AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/06 Report--

On March 6, FAW Toyota's new pure electric medium-sized sedan bZ3 was officially launched, with a total of three models with a price range of 16.98-199800 yuan. The new car, built on the e-TNGA platform, is the first model launched by BYD in cooperation with Toyota, which is designed by Toyota. BYD provides three electricity technology, including BYD's motors and batteries, and it is also Toyota's second bZ series model, which is expected to compete with models such as Changan Deep Blue SL03 (price range 17.19-699900 yuan) when it goes on sale.

In terms of appearance, the new car does not have too many surprises, basically continuing the design style of Toyota bZ series models, but the design is younger and more avant-garde than the bZ4X. In terms of subdivision, the front face of the new car uses a closed air intake grille, both sides are equipped with through-type LED daytime driving lights, and there are several LED light sources in the headlight chamber. The front encirclement adopts the classic three-stage design, the overall design is angular and angular, and has a sense of the future.

On the side of the body, the overall shape of the new car is simple, the lines are smooth and simple, the B and C columns adopt hidden design, the roof creates a suspended style, and the door handle is a very popular hidden door handle design for electric vehicles nowadays, and the wind resistance coefficient is 0.218. And the opening mode is inward folding design, which is very novel. In addition, the position of the rear triangular window of the new car is very back, almost connected to the rear, which can ensure the permeability of the passengers in the back seat. In terms of size, the length, width and height of the new car are 4725/1835/1475mm, wheelbase is 2880mm, positioning medium-sized pure electric car, the overall size is closer to Tesla Model 3. For comparison, the length, width and height of Model 3 are 4694/1850/1443mm and the wheelbase is 2875mm.

In the rear part, the new car taillights also use the popular penetrating lamp group, which has a clear sense of layers, and the internal light source is treated with a special shape. There are a large number of triangular geometric LED light sources on the V-shaped light strips on both sides, which seems to be highly recognizable. The rear bumper is made of black plastic to improve the visual effect of the whole vehicle.

In terms of interior decoration, the new car adopts a new design style, equipped with a 12.3inch suspended central control screen, which can realize the touch operation of air conditioning, audio, windows, trunk and other functions, the steering wheel is the bZ family flat-bottomed steering wheel design style, in addition, the new car steering lights use button design, while the headlights and wipers are similar to the pick design, looks full of science and technology. In terms of seats, the new car is designed with traditional leather seats, with electric adjustment in the front seats and seat heating in the front and rear seats.

In terms of power, the new car is equipped with TZ200-XS002 motors provided by BYD's Fudi, and provides high and low power versions for consumers to choose from, which are 49.92kWh and 65.28kWh, respectively, and the corresponding motor power is 135kW and 180kW. The battery, also from Fudi, is a lithium iron phosphate blade battery with CLTC mileage of 517km and 616km, respectively.

FAW Toyota bZ3 is Toyota's second bZ series model, different from the first model bZ4X, the new car is only produced and sold by FAW Toyota, while Guangzhou Auto Toyota does not participate in production. On October 25, 2022, Toyota officially launched the bZ4X model on the domestic market, which is the first model built by Toyota based on e-TNGA architecture, positioning the medium-sized pure electric SUV, and undertaking the important task of Toyota's transition to electrification, but the car did not go well and was recalled soon due to quality problems and failed to stir up waves in the Chinese auto market.

In the domestic market, the bZ4X models are made by FAW Toyota and Guangzhou Automobile Toyota, two joint ventures of Toyota in China respectively. New car traffic insurance data show that GAC Toyota has sold only more than 2, 000 bZ4X vehicles since its listing. In addition, according to the latest number of passenger associations, Guangzhou Auto Toyota sold 767 bZ4X vehicles in January 2023. FAW Toyota bZ4X sales of 287 vehicles, it should be noted that not long ago Guangzhou Automobile Toyota announced that this model price reduction of 30, 000 yuan, industry analysts said that Guangzhou Automobile Toyota bZ4X listed only a few months on the price reduction, in addition to the impact of Tesla price reduction tide, its poor sales may also be one of the reasons, as for the "price for volume" for the bZ4X car market is effective, to be followed up to see.

Last June, it emerged that Toyota was considering significantly increasing production of its first mass-market electric car from 2025, increasing production of bZ4X models from more than 1000 a month at its Takaoka plant near Toyota headquarters by six or 12 times, while ensuring the supply of parts and components, including semiconductors.

In fact, although Toyota has always adopted a "conservative" strategy in the transformation of electrification, Toyota has also made two major decisions in the past two years to shock the entire industry. the first thing happened in December 2019, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda personally unveiled 15 electric vehicles and announced a decade-long electric vehicle plan, including the Toyota bZ3 model mentioned above. The other is that Toyota announced a series of personnel changes in 2023 to accelerate the electrified transformation. These include the change of head of Toyota Motor. From April 1 this year, Akio Toyoda will step down as president (CEO), and Toyota's chief brand officer and head of the Lexus brand will take over the new position.

Back to the topic of new cars, considering the appearance and price of new cars, the market performance of new cars is expected to outperform bZ4X models (FAW Toyota price range is 19.98-284800), but it is difficult to get popular models of FAW Toyota. Although the new car motors and batteries come from BYD, Toyota actually has very limited technology reserves. Of course, compared with the same class models, FAW Toyota bZ3 is obviously very sincere.

According to Automotive Industry concern, although Toyota has set a huge transformation goal, compared with BYD, which is the first official to stop production of fuel vehicles and has gradually entered the Japanese market, joint venture brands, including FAW Toyota, started relatively late in the field of new energy vehicles. Judging from the current progress of electrified transformation, Toyota is still in a weak position in the layout of electric products. It means that if Toyota wants to catch up, it must speed up the launch of new products. According to Toyota's product plan, Toyota will launch 30 electric vehicles by 2030, when pure tram sales will reach 3.5 million.

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