I'll do 798 too! Toyota Corolla is angry, but domestic brands are happy

After the BYD Qin L with a starting price of 99,800 yuan was launched on the market, it caused a huge sensation. FAW Toyota also recently announced that Corolla will have a limited-time promotion with a starting price of 79,800 yuan.

At the same time as the price cut, FAW Toyota’s official Weibo account also launched the advertising slogan “Super BeYonD quality, super BeYonD price”. The first purpose was to prove that Corolla is cheaper than BYD, and the second was to make fun of the ancient homophonic pun of BYD.

This ad copy is obviously thought up by our own people, and is exactly the same as the "Lugouqiao Lion Salutes Toyota Prado" ad back then. It knows exactly where the pain points of our own people are, and then it tries its best to show them to the foreign father. Some of our own people always have such a problem that they are born with, and when they meet the foreign father, they will involuntarily want to be stripped down and become slaves.

The starting price of 79,800 yuan is indeed very low, which is consistent with the starting price of the Qin PLUS Honor Edition. After so many years of development, Japanese cars have finally begun to catch up with mainstream domestic cars in terms of price.

But is that enough?

Let’s first take a look at the performance of the Corolla priced at RMB 79,800 and the BYD Qin PLUS priced at RMB 79,800.

The Corolla, priced at RMB 79,800, has a maximum power of 89 kW and a fuel consumption of 5.41 L per 100 km. It has driving assistance functions such as active braking, lane departure warning, full-speed adaptive cruise, lane centering, lane keeping assist, road traffic sign recognition, as well as fabric seats and manual air conditioning.

The Qin PLUS DM-i, priced at RMB 79,800, has a maximum engine power of 81kW and a maximum motor power of 132kW. It has functions such as keyless start, keyless entry, intelligent voice recognition, automatic air conditioning, and rear seat air vents. It has a fuel consumption of 2.17L per 100 kilometers.

In terms of price, the two cars are extremely close, but in terms of technological advancement, they do not seem to be products of the same era.

Relieve sales anxiety by reducing prices. This is the dilemma many manufacturers are facing now. No matter how much Akio Toyoda denies electric vehicles, the era of fuel vehicles will be irreversibly gone. However, in the field of new energy, Toyota is unlikely to come up with models that can compete with domestic cars in the short term, except for the two verification code models in the domestic market. If they want to make some noise, they still have to rely on fuel vehicles.

The problem is that the noise that fuel vehicles can make is getting smaller and smaller.

As we all know, the performance of fuel vehicles is unlikely to improve significantly. The new 2.0T engine has not improved much compared to 5 years ago. This is determined by the physical characteristics of the engine. The performance of fuel engines has already reached its upper limit. No matter how much improvement is made, it is just a minor repair. Defeating domestic new energy vehicles with more powerful fuel vehicles first violates the law of conservation of energy.

There is only one option left for joint venture manufacturers like Toyota: lower prices.

But the problem is that price cuts are also divided into different levels. The price cuts of domestic brands are based on technology upgrades and scale expansion, while the price cuts of joint ventures are always at their own expense, which is obviously unsustainable.

When the technology starts to lag behind by one generation, the price cuts by joint ventures are like drinking poison to quench thirst. Their products originally had a high brand premium, but after the price cuts, the premium disappeared, and the brand halo was gone. Once the brand halo is lost, if it is all about product performance, joint venture models have been unable to compete with domestic cars about three years ago.

The rise of domestically produced new energy vehicle models has dealt a fatal blow to joint venture manufacturers.

They can't defend their fuel vehicle base, and they can't promote new energy vehicles, and they can't afford price wars. In the past two years, FAW Toyota's models have been reducing prices, but the more they try, the more sales fall. In May 2024, the share of Japanese cars in China has fallen to 14.8%.

FAW Toyota has lowered the starting price of Corolla to 79,800 yuan, which is a big move. In FAW Toyota's logic, it seems that as long as the price is reduced, sales can be achieved.

This logic is fundamentally wrong. It is no exaggeration to say that in the field of new energy vehicles, FAW Toyota is already in a different dimension from domestic manufacturers. FAW Toyota cannot grasp the present, nor the future. It is a bit overestimating its own capabilities to regard domestic auto brands such as BYD as competitors. What it really should do is to speed up its transformation. Although the Japanese headquarters will certainly not give much support, this is its only chance to survive.

Toyota despises the Chinese market in its heart, otherwise it would not have come up with propaganda plans that are suspected of insulting China. However, facing the condescending mentality of Chinese manufacturers is definitely the enemy of their transformation. In the past, domestic manufacturers would treat a Toyota-obsolete engine as a treasure and disassemble it in all aspects for learning. Do you think that in 2024, Toyota, which is still attacking new energy vehicles, still has such a mentality of leaning down to learn?

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.