From January to May this year, FAW Toyota's cumulative retail sales were 260,500 units, down 12.4% year-on-year, which caused widespread discussion.
Since 2022, for two consecutive years, FAW Toyota's sales have been surpassed by the "latecomer" GAC Toyota. Although the sales target for 2024 is conservatively 100,000 units less than GAC Toyota, FAW Toyota's sales in the first quarter of this year are also inferior to its southern brothers.
Despite this, in fact, the joint venture brand can maintain a certain amount of sales every year, and what is really lost behind it is the high profits over the years. With the rise of domestic new energy vehicles, those that belong to FAW Toyota to buy cars at a higher price and a car is hard to find is no longer in the golden age.
On June 3, FAW Toyota delivered 5,000 bZ3 electric cars to the ride-hailing platform Ronghao Mobility for the ride-hailing business.
Referring to the data of a certain platform, the sales volume of FAW Toyota bZ3 in May was 5,646 units. According to statistics, 13% of the monthly sales of the bZ3 come from personal ownership, and according to this calculation, the actual sales of the bZ3 to C are only a few hundred units.
It's a pity that the "Di" of the three power investment companies can't save the unsalable situation, and it has become an expedient measure to ask for help from online car-hailing.
Online car-hailing is like a double-edged sword, you don't see Aion after placing a heavy bet on online car-hailing, referring to the sales of AION V and Haobo, not to mention that this is the main reason, but it will more or less still form resistance to the brand's upward movement.
If bZ3 is already in decline for Yifeng, then the showdown of Corolla is enough to witness Yifeng's silent resistance.
As Yifeng's last god car, on June 18, Corolla officially announced that the starting price would be reduced to 79,800 yuan, which is not difficult to think that it is following up the price war provoked by BYD Qin L and Seal 06. Some netizens quipped: "You can imagine how big the profit margin was back then." ”
According to official information, not only Corolla, but also FAW Toyota's Corolla Ruifang, RAV4 Rongfang, bZ3, bZ4X, Asian Dragon and other models are also "avalanche" across the board. On the other hand, on the side of GAC Toyota, the sales of the three major models of Camry, Highlander and Sena continue to be hot.
In contrast, FAW Toyota only has two models, Corolla and RAV4, with monthly sales exceeding 10,000, and the stamina is worrying. If you want to count how many chips are left in Yifeng's hands in addition to these two cars, there is still something worth saying.
Although the price of the whole line is unbearable, FAW Toyota has another model whose price has stabilized, and it is the Prado.
In the niche track of hardcore off-road vehicles, Prado is destined to be unable to reverse the decline of FAW Toyota. The new Prado uses a hybrid power source of 2.4T plus motor, and it has to face the Tank 700 and the Formula Leopard Leopard 5 are the same as the fierce rivals of the hybrid, and many old car owners have said that the hybrid Prado is late.
However, FAW Toyota still positions the new Prado as a "profitable model", from 2003 to 2020, the production of Prado, a total of 346,700 units, has a large number of fans, in addition to the interior and configuration full of "cost reduction and efficiency increase" taste, I believe that Prado's profits are quite large, now it depends on how the sales performance.
According to industry insiders, FAW Toyota terminals have gradually broken out of the decline in dealer revenue, the lack of confidence of front-line sales personnel, the high turnover rate, and the backwardness of marketing and sales methods.
How to turn over in 2024 is a problem that FAW Toyota itself will face, and it is also a problem faced by the entire community of joint venture car companies.