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A few days ago, auto blogger @ Sun Shaojun 09 posted on Weibo that FAW-Toyota sales headquarters will be moved from Beijing to Tianjin factory, and its personnel will face substantial adjustment and optimization.

FAW Toyota has not responded to this news for the time being.

FAW Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "FAW Toyota") was established in June 2002, headquartered in Tianjin, is Toyota's first joint venture manufacturer in China, with complete vehicle manufacturing plants in Sichuan, Tianjin and Changchun respectively. According to this calculation, Toyota has been home-made for more than 20 years. FAW Toyota Motor sales Co., Ltd. was established in September 2003, headquartered in Haidian District, Beijing, with branches in Beijing, Tianjin, Changchun, Chengdu, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

In the past two years, as China's automobile market has entered the new energy era, joint venture brands famous for their high value preservation rate are difficult to sell. FAW Toyota, as one of Toyota's joint ventures, has also begun to experience sales pressure. In November 2023, FAW Toyota sent a letter to dealers saying that in order to improve the inventory and financial pressure of dealers, it would reduce factory production from December 2023 to February 2024 to help dealers ease inventory and financial pressure by reducing production.

FAW Toyota's annual retail sales of 802000 vehicles in 2023, an increase of 0.3% over the same period last year, is still one of the top 10 passenger car companies in China, according to FIFA data. It is understood that the management set the sales target of FAW Toyota at 1.02 million vehicles in 2023, but the actual gap is still 200000 vehicles, only 79% of the target, while FAW Toyota has vehicle manufacturing plants in Chengdu, Changchun and Tianjin, with a total annual production capacity of more than 1.2 million vehicles. Capacity utilization is less than 70% in 2023.

After entering 2024, with the Chinese new energy automobile manufacturers led by BYD attacking the joint venture, the price of Qin PLUS and destroyer 05 is as low as 79800 yuan, and the price of Qin L and Seal 06 is as low as 99800 yuan. The market share of the joint venture brand continues to be eroded, especially Japanese brands. From January to May 2024, the share of Japanese brands in China's auto market fell to 15.0%, compared with 17.0% in 2023, and that of German brands fell to 19.6%, compared with 20.4% in 2023, 6.7% in the United States, 1.4% in Korea and 0.3% in France, according to FIFA data.

FAW-Toyota retail sales of 248900 vehicles from January to May 2024 have fallen out of the top 10 of China's passenger car companies, compared with 297500 in the same period, down 16.3% from the same period last year, according to the Federation of passengers. FAW-Toyota delivered 73500 vehicles in June, the highest monthly sales performance of the year, according to official figures, and its cumulative sales in the first half of the year were 322400, down 12.5 per cent from the same period in 2023.

FAW Toyota sales have rebounded, or has a lot to do with terminal offers. On June 13, FAW Toyota's new Corolla Ruifang officially went on the market, with an official guidance price of 1298 yuan to 1848 yuan. On June 18, FAW Toyota held a 24-hour "618 special sale", mainly aimed at two models, namely the Carola and the Carola Ruifang. The Carola is the cheapest car of FAW Toyota, and the Carola Ruifang is the cheapest SUV of FAW Toyota. The starting price of the Carola is reduced to 79800, which is sold together with the BYD Qin PLUS DM-i and the destroyer 05, while the Carola Ruifang starts at 99800 yuan. It coincides with the starting prices of Biadiqin L DM-i and Seal 06 DM-i.

At the same time, under the wave of intelligence and electrification, the new energy transformation and development of FAW Toyota is facing challenges. In fact, Toyota has been in the field of electrification for a long time, developing lithium-ion batteries in 2003 and setting up a battery research department in 2008 to study next-generation batteries such as all-solid-state batteries. In March 2023, FAW Toyota launched the bZ3, the first car in the bZ series of pure electric vehicles, based on the e-TNGA platform. It is the first car that BYD and Toyota jointly launched, designed by Toyota China and FAW Toyota. BYD provides three electric technology, including motors and batteries carried by BYD. It sold 25923 cars in 2023 and 19711 cars in January-May 2024, which is still a long way from the mainstream medium-sized pure electric cars.

At a time when new energy vehicles occupy more and more market share, FAW Toyota should keep up with the pace of the times, speed up the transformation of electric vehicles, and think about how to occupy a place in the electric era. Perhaps, the relocation of sales headquarters to Tianjin is also to better sell cars and maintain market share.

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