AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/05 Report--

On January 5, Honda China released terminal car sales for 2022. Honda's cumulative sales of terminal cars in China in 2022 were 1.3731 million, down 12.07 per cent from a year earlier, according to data. Among them, Honda's terminal car sales in China in December 2022 were 138500, down 17.88 per cent from a year earlier.

Honda's sales in China are on a more obvious downward trend, both monthly and annual. It was revealed that Guangzhou Auto Honda sold 720700 vehicles, down 6.19% from the same period last year, including 70400 vehicles in December, down 13.12% from the same period last year. Dongfeng Honda sold 652400 vehicles, down 17.76% from the same period last year, of which 68100 vehicles were sold in December, down 22.27% from the same period last year. It can be seen that the decline in Honda sales is not due to a problem in a joint venture car company, which can be attributed to the Honda brand itself.

In 2022, Honda launched a number of blockbuster models in the Chinese market, including ZR-V, new-generation XR-V, new-generation colorful wisdom, new-generation CR-V, new-generation Haoying, Civic TYPE-R, Civic HATCHBACK and other models, but these new cars failed to promote Honda brand sales recovery in the Chinese market. Honda China explained that it was "affected by the supply of spare parts". However, in the face of the impact of parts supply, the sales of many Chinese independent brands are booming, and Japanese car companies blame the decline in sales on the "parts supply" is obviously one-sided.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the market share of Japanese cars in China is gradually declining, falling to 18.2% in the first November of 2022, along with the once-booming German system, with a market share of 19.7%. In sharp contrast, Chinese brands have taken advantage of the explosive growth of new energy vehicles, with a market share rising from 35.7% in 2020 to 49.2% from January to November 2022. It can be said that it is neither German nor American that eat the market share of Japanese cars, while China's own brands.

Japanese cars are durable, fuel-efficient and stable, and have become the preferred choice for many consumers to buy cars in the early days. It should be noted that it was not only in the era of fuel cars, but also in the era of extreme lack of Chinese brand car technology. Now, in the era of new energy vehicles, Japanese brands lose their advantages and have a very low sense of existence in the market. Honda, for example, has two new pure electric vehicles listed in China, one is the e:NS1 from Dongfeng Honda and the other is the e:NP1 from Guangzhou Auto Honda. The two models are sister models to each other, targeting the small pure electric SUV. Among them, Dongfeng Honda e:NS1 was officially listed on April 26, 2022, and Guangzhou Automobile Honda e:NP1 was officially launched on June 20. The subsidized price range of the two models is 17.5-218000 yuan.

Both e:NS1 and e:NP1 carry Honda's dream of competing in the new energy market. Honda China described it on its website as follows: the launch of the eVR N brand and its first model will open a new chapter in Honda's electrification business in China. However, the ideal is very plump, the reality is very bony, the performance of these two electric cars is really not satisfactory. According to the retail data of the Federation of passengers, Dongfeng Honda e:NS1 sales from May to November 2022 were 147,537,349,878,224,297,714 respectively, with a cumulative sales of 3146 vehicles; from June to November 2022, Guangzhou Honda e:NP1 sales were 110,269,273,627,629,811, respectively, with a cumulative sales of 2719 vehicles.

Whether it's Honda's "misunderstanding" of the new chapter or the Chinese market's "bias" against Honda's electric cars, the eRover N brand in China is not as good as Honda expected. Of course, Honda is not alone. In 2022, Toyota launched the bZ4X electric car in China, which was produced and sold by FAW Toyota and Guangzhou Automobile Toyota respectively, and the model also performed poorly in the Chinese market. Similarly, Nissan launched the Ariya, known as Ariel in Chinese, in the Chinese car market, and sales of the model are equally bad.

From a micro-world point of view, Honda electric cars lack product competitiveness, and the "perfunctory" attitude towards new energy makes consumers feel "cold". From a macro point of view, Japanese brands represented by Toyota are the vested interests of traditional fuel vehicles and will not easily give up fuel vehicles. The full transformation of electric vehicles means giving up core technologies such as engines, gearboxes, chassis and so on. Japanese car brands have long been resistant to the transformation of new energy vehicles, and although they have launched the most aggressive electric plan in history, it is more like forced behavior.

Ten years ago, Chinese cars were completely blank, and the market was almost monopolized by joint venture brands. independent brands could only copy joint venture brand models and build entry-level models that joint venture brands did not want to get involved in. For consumers at that time, joint venture brands were indeed the preferred choice, which led more and more multinational car companies to enter Chinese joint ventures. Nowadays, with the development of independent brands, new energy vehicles have become a development trend, and consumers' car purchases are no longer joint venture brands. For many joint venture brands, arrogance always has to pay for it.

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