Although electric vehicles have won great attention, the "carbon" competition between the automotive industry has just begun. As the backbone of the fuel vehicle market, Toyota is the world's earliest leading brand in the layout of new energy, Toyota has been putting forward its own thinking before environmental issues such as climate warming, biodiversity reduction, resource depletion, etc., and digging deep into its own carbon reduction strategy. It provides reference materials for the low-carbon and sustainable development of the automobile industry in China and even the world.
On December 14, Toyota held a press conference on the strategy of full electrification, and this time it was a direct "show hand", which was not hidden at all. It is reported that under the leadership of bZ4X, 16 pure electric models were lined up at the press conference, and the ultimate goal was to release 30 electric models by 2030, with pure electric vehicles in the global passenger car and commercial vehicle line, with global sales of 3.5 million vehicles. This move instantly boiled up inside and outside the industry, and Toyota Motor, which is committed to achieving "carbon neutrality", once again pressed the "acceleration button" on the process of full electrification.
Lifting the fog and insisting on promoting diversified "carbon neutral models"
Under the double impact of the epidemic and the lack of chips, many brands have found new vitality and reshuffled the automobile market. At this time, the "double carbon" goal changed the mainstream development of the automotive industry, because the goal is a highly complex, widely related global system engineering, car companies are looking for a new balance in industrial trends, product structure and market terminals.
When it comes to new energy, I believe that everyone wants to reduce from the current level to zero, but at present, only EV and hydrogen energy can do zero emissions, and it takes time to build up this span and difficulty. In this process, HEV and PHEV will still make a contribution.
Therefore, Toyota still thinks from the perspective of striving to achieve full life cycle carbon neutrality of automobiles. If the energy required by the vehicle can be "carbon neutral", the vehicle can also be a "carbon neutral vehicle" regardless of the way it is used as a powertrain.
With the proposal of "carbon neutrality" and "carbon peaking", global car companies need to rethink the next development path. Taking the Chinese market as an example, the sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 420,000 units in November this year, and the penetration rate reached 19.47%. Even Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Automobile Association, said that the marketization of new energy vehicles has entered a stage of explosive growth, and this huge change represents the development of new energy vehicles from the past policy-driven to market-driven.
Therefore, although cars have different drive forms, the fundamental goal is to achieve "carbon neutrality". Because the energy supply structure of many markets in the world is not the same, such as India, Southeast Asia and even the Middle East, they are not suitable for the "carbon reduction" path through BEV, and HEV models are more in line with the current market. In some European countries, clean energy such as wind, solar, and geothermal energy has gradually become their main source of energy, and they can achieve rapid "carbon reduction" through BEV models.
From the perspective of the global market, Toyota is committed to promoting diversified "carbon neutral models" to provide more options for users in need around the world to achieve "carbon neutrality". At the same time, it can achieve the most efficient "carbon neutrality" from the whole society, and it is also a positive response to the global problem situation with a comprehensive electrification posture.
Under the trend of pure electricity, Toyota gives users their own choices
In the huge automobile market, China's electrification speed can be described as a leap forward, under the slogan of the state proposing new energy vehicles to play curves and overtake, BYD has broken out of the siege, and the new forces of Weilai, Ideal, and Xiaopeng have swept through to the point that pure electric vehicle models have won the hearts of many consumers, and have advanced to become a member of the shopping cart. When China's own brands shined, Toyota only proposed the goal of transforming electrification, is this entry time a little late?
In the face of this question, President Akio Toyoda expressed his accusations about the pure electric car frenzy, but did not make it clear whether he liked it or hated it. It only throws out the goal that Toyota is working on in all aspects, that is, based on the TNGA architecture, continuous improvement, in various fields such as hydrogen fuel cells, oil-electric hybrids and fuels, so that users can choose their own models.
The Chinese market is obviously a cake that everyone is competing for, and most car brands will create a new car according to the actual situation and user needs. Based on this consideration, three of the five bZ series models previously launched by Toyota are built exclusively for China. At the Shanghai Auto Show in April this year, Toyota's bZ pure electric exclusive series completed its global debut, implying the value of surpassing zero emissions. On October 29, Toyota announced details of the first model in the series, the bZ4X, and is expected to start selling in China, Japan, the United States, and Europe in mid-2022.
Not only that, in the next nine years, Toyota will invest $70 billion in full electrification, and the investment ratio of BEVs and other fully electrified models will be 1:1.
In addition, Toyota also adheres to the strategy of diversifying its model products, providing different users with automotive products that can reduce CO2 emissions and be practical. Therefore, at the press conference, Toyota will further expand the lineup of bZ series products and look for suitable people who belong to Toyota in the EV segment.
Compared with the stability of EVs, Toyota's initiatives in hydrogen energy are more pioneering, which also refutes the outside world's "conservative" impression of Toyota. This initiative has multiple solutions to the same proposition, and can also go wider and farther than competitors.
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Toyota's "carbon neutrality" plan is like its car-making concept, which systematically uses hybrid, pure electricity, hydrogen energy and other technologies to pay attention to every detail. At this press conference, we can see that the goals proposed by President Akio Toyoda have certain difficulties, the most important thing is that there is not much time left for Toyota.
In the next nine years, Toyota's global sales of fully electrified models need to increase from 2 million to 3.5 million units, which can be seen in Toyota's "eagerness", but relying on its deep technical heritage and brand concept, it is still expected to achieve the goals proposed at the conference.