Toyota GR? Sound strange?

In fact, this brand is similar to Mercedes-Benz AMG and BMW M. It is a high-performance sports brand under Toyota. It aims to bring racing cars to the road and optimize vehicle performance, design style, sports tuning, etc. Upgrade to meet users' diverse needs for vehicle performance.

In early November, Toyota GR brand flagship sports model "TOYOTA? SUPRA" was introduced into the country.

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The story of "GR" begins at the end of the last century.

More than 20 years ago, the Internet was not as developed as it is today.

In Japan, second-hand cars can only be sold through showroom display. The seller needs to send the vehicle to the dealership, and the buyer must go to the store to see the car. This makes the display cost of each vehicle relatively low. High, dealers have been suffering from the pressure of capital chain for a long time.

It is said that Akio Toyoda, who was still a department manager at the time, led a team called Team CS to support the dealer’s used car sales. During the support process, he keenly discovered the "excessive waste" in second-hand transactions.

As a result, Akio Toyoda creatively built a "used car image sales system". It can display pictures and related information of second-hand cars. When the seller uploads the information, the buyer can pay attention immediately and go to the dealership to view the car based on the relevant information, thus greatly improving the efficiency of second-hand car buying and selling.

In Japanese, GA means image. At that time, everyone called the sales system GAZO. Akio Toyoda added an O at the end and it became GAZOO (a variety of cars). Picture zoo of pictures), so GAZOO was born.

(GAZOO used car image sales system)

This is the origin of the GR brand. As for "GAZOO" and "Racing" can create sparks, another person has to be mentioned - Naruse Hiroshi. He is Toyota's chief test driver and is hailed by Akio Toyoda as "the hallowed driver in the Japanese car industry."

Hiroshi Naruse, who has outstanding driving skills, is not only an employee of Toyota, but also formed a mentor-friend relationship with Akio Toyoda during his long-term relationship. Under his guidance, Toyoda gave up golf, which he once loved, and spent all his spare time practicing driving skills, and eventually became Toyota's chief test driver.

As Toyoda became more familiar with the Nürburgring track, he found that almost all of the vehicles tested here were new or prototypes. Especially BMW, they directly take their new cars to the Nürburgring for testing. Akio Toyoda felt uncomfortable watching others drive new cars while he only had a second-hand Supra, and his desire to drive the new car on the Nürburgring track became stronger.

At the same time, Akio Toyoda, who loves driving, formed a private team-GAZOO Racing, with Hiroshi Sega as the team leader.

In order to test his driving level and to better understand "FUN TO DRIVE", under the suggestion of "teacher" Naruse Hiroshi, Toyoda Akio and GAZOO Racing Team brought 2 A TOYOTA? ALTEZZA launched a challenge to the 24-hour endurance race of Nürburgring in Germany.

Through the harsh Nürburgring 24-hour endurance race, Toyoda deeply realized the importance of training cars and people through racing in order to build better cars.

That year was 2007.

After the death of Hiroshi Naruse, Akio Toyoda also expressed condolences on his blog, saying, "I will continue to follow the path opened by Mr. Hiroshi Naruse and build better cars."

At this point, Akio Toyoda, Hiroshi Naruse, Nürburgring, GAZOO, and Racing, these seemingly disorganized and unrelated points, began to connect with each other and became closely connected under the intersection of time.

As the saying goes, "All effects originate from causes," TOYOTA? GAZOO? Racing is finally here.

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Led by the concept of manufacturing "better" mass-produced cars, "GAZOO Racing" continues to grow and develop.

In 2015, Toyota unified all the motor sports-related work it participated in into "TOYOTA? GAZOO? Racing".

In 2017, the internal company "GAZOO Racing" was officially established.

The company is fully responsible for the planning, research and development, production and service of "GR" brand mass-produced models. At the same time, after absorbing the mechanical and technical talents from the original TRD, GR began to replace TRD in official events. By participating in competitions, running in new cars, and training employees, the GR brand uses the experience gained from actual competitions in the development of mass-produced cars.

In terms of product performance levels, GR from high to low are GRMN, GR, GR?SPORT and GR?PARTS. Among them, GR?PARTS is similar to the BMW M Sports Night Package, which simply provides the GR package to facilitate consumers to build their own personalized vehicles.

The full name of the top-ranking GRMN is Gazoo Racing Master of Nurbergring, which is literally translated as "Nürburgring Master" or "Nürburgring Expert". This not only highlights the authoritative testing capabilities of the Nürburgring track In addition, it also reflects Akio Toyoda's complicated feelings towards the Nürburgring track and his memory and respect for his "mentor" Hiroshi Naruse.

(Mark?X?GRMN)

Currently there are YARiS?GRMN, Vitz?GRMN, Mark? Toyota Century GRMN. These cars are either not available at all, or they are produced in limited quantities and are very rare.

The GR level includes GR?YARiS, GR?SUPRA and other models. In the future, it is expected to launch many new cars such as GR?86 and GR?C-HR, and this level may become the entire GR The target of sports brand building.

As for the GR?SPORT level, there are 86?GR?SPORT, VOXY?GR?SPORT, AQUA?GR?SPORT, NOAH?GR?SPORT and MARK? X?GR?SPORT and many other models. Just like Lexus's F?SPORT, as long as consumers are willing, almost every model can be customized. After all, it is easier to just replace the sports package than to improve the mechanical performance.

(VOXY?GR?SPORT)

At the beginning of 2020, Akio Toyoda once said, "Toyota needs to regain its sports car. This is my long-standing dream."

Today, the GR sports brand has achieved initial results and has been successfully introduced into the Chinese market, fulfilling Toyoda's promise to a certain extent. ?

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GR is Akio Toyoda’s feelings, but it is not just feelings. As a world-class car company, making "money" is the fundamental purpose.

In 2019, Toyota sold 1.62 million vehicles in China, a year-on-year increase of 9%, exceeding the annual target of 1.6 million vehicles. In 2020, Toyota expects to sell 1.76 million vehicles in China. In the first nine months of this year, Toyota's cumulative sales in China reached 1.2624 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 6.9%, and the target completion rate was 71.73.

Although deeply affected by the dual impact of the epidemic and the downturn of the auto market, Toyota ranks first among multinational car companies in terms of growth rate and target completion rate.

Although Toyota leads the sales volume, in the eyes of Chinese people, Toyota is still a Japanese company that only makes family cars. Consumers have the inherent impression of it that it is sturdy, durable, reliable, fuel-efficient, and has large carrying space. Nowadays, when facing an increasingly younger consumer group, Toyota's existing product matrix seems to be somewhat inadequate.

In recent years, Toyota has seized a part of the market share with its pioneering design and the core concept of TNGA architecture, but it is obviously not enough.

It is urgent that Toyota needs a benchmarking image to let mass consumers re-recognize Toyota cars.

The GR brand, which is engraved with Toyota's "sport" gene, is obviously better able to please domestic young consumers.

From the perspective of consumption habits, young consumers are more inclined to buy a family car that looks like a performance car rather than a true performance car. Just like Lexus's F?SPORT version or Toyota's GR?SPORT. First, the price does not make it "prohibitive"; second, the actual look and feel is quite excellent.

Furthermore, consumption upgrades and the hot sales of luxury brands have also shown us that today's consumers are more willing to invest money, and they have higher requirements for the design, texture and control of vehicles. At the same time, this also brings more possibilities for market segments and product premiums.

Of course, Toyota will not give up the real performance car market, after all, it has the strength.

Take the GR YARiS, which was unveiled this time with SUPRA, as an example. The car is equipped with a 1.6T inline three-cylinder direct injection engine with a maximum power of 261Ps and a peak torque of 360N·m. The transmission system matches It is a 6-speed manual transmission and GR-FOUR full-time four-wheel drive system. In addition, GR YARiS is also equipped with carbon fiber roof, aluminum alloy hood, tailgate, doors and other configurations to further enhance the performance of the vehicle.

(GR?YARiS)

At present, the appearance of the "GR" series is more about letting consumers accept the setting that "Toyota is also very sporty". Back to Toyota itself, when the brand is entering a higher class and encountering bottlenecks, and in order to break consumers' inherent impressions, the introduction of the GR sports brand is more like a catalyst, while seizing as much of the performance car market share as possible, Further expand the audience of Toyota brand.

However, with the rise of domestic high-end performance cars represented by Lynk & Co, Toyota's road in China may not be smooth.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.