Interpretation of a new generation of Toyota Harrier: from the Toyota RX with a story to the hardcover RAV4.

Toyota will add a brand-new SUV in China. I think everyone has heard that it is a new generation of harrier. Due to various reasons, China Network's understanding of this car still stays in the impression of "Toyota Lexus RX". Even after reading the information of the new generation Harrier, most people will wonder why the "RX" in the previous impression has become "another form of RAV4".

What happened in the middle?

It is true that Harrier made RX, and it is also true that the new Harrier became hardcover RAV4. The story behind this car series from 1997 to the present is much richer than we thought. It had nothing to do with us. If it is not the introduction of domestic products, it may soon disappear in the long river of automobile history.

But since I'm here, correct the misunderstanding-at least you can't think that buying Harrier is equivalent to buying a Toyota RX. Before interpreting the new generation of Harrier, let's look back and find out what this new car "Harrier" is.

In the late 1990s, due to the bursting of the bubble economy, Japanese consumers' pursuit of cars gradually turned into salted fish-they pursued sports cars and luxury cars in the 1980s, and 1995 pursued SUVs and MPVs when they had no money. The earliest Erffa, Odyssey and CR-V were all born in that period. In this era, Toyota is a little embarrassed that they don't have any tall SUVs.

Don't count on RAV4, then this car is the younger brother one size smaller than binzhi. The first generation of Highlander will wait until 2000, which is unrealistic. Therefore, Toyota borrowed the first generation RX from Lexus at that time, and the Lexus brand had not been introduced into the Japanese market in the 1990s, so like the early LS/GS in Japan, Toyota also gave the first generation RX a new name-

"harrier style"

The first generation harrier was sold from 1997 in 2003, and successfully switched to the second generation, parallel to overseas Lexus RX. During this period, a great event happened-in 2005, Lexus brand returned to Japan's domestic market. At this time, Lexus relies on the synchronous replacement of three main vertical cars IS/GS/LS to open the market, and the replacement of American SUV RX will naturally be handed over. Let me see, in 2003, plus about six years, if normal, in 2009, "Harrier" can be replaced by "Lexus? RX”。

But the problem lies in the year before the reunification.

The financial crisis in the second half of 2008 directly killed the middle class in Japan, so there was no spare money to buy luxury cars. Although Lexus introduced the third generation RX to the Japanese market in 2009, the existence of this car itself is very embarrassing. First, it's a new car, and the Lexus logo is expensive-who told RX that the initial displacement is 3.5L

Toyota scratched his head: well, Harrier is quite cheap and sells well. Why don't we continue? Anyway, everyone doesn't care much about the old and new RX living under the same roof. They have no money and can't talk loudly.

▲ In order to reduce the price, the second-generation harrier with two generations under one roof only sold the 2.4L version in the later period.

It was also at this time that China auto media began to regard Harrier as RX and described Harrier as Japanese Toyota RX. This statement is not completely wrong, but it is easy to mislead people who don't know the truth, and the result is indeed true. So that when Harrier was replaced on 20 13, some people joked that the "third generation Harrier" was called "the third generation Lexus RX".

It's true. It hurts.

At the moment when Lexus brand introduced RX into the Japanese market, the trademark Harrier was actually in a free state. It is no problem to directly abolish or launch a new model with this "Toyota high-end SUV well-known trademark", so the second-generation harrier has been sold for ten years since 2003, and Toyota has launched the third-generation harrier.

At this time, the task of the harrier has changed.

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Reborn harrier: another form of RAV4

On the surface, Harrier's position in Toyota's product line is higher than RAV4 and lower than RX. However, on the occasion of Harrier replacement in 20 13, Toyota made a small change to the product line of SUV, that is, it stopped production of the third-generation RAV4, which was not easy to sell, and no longer launched the fourth-generation RAV4.

▲ The fourth generation RAV4 is sold all over the world, except the Japanese market.

Take a closer look. If Toyota finds that RAV4 is not easy to sell in recent years, what should the third-generation harrier that was still under development look like? The only answer is to replace RAV4 with Harrier. But this answer seems too simple, and Toyota is deliberately clever.

It is not without reason that the sales of RAV4 in the Japanese market are bleak. This car is too American, and the interior materials are as rough as the sixth-generation American Camry. Only the displacement of 2.4L is particularly expensive, and it is not JDM at all. Therefore, the third generation Harrier complied with the needs of the Japanese market and put on a luxurious interior. The front IP has an extremely complicated shape and is wrapped in enamel, which makes it feel excellent. The leather steering wheel feels excellent, and the leather material of the door is very particular.

The most important thing is the change of power system. Harrier adopts the same power system because of the architectural similarity with NX in the same period: the entry version is 2.0L+CVT；; ; Medium power 2.0T+6AT；; ; The top power is 2.5 hybrid. From the perspective of architecture and vehicle performance, it is no problem to regard Harrier as a higher level than RAV4.

At the same time, from the perspective of market positioning and substitution, because the new RAV4 was not introduced to the Japanese market at that time, the third generation Harrier assumed the positioning of "RAV4". This can also be seen from the pricing. Although the main price segment of 2.72 million ~ 4.47 million yen (about 65,438+06 ~ 270,000 RMB) is about 65,438+00% more expensive than the compact SUV model of the same brand, it is not too outrageous. In fact, the third generation Harrier has ranked in the top 20 of Japanese new car sales, just like Qi Jun and Forester.

Finally, the story of a new generation of harriers in 2020.

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Judging from the information known at present, although the characteristics of the new generation of harrier just launched are expected by people, there are also some confusing places.

The new generation Harrier has completely become a "hardcover RAV4", and the wheelbase and width have not changed at all! The height of the car has dropped a little, but we all know that this is because the body lines of the new Harrier are smoother. The length is much longer, obviously with the front suspension and then hanging.

The power system of the new harrier also follows RAV4, and only two new hybrid systems, 2.0L+CVT and 2.5, are provided. In fact, at first, I thought that the new generation Harrier should be positioned higher, and the pure gasoline engine was upgraded to 2.5L. As a result, it was found that the new combination of 2.5L and RAV4 only provided markets such as North America.

In terms of modeling, the new harrier style still inherits the style of the previous generation. The lines are very smooth, and the overall style is exquisite and advanced, which is completely the style of luxury brands. In addition, the intentional or unintentional details such as headlights, bumpers and 19-inch wheels are also quite different from RAV4.

▲ The new Harrier seems to be "urbanized hardcover RAV4"? So the shape and interior of RAV4 dare to be so wild!

▲ LED light group of new Harrier

▲ Did this lamp cost a lot of money?

Needless to say, even through photos, it can be clearly seen that the new harrier has improved almost all the shortcomings of RAV4 interior: the center console area is wrapped in leather, the control lever is placed in the middle, the all-LCD air conditioning control panel+full touch, and the two sides are decorated with leather. The front IP and door of RAV4' s largest slot point are also covered with a large area of leather. In addition, the new Harrier uses a large number of sound insulation and shock absorption materials to ensure a sense of height, such as double glass.

▲ Some people call for a big screen like RAV4 not to ruin Harrier's interior, but the big screen of RAV4 is only 10.2 inch, while the new Harrier is 12.3 inch. ...

▲ I have every reason to believe that I can smell Napa as soon as I open the door.

▲ Look at this suture, this leather, this embellishment, ah, how elegant, is this JDM? Love, love.

▲ If I remember correctly, the new Harrier series rearview mirror should be used by Toyota for the first time, right?

▲ The new generation Harrier will be equipped with 9 speakers +JBL sound system.

▲ Panoramic sunroof supports dimming.

Confusion lies in:

From the previous generation Toyota SUV product line, we can know that because RAV4 was not introduced to the Japanese market, Toyota continued Harrier, but last year Toyota launched a new generation RAV4 in Japan. The confusion at that time was what Harrier should do. Now, what is puzzling is the significance of Harrier's existence-you know, the new generation RAV4 sells well in Japan.

Why did this kind of car appear?

Another major change in the new generation of harrier may tell us the answer, that is, the new generation of harrier is no longer designed for the Japanese market, but will be introduced to China and put into production by FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota.

▲ Although it is an renderings, it can still be clearly seen that this paint surface is much better than RAV4.

In fact, the changes in Harrier's positioning in the past dynasties are essentially telling a story: in the past 10 years, Toyota implemented different strategies in various markets, and Highlander did not appear in the Japanese market. Similarly, Harrier did not appear in the American market. Both Harrier and Highlander are basic operations for different markets.

However, China's market is declining, and this decade is also a period of rapid development of China's automobile market. No matter what style of car can find a place here, especially Harrier SUV. However, when maintaining the strategic policy of different models in different markets, Toyota found a problem:

In fact, it is extremely expensive to develop this special model Harrier for the Japanese market. In the whole year of 20 19, Harrier sold 36,000 vehicles, which is equivalent to the sales of CR-V in China market for two months.

To put it bluntly, it is difficult for the local market to support a high-positioning JDM model to survive independently-the Japanese market is too small, the K car is more expensive, the main models sell well, and the profit is ok. However, although Harrier has a high positioning, it is extremely difficult for its own profits to cover the development cost only by the sales volume in the Japanese market.

So you can see that the new generation of harriers and the previous generation of harriers take a similar road, but they are not the same thing at all. The wheelbase and width reveal that this car is completely based on the simple development of RAV4 (that is, the hardcover version of RAV4), and it is also made in China by FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota. Expand the production scale and share the development cost.

Nothing more than four big words: "Yi"? Food? Difficult? difficult

Conclusion:

It can be concluded that although the state of the new generation harrier is a little higher than RAV4, it can also clearly see various measures to save money. Of course, who doesn't love the RAV4 with more advanced appearance and interior? If the price is not much higher than RAV4, why not have one more choice?

I prefer to believe that this is the original intention of developing a new generation of harriers.

At present, only the size data and power system data have been released for the new generation of harrier, but this does not prevent us from guessing the price of the new generation of harrier in China. A decorated RAV4 will be more expensive than RAV4, but the question is how much. Soon, a new generation of Highlander will also be introduced into China. It will not be very cheap to carry a 2.5 hybrid system in the whole system, and it may even increase the price. It is conservatively estimated that the starting price of 2.0L is 65,438+09,800, and the starting price of 2.5 is 23.998.

Text | Sakamoto

Figure | Network

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.