Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1752
After waiting for a long time, Toyota Motor finally handed over the “certificate of voting” for electrification.
On June 8, Toyota held a technical briefing on the theme of “changing the future of automobiles”, announcing the progress of the group’s electrification. Toyota emphasized two core points of its future electrification strategy: globalization and diversification.
In terms of diversification, Toyota announced the establishment of two organizations, BEV Factory and Hydrogen Factory, and plans to release pure electric vehicles developed by BEV Factory in 2026, and achieve global sales of 3.5 million electric vehicles by 2030; in July, Toyota will establish a hydrogen factory , to carry out localized R&D and production for the European and Chinese markets, and at the same time develop the next-generation hydrogen fuel cell technology and zero-carbon fuel cell power system.
In terms of globalization, in order to meet the needs of different markets, Toyota will not abandon fuel vehicles while promoting electrification. It maintains the diversity of models from multiple latitudes such as model, displacement, and price, and further improves the global product matrix.
In the past few years, the electrification process in the Chinese market has continued to accelerate. With the continuous increase of new forces, established car companies such as Toyota are considered to be very stubborn in their attitude towards electrification, and even lag behind in the electrification process.
At this press conference, Toyota corrected the previous misunderstanding of the market. Toyota’s research on battery technology and hydrogen energy actually started 30 years ago, and is currently far ahead of most manufacturers in the number of patents. Regarding the determination of electrification, Toyota, as a global company, aims to contribute to global carbon neutrality. Under this premise, Toyota has done a lot of research on various emission reduction technologies.
Today, Toyota, which has achieved long-term accumulation, has finally come up with its own report card, followed by comprehensive reforms in technology, products, and markets.
Hiroki Nakajima, Vice President and CTO of Toyota Motor Corporation
The path to carbon neutrality is not only pure electricity
In the process of electrification, established car companies are more cautious because they have to take into account the development of the original models and grasp the pace of reform.
But caution does not mean backwardness. Toyota, which has been misunderstood as a “backward student” in electrification, actually began preparations for electrification as early as 1997.
In 1997, the gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle PRIUS was launched, and once became the sales leader in the hybrid industry. In 2005, the first batch of domestically produced Prius rolled off the production line in Changchun; in January 2006, the second-generation Prius began to be sold in China. In the first quarter of that year, the global sales volume of Prius exceeded 600,000. Until the cessation of production in 2011, the second-generation Prius was sold in more than 40 countries and regions around the world, with a total of 1.192 million units sold. At the end of 2011, the third generation of Prius was put into production, and by 2013, the global sales had exceeded 3 million.
Since then, Toyota has further revised the Prius. The “Prius PHEV” launched in 2012 greatly extended the driving distance in EV mode, and released the second-generation “Prius PHEV” in 2017.
And Toyota’s electrification system does not stop at Prius. In 2014, the world’s first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicle FCEV – “Future MIRAI” was successively launched in Japan, the United States, Europe and Canada. According to the official website of GAC Toyota, MIRIA has been sold in China, and hydrogen refueling stations have been established in Guangzhou and Beijing.
In terms of pure electric vehicles, Toyota has launched C-HREV, GAC bZ4X, Lexus UX300e and other models. This year, Toyota has further accelerated the deployment of pure electric vehicles, and established the BEV Factory in May. The first product of Toyota’s next-generation BEV developed by the BEV Factory will be launched in 2026. Toyota’s goal is to achieve global sales of 3.5 million BEVs and 1.7 million next-generation BEVs in 2030.
According to Tesla’s financial report, Tesla will deliver only 1.31 million vehicles worldwide in 2022. It took Tesla 14 years to achieve this figure. Toyota’s goal is to achieve 1.3 times the delivery of Tesla in four years from 2026 to 2030.
What Toyota is pursuing is not only the exploration of pure electric paths, but also the optimal solution to popularize electrification. When carbon neutrality becomes the ultimate goal, electrification is just a means, not necessarily the only path at this stage.
The China Automotive Technology and Research Center once evaluated the carbon emissions of 14 vehicles in the “China Automotive Low-Carbon Action Plan Research Report”, including 7 pure electric vehicles, 1 hybrid vehicle, and 6 gasoline vehicles. For power vehicles, the life cycle carbon emission reduction ratio of Toyota Camry Shuangqing is 42% lower than that of vehicles of the same level, which is better than the performance of 7 pure electric vehicles and 6 fuel vehicles including Tesla Model 3 in the report.
In addition, the pure electric path based on lithium batteries will inevitably face problems such as battery recycling and disposal. Therefore, Toyota did not put all the “eggs” in the “basket” of pure electric, but took care of other Under this circumstance, the comprehensive electrification strategy of “electric hybrid, plug-in hybrid, pure electric, and hydrogen electric” will be practiced.
Toyota’s comprehensive electrification development is not on paper. Since 1992, Toyota has started the research and development of hydrogen energy technology. Now Toyota has more than 5,000 hydrogen fuel cell patents. Today’s second-generation MIRAI has achieved a range of 800 kilometers in 3 minutes of hydrogenation. The next-generation hydrogen fuel cell, which is planned to be put into practical application in 2026, can generate 1.3 times the power of the existing battery cell, and the cruising range can be increased by 20%, close to 1,000 kilometers.
Toyota’s goal is to sell 3.5 million new energy vehicles in 2030.
The confidence to be the “king of rolls”
This time, Toyota has further accelerated the pace of pure electric power, and its confidence comes from its breakthrough in battery technology.
As we all know, fuel vehicles share engines, and new energy vehicles share batteries. The cost of batteries basically accounts for 30-50% of the production cost of new energy vehicles. Therefore, how to develop batteries with higher density, high energy storage and low cost has become a must-answer question for various manufacturers. In addition to cooperating with leading battery manufacturers such as Ningde Times, new forces have also started self-research.
The seemingly quiet Toyota is speeding up and overtaking on a curve.
On July 5, Toyota announced a major breakthrough in solid-state battery research, saying that it has simplified the production process of materials used in solid-state batteries, and can significantly shorten car charging time and increase cruising range. After improving the energy density of the battery, the cruising range can be doubled to 1000 kilometers, and the cost can be reduced by 20% while achieving the goal of fast charging in less than 20 minutes.
Next, Toyota will equip all-solid-state batteries on BEV models, which are expected to be put into use in 2027-2028.
Solid-state batteries have been a hot topic for new energy vehicles in recent years. What are the advantages and difficulties of solid-state batteries? How can Toyota’s research and development breakthrough have such a great significance?
The advantages of solid-state batteries are: high density, lighter and thinner, and high stability.
At present, the energy density of Kirin batteries in Ningde era is about 255 Wh/kg, which is already the current benchmark level of ternary lithium batteries, while the energy density of solid-state batteries can reach 500 Wh/kg. At the same time, since the metal lithium in the solid-state battery can be directly used as the negative electrode, it not only has better performance than the traditional graphite negative electrode, but also does not require structures such as separators, which can make the battery lighter and thinner.
After the news of many spontaneous combustion of electric vehicles, the stability of batteries has also become the focus of consumers’ attention. In this regard, because the electrolytes of solid-state batteries are basically polymers and oxides, they are more resistant to high temperature and corrosion, and there is basically no risk of spontaneous combustion.
The solid-state battery, which has great advantages, also has its breakthrough difficulties, such as high cost and difficult mass production, so there are no manufacturers to promote the listing. This time, Toyota announced that it has developed a method to improve battery durability, and will achieve mass production in the next 4-5 years. top student.
In order to further actively transfer the company’s resources to research and development in advanced fields, Toyota established the “internal company system” in 2016. As of March 2023, the personnel invested in advanced technology development accounted for more than half of the overall development personnel. R&D expenses have increased from 1.04 trillion yen in fiscal year 2016 to 1.24 trillion yen in fiscal year 2022, and the proportion of expenses invested in advanced technology research and development has also increased from 24% in fiscal year 2016 to 45% in fiscal year 2022.
In return for the investment of time and energy, Toyota has more than 1,300 patents in the field of solid-state batteries, ranking first in the world.
Toyota’s self-developed solid-state battery
the future is coming
Toyota’s reform is not only an “engineer-style reform” at the R&D level, but also a true chapter with a global perspective and a focus on practice.
According to Toyota’s financial report, Toyota’s cumulative global sales in fiscal year 2022 will be 9.6098 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 1.03%, setting a record high. From a regional perspective, Toyota achieved sales growth in Japan, North America, Europe, and Asia.
As a global car company, Toyota cannot only consider one market in its electrification strategy, but also consider the acceptance of different models in the global market and the pace of electrification penetration.
Deloitte Group’s survey report last year showed that 70% of respondents in the United States still choose to buy fuel vehicles, about 50% in Germany choose fuel vehicles, and 40% in Japan. Therefore, in the reform of electrification, insisting on diversity is still an important tone of Toyota’s globalization strategy.
In the last fiscal year, Toyota has already started the process of energy diversification. The annual sales of pure electric vehicles reached 24,466, the sales of plug-in hybrids were 90,346, and the sales of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were 3,924.
In terms of product planning, Toyota has always insisted on diversity. At the model level, it covers miniature, small, compact, medium, medium and large, and luxury cars, as well as sedans, SUVs, MPVs, sports cars, pickups, and minivans; in terms of displacement, there are 1.2L, 1.3L, 1.5L, 1.8L, 2.0L, 2.5L, 3.5L, 4.0L, 5.0L, various displacement options.
In terms of market, Toyota also formulates different strategies according to the needs of different markets. In the Chinese market with the fastest electrification process, GAC Toyota, as a joint venture car company between Toyota Group and GAC, has become the first entry point for Toyota to further realize electrification in the Chinese market.
In terms of models, GAC Toyota has introduced a variety of new energy models. In 2023, GAC Toyota released and upgraded 12 smart electric hybrid dual-engine models, and completed the smart electric hybridization of all TNGA models; on the pure electric side, GAC Toyota also unveiled the bZ FlexSpace Concept at this year’s Shanghai Auto Show, further Expansion of bZ series models.
In terms of energy, GAC Toyota took the lead in introducing the second-generation MIRAI, and started the country’s first hydrogen fuel cell car demonstration operation “Nansha Hydrogen Run” public travel service.
In terms of production, GAC Toyota has Toyota’s most concentrated and advanced new energy vehicle factory in the world. Last year, the second phase of GAC Toyota’s new energy vehicle capacity expansion project (fifth production line) was officially put into operation. This is Toyota Group’s first carbon-neutral plant, which can contribute 200,000 new energy vehicles per year, laying the foundation for the introduction of electrified models. A solid production base has been established.
In terms of technology, in the past, the sales volume and reputation of GAC Toyota’s hybrid models were top in the industry; in the future, GAC Toyota will further integrate Toyota’s cutting-edge electrification technology, and cooperate with Toyota’s globalization strategy, focusing on developing pure electric vehicles in the Chinese market. And it plans to achieve the goal of increasing sales of electrified models by 60% in 2025. By 2035, GAC Toyota is expected to achieve 100% pure electrification.
In the era of electrification transformation, the transformation of traditional car companies is always misunderstood as “a big ship turning around”, but people often ignore that these “big ships” have stronger cash flow, influence, R&D capabilities and cohesion. As a benchmark company of traditional car companies, Toyota’s reform has already started, and it is ambitiously approaching its new market.
Title map source: Toyota Motor Corporation official website
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