and Artificial intelligence must be equipped with the function of introducing dishes.
Therefore, Toyota is also moving very quickly. It officially released a new strategy briefing not long ago. At the meeting, it was stated that Toyota will deploy electric vehicles in advance and plans to start from 2020. This year, at least 10 electric models will be launched based on the new e-TNGA platform. Just imagine, in the near future, new electric models launched by established car companies with nearly a century of experience will not only be outstanding in the attributes of the car itself, but also be far superior to new brands in terms of intelligent driving and forward-looking technology. And this will be Toyota's real main model.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.