When it comes to learning, you can never underestimate Japanese manufacturers.
Author | Zhou Yongliang
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Editor | Jingyu
Did Toyota sell its “soul” to Huawei?
In 2021, SAIC Chairman Chen Hong once said, “The cooperation with Huawei (autonomous driving) has made Huawei the soul and SAIC the body. SAIC cannot accept such a result because it wants to hold the 'soul' within itself in hand.”
Every time a car company cooperates with Huawei, the “soul theory” will be mentioned again. This time it is Toyota, the world's largest car company and one that has been criticized for its slow transition to new energy sources.
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Recently, according to car blogger Sun Shaojun 09, car fans have confirmed that one of the three Japanese aunts will participate in Huawei Smart Driving. Subsequently, Tencent News “First Line” reported,Toyota's smart driving solution for global models will adopt the “Toyota + Huawei + Momenta” tripartite joint solution model.
The news sparked speculation and discussion. Although the current rumors have not received responses from Toyota and Huawei, people familiar with the matter revealed that Toyota is expected to officially announce specific plans during the Beijing Auto Show.
This collaboration has attracted widespread attention, two of which are:Why would Toyota join forces with Huawei?Has Toyota really handed over its “soul” to Huawei??
01.Toyota “joins forces” with Huawei
According to Tencent’s first-line report, the smart driving solution jointly developed by Toyota and Huawei is different from Huawei’s existing ADS high-end assisted driving solution. Toyota selected Momenta and Huawei to provide software and hardware solutions respectively, and integrated the solution model through in-depth three-party cooperation.
This means that Toyota does not hand over its core “soul” to Huawei, but chooses the hardware solutions provided by Huawei.the software algorithm part is still provided by Toyota's partner Momenta.
It is understood that there are three cooperation models between Huawei and car companies, namely parts supply model, HI model (Huawei Inside) and smart car selection model (Huawei Inside).HongmengZhixing). Judging from this report,The cooperation between Toyota and Huawei focuses more on the supplier model.
At the same time, it is reported that the intelligent driving solution jointly developed by Toyota and Huawei may not only be limited to domestic models, but also cover Toyota's global models. However, according to Xinliu Automobile reports,Currently, Huawei MDC (Mobile Data Center) only involves projects of BYD and Toyota joint ventures.. This cooperation only involves Toyota's projects in China and has nothing to do with overseas models.
It is worth mentioning that BYD Toyota Electric Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd. (“BTET”) was established in 2020. As can be seen from the name, it is a joint venture between BYD and Toyota. Both parties will each invest 50% to jointly develop smart electric products that are more suitable for the Chinese market. Currently, their first pure electric product bZ3 has been put into mass production, and a second cooperative model will be put into mass production this year.
In fact, Toyota and this partner have long been old friends. Previously,Toyota and Huawei have already cooperated in the field of smart cockpits. For example, the car-machine system of the new 9th generation Camry was jointly built by GAC Toyota and Huawei, and the entire series comes standard with Huawei HiCar.significantly improving operational fluency.
The cooperation between Toyota and Momenta has been going on for some time. As early as March 2020, the two parties reached a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly promote the commercial application of Toyota's automated map platform in China. In March 2021, Momenta announced that it had completed US$500 million in financing, and Toyota was one of the strategic investors, further deepening the partnership between the two parties.
Toyota chose to cooperate with Huawei and Momenta not only because of the challenges faced by the Chinese market, but also to accelerate its own changes. Although Toyota still maintains its No. 1 sales position in the world, it faces pressure from competing products in the Chinese market.
In 2023, Toyota's sales in China fell by 1.7%, and in the first three months of 2024, GAC Toyota's sales fell by 29%. This market decline has forced Toyota to accelerate changes.
In addition, Toyota's transformation in the new energy field is relatively slow, especially in terms of intelligence, which is insufficient compared with domestic models. This makes Toyota face increasingly fierce competitive pressure in the Chinese market. Faced with competition from Chinese new energy vehicle companies, joint venture brands such as Toyota have gradually lost market share, and sales are also facing risks. In 2023, of Toyota's global sales of more than 11 million vehicles, the sales of pure electric vehicles will be only 104,000.
BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu bluntly stated at a recent performance communication meeting that the current new energy industry has entered the knockout stage. The accelerated launch of new energy products by Chinese car companies will erode the market share of joint venture brands.
In the next 3 to 5 years,The market share of joint venture brands is expected to drop from 40% to 10%.
There is not much time and space left for joint venture car companies.
02.The gameplay has changed
People have complex and subtle attitudes towards Toyota's new energy transformation: On the one hand, Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda has frequently stated that pure electric vehicles are over-hyped, implying that they are not the best choice; on the other hand, according to the plan, Toyota will It will launch 10 new pure electric models by 2026 and plans to achieve annual global electric vehicle sales of 1.5 million units by 2026.
Regarding Toyota's cooperation with Huawei, many people interpret it as Toyota's “bowing down” or “surrendering.” However,The significance of this cooperation goes far beyond that. It reflects major changes in the R&D model of international car companies..
In the era of fuel vehicles, Toyota's strategy in the Chinese market was mainly to take global models, slightly modify them and adapt them before selling them. To put it simply, the foreign party leads product planning and research and development, while the Chinese party is responsible for channels and sales.
But now the market has changed. As the automotive industry transitions to new energy sources, the Chinese market is changing much faster than other markets, and the market structure is also being reshaped. Toyota hopes to leverage China's leading advantages in electrification and intelligence to lead its global development. this means,The Chinese market will lead product definition and the development of smart electric technology, while foreign parties will be responsible for branding and mechanical hardware development.
At the end of July 2023, Toyota China announced a major news: it will rename its R&D center to “Toyota Intelligent Electric Vehicle R&D Center (China) Co., Ltd.”, referred to as “IEM by TOYOTA”. Although this change seems to be just a name adjustment, it actually marks a major transformation of Toyota's R&D strategy in China.
In this major strategic adjustment, R&D engineers from Toyota's three major joint ventures – FAW Toyota, GAC Toyota, and BYD Toyota will gather together to participate in the R&D project led by “IEM by TOYOTA”. In the past, Toyota's joint ventures with FAW and GAC had their own R&D centers and worked independently.
At the same time, suppliers such as Denso Corporation and Aisin Corporation will also participate in R&D activities for electrified powertrains. In the past, Toyota's working model with Denso and Aisin was that Toyota made a request and Denso and Aisin produced products for Toyota as first-tier suppliers.
In addition, Toyota also remains open to partners’ smart cockpit and autonomous driving technologies, and is accelerating local autonomous driving research and development in China. In August last year, Toyota China, GAC Toyota and Pony.ai deepened their cooperation and planned to establish a joint venture related to autonomous taxis (Robotaxi) to promote the mass production of L4 autonomous driving pre-assembled vehicles. According to the latest news, the bZ4X ROBOTAXI version jointly launched by Toyota and Pony.ai will be unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show.
In addition to more thorough localized product research and development, Toyota also hopes to achieve risk sharing and win-win cooperation by building a strong cooperative “circle of friends” with regional operations as the core. Toyota China's recent cooperation with China Minmetals Corporation is a vivid reflection of this strategy. The two parties cooperate in the echelon utilization and resource recycling business of vehicle power batteries.
This new R&D model has been applied in some models, such as Toyota bZ3. The development of this car is the result of cross-border cooperation between Toyota, BYD Toyota and FAW Toyota, which reflects the respective technological and resource advantages of the three parties. This three-in-one co-creation model not only accelerates the product research and development process, but also means the comprehensive integration of the entire industry chain from research and development to production.
Similar changes have also occurred in other international car companies. In order to make up for their own shortcomings in smart electric technology, they have chosen to cooperate directly with domestic car companies.
For example, Volkswagen invested in Xpeng Motors, and the two parties jointly developed electric models suitable for the Chinese market; Stellantis Group acquired part of the equity of Leap Motors; recently, Audi announced that it will equip the domestic high-end pure electric car Q6 e-tron with lidar and Use the full set of Huawei smart driving solutions.
Toyota and other international car companies have realized that the transition from traditional fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles is not only a change in power form, but also a comprehensive change in business models. This change involves not only suppliers, but also the entire production and sales process.
Traditional business models may not be suitable for the structural changes in new energy vehicles. Therefore, for Toyota,Seizing China's new energy market share is no longer the only focus. What is more important is to use the technical environment and resources of the Chinese market to accelerate technology iteration and complete the salvation of electrification and intelligence..