news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Reporter of China Business Network: Duan Siyao Editor of China Business Network: Sun Lei

Recently, according to Japanese media reports,ToyotaThe NewAlphaThe new Alphard annual facelift will not only launch a double-row four-seat version, but also add a new entry-level model with a lower starting price, starting at RMB 200,000.

In sharp contrast to the new Alphard, which may start at as low as 200,000 yuan, the price of this car in the Chinese market after the price increase is as high as one million yuan. According to the GAC Toyota official website, the Alphard on sale has two configurations: the 2.5L Premium Edition and the 2.5L Premium Edition, with retail prices of 899,000 yuan and 909,000 yuan respectively. If the paint protection film is selected, both configurations will require an additional 20,000 yuan.

"The Alphard 2.5L Premium Edition is only available in white, and the price is currently 130,000 yuan higher," a GAC ​​Toyota dealer told the Daily Economic News reporter. This means that if you buy a white Alphard 2.5L Premium Edition, even if you don't choose the paint protection film, the price after the price increase is 1.029 million yuan.

In addition to authorized dealer channels, the price of purchasing Alphard through parallel import is also over one million yuan. An import car dealer in Tianjin Port revealed to reporters: "The price of Alphard 2.5L Premium Edition is 1.07 million yuan."

The market prices in China and Japan differ by several times

In the Japanese market, Alphard is considered a "people-friendly" model. Toyota's official website shows that the price range of Alphard is RMB 265,000 to RMB 428,000. Why has the price of Alphard increased several times after being imported from Japan to the Chinese market?

"The Alphard imported into China is usually the top-of-the-line version. The retail price has increased several times with the 400,000 yuan selling price plus import tax, freight costs, etc. In addition, due to the limited supply of cars, dealers usually resort to raising prices, resulting in the final landing price of the Alphard being as high as one million yuan," said an expert in the automobile distribution field.

As a representative model of domestic high-end MPV, Alphard has been sought after by many people since it was officially introduced to the Chinese market in 2010. When sales were the best, the terminal even increased the price by 300,000 or 400,000 yuan, but the demand was still insufficient. Compared with before, the price increase of Alphard has been significantly reduced. The reporter learned from many GAC Toyota dealers that the current price increase of Alphard is about 150,000 to 200,000 yuan.

In fact, the price increase of Alphard has been widely controversial. Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda once publicly criticized Chinese dealers for the price increase, saying that it was the Chinese dealers' own behavior and had nothing to do with Toyota. But in fact, Toyota was not completely unaware of the dealers' price increase.

The above-mentioned expert in the field of automobile circulation believes that: "The reason why new cars are sold at a higher price is, on the one hand, the strong demand; on the other hand, the manufacturers are more careful to control the pace and quantity of product launches in the market."

The GAC Toyota dealer told the reporter: "The Alphard 2.5L Premium Edition is only available in white. The reason why there are no black cars is that the manufacturer has not given (quotas). It is hard to say how long we have to wait."

Alpha "Terminator" appears?

Under the wave of new energy, Alpha gradually lost its halo.

Public data shows that from 2017 to 2021, Alphard's cumulative sales in the Chinese market were about 85,000 units, firmly sitting on the "top spot" in the imported high-end MPV market. However, since 2022, Alphard's sales have declined, with cumulative sales of 21,000 units that year, a year-on-year decline of more than 12%; in 2023, cumulative sales were 19,000 units.

Alphard's popularity in China began in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, but now its sales here are also showing a downward trend. Data shows that Alphard's sales once accounted for more than 70% of the MPV market in Hong Kong, China. But in the first five months of this year, Toyota MPV models sold 1,060 units in Hong Kong, China, and wereSAIC MAXUSSurpassing the latter, it won the sales champion in the MPV market in Hong Kong, China.

With the deep reconstruction of the automotive industry by intelligence and electrification, and the accelerated penetration of new energy vehicles, the pricing strategies and premium capabilities of luxury brands in traditional tracks such as MPVs are facing unprecedented challenges.D9、Zeekr009 andLantu Dreamer,arriveXpeng G9、Ideal MEGA, independent high-end MPVs are rising rapidly.

Data shows that in the first half of this year, the Denza D9 won the sales champion in the domestic medium and large MPV market with a sales volume of 53,000 units.Trumpchi M8、Xiaopeng X9、Trumpchi E9Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Conference, believes: "With the changes in the family structure in China, the high-end growth of MPVs in the future will not be a flash in the pan, and high-end new energy MPVs will also become a force that cannot be ignored in the automobile market."

Even so, these domestic hot-selling MPV models cannot become the "terminator" of Alphard for the time being. Information from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that Toyota China has applied for the Alphard PHEV plug-in hybrid model, which means that a "green-plate" Alphard will soon appear in the domestic market. By then, the duel between domestic high-end new energy MPVs and Alphard may really begin.

Daily Economic News