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In December, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda made a sensational decision to launch 15 electric cars on the platform and announce a decade-long electric car plan. As for Akio Toyoda's approach, the auto industry is concerned that it is mainly the trend of the times, Toyota can only launch a large number of electric cars to follow the trend of the times.

Before that, Mr. Toyoda had always been hesitant about the "electrified transformation". As early as 2020, Mr. Toyoda publicly attacked pure electric cars as over-hyped, claiming that electric cars would stifle companies and require huge investments and emit more carbon dioxide. In his view, "pure electric is not the only way out for the automotive industry." as long as it can save energy and reduce emissions, hybrid should also be advocated. A hasty transition to pure electric vehicles will weaken Japan's industrial base and advocate that countries should formulate practical and sustainable carbon emissions solutions according to their national conditions. if a radical policy such as pure electric vehicles is fully adopted, it may lead to large-scale unemployment of workers and detrimental to Japan's exports. In August, a Toyota executive pointed out that pure trams were immature, saying: "while you may want to talk about electric cars, the market is not mature enough." It also points out that the promotion of all-electric vehicles still faces obstacles, and Toyota plans to continue to focus on hybrids and plug-in hybrids in the near future, because these models are more attractive to the mass market.

However, only a year or so after Toyoda laid out the electric car, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda came to "bombard" the electric car again. Akio Toyoda said in an interview in Thailand that he was one of the "silent majority" in the auto industry who were suspicious of pursuing only pure electric vehicles, according to the Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, Akio Toyoda made the remarks during his cooperation with Thai companies. "people involved in the auto industry are basically silent majority, and these silent majority are thinking," is it really possible to pursue electric cars in a desperate way? But they also feel that this is the trend of the times, so they cannot say it out loud. "

Of course, there is a reason why Akio Toyoda, who has always advocated hybrid cars and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, is not optimistic about the development of pure electric vehicles. On the road of electrified transformation, Toyota not only has a slow layout, but also has a bad start. Take Toyota's first pure electric vehicle bZ4X as an example. In the domestic market, bZ4X is made by FAW Toyota and Guangzhou Automobile Toyota. Both sides announced the pre-sale price of the model on April 28. According to the plan, the car was originally scheduled to be officially launched on June 17 this year. However, after warming up the bZ4X model with great fanfare for more than two months, two hours before the final price was about to be announced, the brand suddenly announced that the press conference would be suspended. The official explanation is: "the supply chain is uncertain, in order to ensure the interests of users, delay the release of prices, is currently working on a more consumer-friendly price."

Until October 10, Guangzhou Auto Toyota bZ4X officially launched, a total of five new models, the price range of 19.98-287800 yuan, power to provide front-drive and four-wheel drive two forms of power. Prior to this, as a global model, Toyota also recalled the bZ4X around the world. Sales of bZ4X are also mediocre in the domestic market, with FAW Toyota and Guangzhou Auto Toyota delivering 499 and 137 bZ4X models respectively in November, according to FIFA data.

At present, Toyota's second bZ series model, the bZ3, has been put on pre-sale. A total of three models have been launched with a pre-sale price range of 18.98-219800 yuan. Unlike the first model, bZ4X, the bZ3 is only produced and sold by FAW Toyota, while Guangzhou Auto Toyota does not participate in production.

At present, the transformation from traditional fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles is a change that the automotive industry is experiencing. Up to now, a number of car companies around the world have clearly stopped selling fuel vehicles. Although Japanese car companies are also actively planning the new energy vehicle market, no matter in terms of investment or product landing, Japanese car companies are still slow in electrification transformation.

At present, the only electric models launched by Japanese car companies in China are Xuanyi Pure Electric models, Mazda CX-30 EV, Guangzhou Automobile Toyota iA5, Guangzhou Automobile Honda e:NP1, Guangzhou Automobile Honda EA6, Lexus UX300e, Guangzhou Automobile Toyota C-HR EV, Dongfeng Honda e:NS1, Guangzhou Automobile Toyota bZ4X and Dongfeng Nissan Ariya products, among which Honda eREX N, Toyota bZ4X and Nissan Aliya pure tram products were launched in 2022, but the product performance is mediocre.

Take Honda as an example, Honda's pure electric vehicles listed in China include e:NS1/e:NP1, in which Dongfeng Honda e:NS1 was officially listed on April 26, and Guangzhou Auto Honda e:NP1 1 was officially launched on June 20. The subsidized price range of both models is 17.5-218000 yuan. Dongfeng Honda sold 714 e:NS1 vehicles in November, while Guangzhou Auto Honda e:NP1 surged to 811 vehicles, according to the Federation of passengers. Similarly, Nissan's joint venture in China, Dongfeng Nissan, launched a new model, the Ariya, with a price range of 27.28 yuan to 342800 yuan and a low sense of presence in the market, delivering only 387 vehicles in November.

Under the background that all major car companies are betting heavily on pure electric vehicles, the hesitant attitude of Toyota, Honda or other Japanese car companies towards electrification is bound to affect the performance of follow-up car companies in the domestic market. at present, the sales of Japanese car companies in the new energy vehicle market are still not optimistic.

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