GAC丰田因应中国政策调整，将淘汰多款主力汽油车型

独家消息：中国推动电动汽车发展之际，广汽丰田计划淘汰多款关键汽油车型，此举旨在响应中国政府推动清洁能源转型的政策，并加速向新能源汽车领域转型，此举反映了中国汽车市场的趋势和未来发展前景的转变。

GAC Toyota Motor Co. plans to discontinue several of its mainstream gasoline vehicles by 2026, accelerating a broader realignment of Toyota Motor Corp.’s China strategy as the world’s biggest auto market pivots sharply toward electrification and intensifying price wars batter joint-venture incumbents.

At least two core internal-combustion models will be phased out, according to people familiar with the matter. One is a compact sedan that now sells slightly over 1,000 units a month, while the other—a mid-size SUV—has been delivering more than 10,000 monthly units. Combined, the two models contributed nearly 130,000 vehicles in the first 10 months of the year, or about one-fifth of GAC Toyota’s 639,100 deliveries.

The cuts, unusually aggressive for a major joint venture, signal Toyota’s decision to unwind a decades-old product strategy built around “sister models,” nearly identical vehicles released separately by Toyota’s northern partner FAW Toyota and its southern partner GAC Toyota.

The approach helped turbocharge sales in the years of China’s explosive auto growth, but has increasingly produced internal cannibalization as competition turns “red ocean” and rivals slash prices to survive.

In practice, once one joint venture drops prices on a sibling model, the other is forced to follow, eroding profitability even if volume holds up. One Toyota model that had previously peaked near 20,000 monthly units slid to around 5,000 late last year after heavy discounting, and recently has been selling at barely 1,000 units, effectively ceding the market to its FAW-branded counterpart.

FAW Toyota, too, is preparing to withdraw certain high-volume models, including a flagship sedan with more than 10,000 monthly sales, the people said. The cull reflects Toyota China’s effort to rationalize its dual-JV architecture and steer both companies toward cooperation rather than rivalry. A growing number of dealers now operate as “dual-brand” outlets selling products from both JVs, although Toyota executives say these remain concentrated in cities with only one Toyota dealer.

The restructuring comes as Toyota scrambles to catch up in China’s new-energy vehicle market, where domestic leaders BYD Co. and Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. have set a blistering pace. GAC Toyota’s electrified lineup remains thin, but the company is redirecting factory resources and dealer incentives to accelerate the transition.

Renovation of GAC Toyota’s third production line will begin in the first half of next year to prepare it for EV manufacturing, according to people with knowledge of the plan. To minimize short-term disruption, only the low-volume sedan will be dropped in the first half of next year, while the popular SUV will be wound down gradually toward year-end. The staggered approach will reduce near-term sales volatility as the company ramps up EV production.

The Bozhi 3X—a pure-electric compact model launched earlier this year—has emerged as the company’s first breakout new-energy product. Sales reached 45,000 units between January and October, with October marking the first month the model surpassed 10,000 units. GAC Toyota has set an internal target of 12,000 orders for November alone, with several dealers saying the figure could rise to as high as 20,000 units in December as buyers rush ahead of the year-end expiration of China’s NEV purchase tax incentives.

If the Bozhi 3X hits that stretch goal, it would become GAC Toyota’s best-selling model, eclipsing the Camry’s roughly 19,000 units in October. Toyota has set an ambitious goal for GAC Toyota to restore annual sales to the one-million mark between 2028 and 2030. After peaking in 2022, GAC Toyota’s sales dropped to 770,000 in 2024. To reach the target, the company needs to boost sales by more than 200,000 units and offset the volume lost from discontinued gasoline models—implying incremental NEV sales of at least 300,000 units.

A cornerstone of Toyota’s transformation in China is the RCE (Regional Chief Engineer) system launched in April, which shifts authority for China-market product development from Toyota’s Japanese headquarters to local engineering teams. Four chief engineers now lead development of the Bozhi 3X, the upcoming all-electric Bozhi 7 sedan, the next-generation bZ models, and a new Corolla. GAC Toyota will produce the first two; FAW Toyota will handle the latter pair.

Still, both joint ventures’ in-house R&D capacity remains far smaller than that of domestic rivals. GAC Toyota and FAW Toyota have about 600 engineers combined, compared with 2,000 to 3,000 at SAIC Volkswagen and 18,000 at state-backed Changan Automobile. As a result, Toyota China is leaning on partnerships with domestic automakers: GAC Toyota co-develops products with GAC Group, while FAW Toyota is working closely with BYD on new models.

In late September, Toyota signed strategic cooperation agreements with FAW Group and GAC Group covering electrification and intelligent connected vehicles. The plans include launching plug-in hybrids, affordable EVs and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

But industry analysts say joint ventures cannot depend solely on technology injected by shareholders. Their proximity to Chinese consumers means they must develop their own product logic and user operations—areas where Japanese automakers have lagged behind domestic leaders like BYD, Li Auto and Nio.

GAC Toyota Executive Vice President Wen Dali recently said the company is strengthening its user research and expanding engineering hiring, drawing inspiration from Huawei’s rapid product development cycles. In late October, GAC Toyota held an internal “product enhancement” meeting designed to tighten its alignment with market trends and shorten decision-making loops.

For Toyota’s China partners, the retirement of legacy gasoline models marks the end of an era. The two joint ventures once dominated the mid-range market with high-volume sedans and SUVs. Now they face a radically different landscape—one in which survival depends on accelerating into China’s electrification wave while navigating the constraints of a conservative parent company and the complexities of the joint-venture system.