Since toyota imported hybrid vehicles into china in 2005, mixed power has played a high-end role for a considerable period of time. In terms of prices, even in the entry-level prius, pricing is comparable to that of a higher level of conventional power vehicles; in the case of lexus, which is fully mixed power, hybrid power is the largest selling point of any competition。
The problem is that, in past cases, consumers are particularly sensitive to the premium portion of hybrid power when awareness of energy conservation is far below japan and the united states. A further drop in the ranks is most critical if mixing is to be universal。
The head of the toyota public ministry informed the writer that, in conclusion, three important reasons for the spread of hybrid power in japan are: lower costs, policy subsidies and post-sales support. In particular, the cost, as early as two years ago, when toyota zhang pledged to achieve the core power technology production in china, had come to realize that cost competition would be crucial。
As public awareness of environmental protection and energy efficiency increases, awareness and recognition of hybrid power increases significantly. As a result, prices became the “last kilometre” before hybrid power spreads。
That's exactly what toyota invested in building the tmec in china。
Founded in 2010, toyota's china research and development centre, which invests up to rmb 5 billion, is the largest overseas r & d project for toyota automobiles. From staffing to funding, the tmec has in fact become the “project one” in toyota china in recent years, with a great deal of effort and careful planning, with few tncs. Unlike other r & d centres, tec has been targeted since its inception and is a research and development centre dedicated to research and development related to toyota mixed power technologies。
This attention is due to the realization that the high cost has become a major obstacle to the civilianization of hybrid power. It is only through the ttec that mixed power is produced locally, thus facilitating the last kilometre of mixing diffusion。
Before that, toyota's hybrid model did not have an advantage in terms of price, but with the succession of r & d centres, speedbox plants and battery plants, toyota had the capacity to introduce hybrid models with more similar conventional vehicle prices。
In line with toyota's plan, after the final inauguration of the tmec in 2015, it will launch two joint-venture companies each with the combined power of mixed national production, carola and leong。
There is no doubt that it is now the sprinting phase of mixed domestic power. Shinichi matsumoto, deputy director-general of toyota motors research and development centre, informed the author that nationally produced hybrid power components would be procured from some 70 local suppliers, including the china-japan joint venture and competitive chinese suppliers, and would help to advance localization at low cost。
Toyota has high hopes for the two brand-new hybrid vehicles to be launched at the shanghai express. According to the source, the first national product would be a set of 1. 5-l hybrids. Although no clear information is available, based on toyota mixing practices, its power performance will be comparable to that of 2. 0 l natural inhaling or 1. 5 t-turbation。
Unlike all the hybrid vehicles that have been dropped in the past, the mixed-powered carola and reggins play a role that is no longer just a windmark, but will become the main players in the market. Within toyota, it is expected that the combined hybrid carolla and leyling will sell up to 5,000 units per month. Once this scale is reached, the age of commingling universality will come。
This is just the beginning, and the tmec is like a power source that will continue to provide toyota china with a follow-on hybrid power. As previously disclosed, toyota is covering hybrid power technology in japan, and whether the same approach will be followed in the future on the chinese market, depending on the situation, although it is certain that toyota will increase the amount of hybrid power for more chinese vehicles。
In the short 15 years between 1997 and 2013, the combined power market in japan has reached 43 per cent, and the type of car has risen from zero to 20, according to toyota's path to hybrid power. In 2013, a total of approximately 1. 28 million toyota hybrid vehicles were sold in 80 countries and territories worldwide。
With regard to new energy vehicles, another “misperception” that toyota cars expect to reverse to the outside world is that it not only has hybrid power, but in fact, from hybrid hev, to plug-in hybrid power phev and pure electric ev, as well as to the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, all four technologies, toyota, are simultaneously operating and advancing. In particular, the state-of-the-art hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, toyota has introduced a first-volume model。
Indeed, mixed power or electric vehicles are not the ultimate solution to toyota's ideal new energy vehicles. In toyota's view, point-to-point movement within 100 kilometres of cities can develop pure electric power, but considering the convenience of long-distance use, or fuel cell vehicles fcv, toyota is confident that the fcv's extension miles will be no different from traditional cars。
The toyota fuel cell car (fcv) “mirai” has been produced and put on the market at a time when there is still a dispute over the domestic hotbed that is a new energy vehicle. It is understood that the fcv can continue to operate at a distance of about 700 km and that the time required for hydrogen recharge is only three minutes, which is essentially the same as that for petrol trucks. More attractive is the fact that only water resulting from the chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen is released by the fcv during its journey. Moreover, the price of the new car is not prohibitively high, and the price of the mirai 7 million yen (approximately 420,000 yen) is much lower than that of tesla。
But electric cars, fcvs, and toyota technologists told me that the core technology for new energy cars is hybrid power。
“there are absolutely no shortcuts to the development of new energy technologies”, the father of prius and the chairman of the toyota automotive, takeshi hitoyama, described earlier to the author that the common denominator, whether electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids or hybrids, is that batteries, electric motors and reversers are essential components。
From 1997 to the present, toyota mixed-powered vehicles have been sold in excess of 7 million vehicles on a global scale, and there has been no incident such as a battery fire, from which the maturity of the hybrid power can be seen. Ineyama explained that, based on toyota's hybrid power system, the battery capacity was expanded to remove engines and fuel tanks and became a pure electric vehicle; a slight expansion of the battery capacity was accompanied by the addition of an external chargeable device, which was a chargeable hybrid power。
It was also revealed that, after maximizing the development of local hybrid power technology, the ttec was using the mix technology “resilient” traditional vehicles. He said that the engines being developed in china were achieving 20 per cent fuel savings by drawing on generic components of hybrid power technologies, while achieving the desired acceleration performance。
New energy vehicle solutions that appear to have different orientations, and the fact that the core technology in toyota appears to come from the same source, both aggressive and sustainable, also makes toyota's hybrid power more attractive。
Responsible editor: zhang dei
