Costa-southwest opening
When it first entered China, as a Japanese company, Toyota did not show a huge appetite like its European and American counterparts, nor did it launch products quickly-"low-key entry" has always been one of the important characteristics for Japanese companies to expand overseas markets.
Facing the huge China market, Toyota seized a small "segmentation blank" in the luxury commercial vehicle market in China at that time and took the first step cautiously.
1998165438+1October 10, Sichuan Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. was built by the former Sichuan Station Wagon Factory, Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Trading Co., Ltd. with a total investment of 99.09 million US dollars. It is the first car invested and built by Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan outside Japan.
In 2000, the first domestic Costa car rolled off the assembly line. At this time, Sichuan Toyota has four major production processes: stamping, welding, spraying and assembly, and the localization rate of parts has reached over 60%. Less than a year after it was put into production, Toyota in Sichuan produced 2,200 "Costa" buses, with sales reaching more than 2,000, and almost no inventory.
Costa has long occupied the official car market from leaders to provincial and municipal leaders. At that time, Toyota planned to produce 1 10,000 cars in 2005, accounting for 10% of the bus market in China, and expected to achieve sales revenue of 3.25 billion yuan, thus making Chengdu the largest Costa production base in the world. On February 26th, 20001year, Sichuan Toyota announced the first batch of 23 national sales stores integrating sales, service and spare parts supply, which were distributed in provincial capitals and municipalities directly under the central government in North China, South China, Northwest China and Southwest China. By the end of last year, there were 64 stores, and each Toyota store had to complete the sales performance of about 65,438+057 vehicles in order to achieve the sales target of 65,438+00000 Toyota cars.
Costa bus is just the beginning for Toyota, and getting involved in the southwest bus market is Toyota's strategic behavior to further stabilize the southwest market.
Sichuan Toyota adopts the "low price strategy", and the promotion price of Costa bus is only between 250,000 and 270,000, which is nearly 654.38 million+yuan cheaper than the same level of Costa bus used for non-public transportation.
At the end of August, 2002, Costa bus-"City Cruise" went on the market.
In June, 2003, Sichuan Toyota Company launched the COSTA ambulance for the special purpose market.
In addition, Toyota Sichuan also launched the "sky-high" Costa flagship for coastal cities and developed regions with a price of 654.38+0.08 million yuan.
If Costa bus is a pioneer weapon launched by Toyota for the national luxury bus market, then it is a good sword for Toyota to launch low-end city buses, station wagons and other products as soon as possible to occupy the southwest domestic market.
Nowadays, Toyota Costa can be seen everywhere in the domestic market. ...
Second, Northeast China and North China: Win-win for Toyota and FAW
Toyota soon started in southwest China and then deployed in Tianjin, the gateway of Beijing.
On July 12, 2000, Toyota Motor Corporation and Tianjin Li Xia Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Tianjin Automobile Group, jointly invested 10 billion US dollars to establish Tianjin Toyota Motor Corporation.
On June 14, 2002, the reorganization agreement between Tianqi and FAW was formally signed, and this merger made Tianjin a production base for FAW family cars.
Before the joint venture with Toyota, Tianqi Group was an early super-large automobile manufacturer in China and a national planned production base for small-displacement vehicles. However, in the face of the fast-growing economy car market, its market share has been gradually eroded.
By 200 1, Tianjin automobile lost 0.06 yuan per share, and also reported a huge loss in the first quarter of 2002. At this point, as a partner, Toyota Motor Corporation carried out a "squeezing strategy".
FAW Group is a leading enterprise in automobile production in China. Judging from the product distribution at that time, FAW's Audi, Bora and Jetta performed well in all three markets. What was missing was a small family car.
For FAW, the acquisition of Tianjin Automobile can not only improve the product structure, but also make FAW even more powerful in the whole market strategy. We can also promote cooperation with Toyota through the acquisition of Tianjin Automobile, and use Toyota's strong development strength in the field of small cars to change the status quo of relying too much on German Volkswagen.
As a strategic partner of FAW, Toyota naturally has a wider range of sales channels, which also lays the foundation for further capital operation.
What followed was that Chengdu Industrial Investment Management Company, located in the southwest, put forward strategic decision-making suggestions-and cooperated with FAW Group in all directions!
After many contacts, on August 22nd, 2002, FAW Group, Chengdu Municipal People's Government, Chengdu Industrial Investment Company and Sichuan Travel Factory signed the Cooperation Framework Agreement in Changchun Garden Hotel. According to the agreement, Chengdu FAW Automobile Co., Ltd. will be jointly funded by FAW Group and Chengdu Industrial Investment Company, with FAW Group and Chengdu Industrial Investment Company accounting for 80% and 20% of the shares of the new company respectively. FAW Group will import relevant technologies to upgrade the existing Huaxi brand buses.
On August 28th, 2002, at the Great Hall of the People, Zhu Yanfeng, a representative of FAW Group, announced the cooperation strategies between FAW and Toyota, and between Chuanlv and Toyota for the first time to the global media: "Sichuan Toyota, which was originally established by Chuanlv Factory and Toyota of Japan with 50% capital contribution, has now been transformed into a joint venture company with 50% capital contribution from Chengdu FAW Co., Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan. According to the master plan of FAW Group, Chengdu will become one of the three automobile bases of FAW Group (the three bases are Changchun, Tianjin and Chengdu). "
In June 2002, 5438+1October 265438+1October, Chengdu FAW Automobile Co., Ltd., 80% owned by FAW Group and 20% owned by Chengdu Industrial Investment Company, was formally established in Chengdu International Convention and Exhibition Center, with a total investment of about 800 million yuan (including 400 million yuan from Sichuan Station Wagon Factory, 200 million yuan from FAW and nearly 200 million yuan from Chengdu Industrial Investment Company). According to the regulations, foreign automobile manufacturers cannot have more than two joint ventures in China. At that time, Japanese Toyota had two joint ventures in China: Sichuan Toyota and Tianjin Toyota, which cooperated with Sichuan Travel Factory and Tianqi Group respectively. Now, after FAW reorganized Tianqi and Sichuan Travel Factory, Tianjin Toyota and Sichuan Toyota merged into one, becoming a cooperative project between Toyota and FAW. In this way, Toyota naturally frees its hands to find new strategic partners. Jiang, the first general manager of Chengdu FAW, is very familiar with Toyota's operation. He said, "In addition to FAW, Toyota of Japan is the big winner of this reorganization. With the two reorganizations of FAW Group, Toyota's road to joint venture in China suddenly became clear. " Since the establishment of FAW Toyota platform, Toyota has launched several models, such as overbearing, land cruiser, Corolla, VIOS and so on. And products have entered the market one by one, from SUVs to family cars. According to the 2004 semi-annual report of Tianjin FAW Li Xia Automobile Co., Ltd. released recently, the company produced 33,875 Vios series cars and Corolla series cars in the first half of this year, achieving a net profit of 405.46 million yuan. Among them, VIOS produced 179 16 vehicles and sold 18 173 vehicles; Corolla produces 15959 vehicles and sells 14363 vehicles.
Wang said that FAW Toyota now has 65,438+027 sales outlets, and it is estimated that the number of stores will reach 65,438+060 by the end of the year, and this number will be 65,438+090 when Crown goes public in March next year. This is our plan based on careful judgment of the market. One factor that may affect the network construction at present is the limited land resources.
Since the development network of FAW Toyota is strictly inferred, if the market capacity in this area is overloaded, we will stop building stores here. According to the different strength of each dealer, FAW Toyota stipulates that their annual sales volume is about 600~800 vehicles. Now many dealers actually sell beyond this category. The profit of 4S shop is not in the sales part. We estimate that after 3 years, FAW Toyota 4S store can make money by after-sales service.
Wang said at this year's Guangzhou Auto Show that the domestic auto market is changing too fast, and the reason why we don't announce the car price is to consider more competitive prices. Crown plans to go public in March next year and go on sale in April. Compared with competitors, Crown has its own competitive advantages, including brand recognition and new technologies adopted by the models.
It is not convenient to disclose which car it is, but what is certain is that this car is a mid-to high-end car below the crown and above the Camry. It will be produced in the second factory of Tianjin FAW Toyota. In addition, the Prius, another new hybrid car produced by Toyota in China next year, will be produced in the factory of FAW Yue Feng.
With the support of FAW Group, Toyota finally has the local strength base to catch up with Honda, which took the lead in breaking into the China market. The joint efforts of Toyota Motor and Guangzhou Automobile Group have made the Pearl River Delta, a battleground for businesses, more "white-hot".
3. Pearl River Delta: GAC Toyota
As early as last July, Japanese media reported that Toyota and GAC had reached a preliminary cooperation intention to produce Toyota Camry in Guangzhou in 2005. Guangzhou Automobile Group subsequently confirmed the news and said that the cooperation negotiations have been basically completed.
On June 5438+ 10, 2003, it was reported in China that Zhang Fang, chairman of Guangzhou Automobile Group, said that Guangzhou Automobile Group was considering organizing the listing of high-quality assets and striving to complete the listing in the domestic stock market before 2006. There are two purposes of listing: on the one hand, it is to inject funds into the rapidly developing automobile industry; On the other hand, it is to integrate the modern enterprise management mechanism of Guangzhou Automobile Group with the international and market.
In recent years, Guangzhou Automobile Group, which has become a powerful domestic automobile group through joint venture with Honda, has adhered to the road of "saving investment, fast output and rolling development", and its sales revenue and profits have hit record highs. In 2003, Guangzhou Automobile Group has entered the top 50 Guangdong industries, the top 500 national machinery and the top 500 national enterprises.
On February 25th this year, GAC and Toyota took the first step. Guangzhou Automobile Toyota Engine Co., Ltd., with a total investment of 2.2 billion yuan, officially held its establishment and foundation laying ceremony in Nansha Development Zone, Panyu, Guangzhou.
"This is only the engine part of the overall cooperation project between GAC and Toyota." Toyota said at the time.
Guangzhou Automobile Toyota Engine Co., Ltd. has a total investment of 2.2 billion yuan and a registered capital of 65,438+0,654.38+0 billion yuan, with Guangzhou Automobile Group accounting for 30% and Toyota Company accounting for 70%. According to the plan, the joint venture company will be put into production in early 2005. After the base is completed, the annual output of engines will reach 500,000 units, with an output value of about 30 billion yuan. The initial scale of the project is 300,000 units/year, of which 200,000 units are exported.
At that time, some insiders analyzed that after the engine project was approved, the vehicle project should also be approved soon. Because if there is no corresponding vehicle project, after the engine project specially designed for Camry forms production capacity, its domestic sales will not be digested. Even if Toyota lets FAW introduce Camry models, the domestic production capacity of up to 300,000 vehicles will definitely be too much for FAW.
Moreover, after a lapse of three months, Toyota Shipping Co., Ltd. and Toyota Trading Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Toyota Group of Japan, joined hands with Shenzhen Changhang Fenghai Automobile Logistics Co., Ltd. to provide corresponding water transportation logistics services for Toyota. In the industry, this is regarded as one of the prelude to the launch of GAC Toyota vehicle project. Previously, Toyota Shang Tong also set up a similar logistics enterprise in Tianjin.
Moreover, in the process of cooperation between Toyota and GAC, Toyota's supporting enterprises in Japan have followed suit, investing and building factories in Guangzhou and surrounding areas, and supporting the Toyota project in Guangzhou and the joint venture between Honda and Nissan in Guangzhou. For a time, representatives of Japanese auto parts companies went to Guangzhou and its surrounding industrial parks for site selection inspection, and some industrial parks even adjusted their plans to expand the functional area of auto parts on a large scale. By April this year, the layout of Toyota supporting enterprises in Guangzhou and surrounding areas has been basically completed.
This indicates that the marriage between GAC and Toyota is a foregone conclusion.
The cooperation between Guangzhou Automobile Group and Toyota Motor Corporation is the same need and choice for both sides to achieve their respective strategic development goals, and it is also of great significance to enhance the strength and status of Guangzhou Automobile Industry and promote its development. At present, Toyota, Nissan and Honda, the three major Japanese automobile manufacturers, have settled in Guangzhou, and a large number of parts suppliers have gathered around them, forming a number of large-scale automobile production and parts supporting bases such as Guangzhou Nansha Development Zone, Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, Huadu and Zengcheng Yonghe. A Guangzhou automobile industrial cluster featuring Japanese automobile products is taking shape, and the advantages of scale, resources and cost brought by the industrial cluster are increasingly prominent.
Toyota cooperated with GAC, and 1 year and a half launched the whole vehicle-Camry. At this point, Toyota's "Pearl River Delta" layout has been completed. The most important thing is that the whole vehicle is exported to Southeast Asia, which is the real purpose of cooperation between Toyota and GAC.
Fourth, Toyota: the ceaseless pace of the world.
Toyota Hattori Etsuo said: "Toyota is not a latecomer in the China market. As early as 1970s, FAW sent 20 people to Toyota to study for one and a half months. Toyota also sent people to FAW to put forward a diagnosis and transformation plan for Jiefang truck and Hongqi car at that time. Premier Zhou has instructed that this is the beginning of communication between China's automobile industry and Japanese automobiles. "
In 1980s, Toyota sponsored Shenyang Jinbei Toyota Technical School1.2-200 million yen. In addition, the related technology of Jinbei bus comes from Toyota. At present, Jinbei bus still occupies a large share in China light bus market. Toyota's cooperation layout in China's southwest, northeast, north China, Pearl River Delta and other regions has become increasingly clear. Just like Toyota's sponsorship of the "Toyota Cup World Go Championship", it does not need to advertise, and it adopts a subtle way of attack.
As the second largest automobile manufacturer in the world, Toyota's "ambitious" international expansion has enabled the company to occupy a leading position in the global automobile industry.
Fujio cho, president of the company, announced last month that due to the increasing overseas demand, Toyota has now raised its production target this year to 7.5 million vehicles, which is 65,438+00% higher than last year's total output. At the same time, Toyota is stepping up research and development, developing new materials, new engines and new styles to "conquer new markets and new territories".
From Latin America to China, Toyota is investing billions of dollars to build new factories, striving to gain 65,438+05% market share in the next decade, surpassing GM's 65,438+04.7% share and becoming the world's largest automobile manufacturer.
Toyota China layout. Toyota keeps pace with the world.