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Toyota bZ series of new cars ushered in new developments. According to media reports, a number of Toyota bZ models, including the bZ4X, will be jointly developed with Subaru and Dafa.

On December 14 last year, Toyota unveiled a number of bZ series pure electric concept cars and said that it would launch 30 pure electric vehicles worldwide by 2030, not all of which were developed by Toyota, but based on the characteristics of the model and the market and decided to jointly develop with alliance manufacturers. It is reported that in addition to the electric cars independently developed by Toyota, medium-and large-size electric cars will cooperate with Subaru and Dafa, while small-size electric cars will cooperate with Dafa.

Toyota has previously announced that bZ4x, the first model of the BZ series, will be officially launched in the domestic market this year. BZ4X, as the first model of Toyota's new pure electric exclusive series "bZ", will be built by the exclusive platform of BEV, the new energy plant of FAW Toyota. According to previous reports concerned by the automobile industry, the Toyota bZ4x is based on e-TNGA architecture and is positioned as a medium-sized pure electric SUV. In the future, it will be domestically produced by FAW Toyota and Guangzhou Automobile Toyota respectively. In terms of sales, it is planned that the new car will be sold by more than 1300 dealerships in Guangzhou Auto Toyota and FAW Toyota.

In addition, Toyota's bZ series includes bZ Compact SUV, bZ Small Crossover, bZ SDN and bZ Large SUV, covering four SUV models and a sedan, of which the bZ Small Crossover is expected to be the last of the five models.

Judging from the pictures previously released, bZ Small Crossover locates a small SUV, which is similar in design to Toyota bZ4X, which will be jointly developed with Dafa and adopts the design concept of Aygo Cross, but is expected to be the last of these models to be sold due to cost and other factors.

BZ Compact SUV concept car body size may be similar to Toyota bZ4X, but the body height is much lower, the new car will have a slippery rear design, the details of the new car have not been officially released.

The bZ SDN concept car is positioned as a medium-sized car, and the SDN in the name stands for the abbreviation of Sedan (sedan). It is expected that it will be a replacement for the Prius in the future, but it is also reported that the car will be sold in the same room as the Prius. In addition, due to the size of the new car corresponding to the Subaru wing leopard, the new car may launch a Subaru brand model with four-wheel drive system. In the end, let's wait quietly for the official release.

The bZ Large SUV concept car, which is also part of the Toyota bZ series, may be positioned as a medium-to-large SUV, which is expected to be jointly developed with Subaru. The new car will be dominated by the FF (front front drive), while in North America and China, the new car is likely to be the successor to Subaru, with a four-wheel drive system, but the details will not be known until further official announcements.

From the above product layout, it is not difficult to know that the product levels of Toyota bZ series models range from small SUV to medium and large SUV, as well as a sedan. Earlier, some netizens said: "this battle is like Evergrande." however, in terms of the launch speed of new cars, the first product of Toyota bZ series is not expected to be launched until this year, obviously a little behind in speed. But Akio Toyoda made a statement on the official Weibo on December 15 last year: "Toyota is sometimes thought to be not positive enough towards pure electric vehicles, and we will speed up our efforts on BEV vehicles." It is estimated that by 2030, the introduction of 30 BEV models, BEV global annual sales plan to reach 3.5 million.

In addition to developing electric cars with Subaru and Dafa, Toyota will also jointly develop electric vehicles with BYD. Toyota will launch a small and medium-sized electric car in China next year, which will use BYD lithium iron phosphate blades, according to Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter. According to related sources, the electric car will appear in the form of a concept car at next year's Beijing auto show, and then it will be launched in the Chinese market as the second model of Toyota's bZ pure electric car series. This car will be slightly larger than the Toyota Corolla.

In fact, it is not surprising that Toyota has jointly developed electric cars with Subaru and Dafa, or with BYD. In February 2020, Subaru's main shareholder and Toyota Motor, the largest external shareholder, reached an agreement to increase Toyota's stake in Subaru from 16.8% to 20%. Since then, Subaru has been transformed into an equity company of Toyota, and Subaru's profit and loss results will be included in Toyota's subsequent financial results. Dafa is also part of the Toyota Group, which was acquired by Toyota in 1998. As for BYD, Toyota formed a joint venture with BYD in 2020, and the joint production of electric cars is also expected.

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