AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)11/03 Report--

On November 3rd, Honda China released its latest sales figures. Honda sold 130424 vehicles in China in October, compared with 122.9 per cent in the same period (up 22.92 per cent from a year earlier and 18.93 per cent from a month earlier), the fifth time it had sold more than 100, 000 vehicles this year.

Since May, Honda China has no longer released specific monthly sales figures for Dongfeng Honda and Guangzhou Auto Honda joint ventures, but has only released sales of some models. In terms of specific models, Honda sold more than 20, 000 CR-V vehicles in October, Accord and Civic each more than 15000, and Haoying and styling both more than 10, 000.

Overall, Honda's sales in China were good in October, up 22.92% from a year earlier, but extending to the previous October, Honda's sales in China fell 16.84% year-on-year, bringing its cumulative sales to 961729 vehicles. Of course, the decline in Honda's sales in China is related to the rapid rise of the domestic new energy market, but Honda China's performance in the new energy sector is very mediocre, at the same time, Honda's Chinese fuel car market began to shrink under the impact of new energy vehicles, which also led to Honda's weak sales performance in China, while its lost market share is gradually being absorbed by its own brands.

Or in order to accelerate the electrified layout transformation and ease the pressure on sales, Honda China has announced that it will fully enter the electric era. After 2027, all Honda models launched in China will be hybrid and pure electric vehicles. No longer put in new pure fuel models; by 2035, Honda China will achieve 100% of pure electric vehicle sales.

According to the joint venture, Guangzhou Auto Honda said on October 26 that it would no longer launch new pure fuel models from 2027, when all Honda models sold in China would be 100% electrified from 2035. Earlier, on July 16, Dongfeng Honda announced that it would launch its new independent pure electric brand in the second half of this year, with more than 50% electrification by 2025, no new fuel cars after 2027, and more than 10 pure electric models by 2030.

In terms of the layout of the new car, three pure electric vehicles under Honda's EVR N brand, including the e:NP2 Prototype, e:NS2Prototype and EVR N SUV, have been debuted at the Shanghai Auto Show. Among them, the e:NP2 and e:NS2 will be put into production by Guangzhou Auto Honda and Dongfeng Honda respectively, equipped with the new generation of intelligent technology such as Honda CONNECT 4.0, and are expected to be launched in early 2024. It is understood that GAC-Honda's new pure electric model will be officially unveiled at the 2023 Guangzhou Motor Show, the new car or the mass production version of the e:NP2 model, which is based on Honda's exclusive intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture "ERV N Architecture F".

As for Dongfeng Honda, on September 21, Dongfeng Honda launched a new new energy vehicle brand "Lingzhi", which is also the first time that Dongfeng Honda has launched a new new energy vehicle logo in 20 years since it entered China. Compared with the e:NS pure electric brand, the Lingzhi brand will be distinguished in terms of product positioning, target users and market pricing. The brand's first model, the Lingzhi L concept car, has also been unveiled around the world, and the new car will be put into mass production next year.

Under the dual pressure of electric transformation and global market competition, the market share of Japanese brands in China, which can not adapt to the market transformation, is gradually being diluted. The cumulative sales of Japanese brands in the first three quarters of 2023 were 2.6127 million, down 15.4 per cent from a year earlier and accounting for 17.2 per cent of China's market share, according to the Federation of passengers. For comparison, Japanese brands accounted for 20.0% of China's market share in 2022. At the same time, Japanese second-tier brands are also gradually marginalized by the market. GAC-Mitsubishi became a wholly owned subsidiary of GAC GROUP after Mitsubishi Motors announced that it would stop producing cars in China.

Judging from Honda's timetable for suspending the sale of fuel cars, Honda China has realized that to maintain long-term development in the Chinese market, it needs to accelerate the transition to a new energy market and accelerate the introduction of electrified products to reduce the possibility of being left behind. However, at present, the progress of the electrification transformation of Japanese joint venture brands in China is still relatively slow. "Automotive Industry concern" believes that with the continuous expansion of the new energy vehicle market, Japanese joint venture car companies are also facing a lot of challenges in the process of new energy vehicle transformation.

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