Photo/Shetuwang

Mar. 29 (NBD) -- Toyota President Akio Toyoda and his father Shoichiro Toyoda recently visited two new plants in China's Guangzhou and Tianjin, respectively, which signaled the great importance the company attached to its TNGA facilities in China.

By adopting TNGA, the abbreviation for Toyota New Global Architecture, Toyota intends to change the automobile from its very structure, lowering hood heights, lowering the center of gravity and implementing other innovations to improve driving performance.

Zhong Shi, an automobile analyst, said to NBD that the TNGA framework has long been regarded by Toyota as the secret weapon to lead the industry for the next decade.

Toyota once declared that TNGA will be the foundation for all Toyota’s future powertrain and vehicle development. It marks a revolution in the way Toyota designs, engineers and manufactures vehicles, streamlining the process by standardizing the size and position of key components within standard new vehicle platforms.

Zhong believed that Akio Toyoda and his father's visits to the TNGA plants in China not only underlines the importance of the TNGA factories, but also indicates such plants will be the focused development segments for the company, because to either expand production or launch new products need the final decision from the company president.

According to Zhong, Toyota takes the third place in the Chinese market among all Japanese automobile brands, following Nissan and Honda. If Toyota wants to claim throne in China among all Japanese automakers, the production scale-up and the launch of new products in its TNGA plants will be the future priority for the company.

NBD noticed that the sales volume of vehicles which are based on the TNGA framework is expected to take up  half of Toyota's global sales by 2020.

During Akio Toyoda's visit in Guangzhou, he also showed interest in new energy vehicles (NEVs).

Together with the management of Guangzhou Automobile Group (Guangzhou Automobile), Toyota's local partner, Akio Toyoda paid a visit to the research center of Guangzhou Automobile and had discussions concerning fuel cells and ride-sharing. 

An insider at the Guangzhou Automobile told NBD that as China's automobile market and independent brands has embraced sound development, Akio Toyoda wants to have a deeper understanding of Chinese market and build automobile brands through Trumpchi, the role-model brand of Guangzhou Automobile.

NBD learned that Toyota plans to launch 10 electric models globally in early 2020, with sales starting in China. And also every model of Toyota and Luxus will have its electric version by 2025.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn