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In the past, Japanese cars became the first choice for Chinese people to buy cars by virtue of their high maintenance rate, high fuel economy and low maintenance cost. However, with the rapid popularization of electric vehicles in China and the improvement of brand appeal of local enterprises, they began to encroach on the market of German and Japanese brands. Japanese cars could not survive only by virtue of their superior quality and fuel consumption. In 2023, sales of the three major Japanese automakers in China declined, especially Nissan.

According to the data, Toyota sold 1.9076 million new vehicles in China in 2023, down 1.7% year-on-year, the second year-on-year decline for Toyota in China. Terminal data shows that Lexus brand sales volume is 158,000 vehicles, down 13.52% year-on-year; GAC Toyota is 808,100 vehicles, down 19.62% year-on-year; FAW Toyota is 674,800 vehicles, down 16.37% year-on-year;

Compared with 2022, Toyota's decline in the Chinese market has widened. Both Toyota and Lexus brands have fallen by more than double digits. The rapid renewal iteration of new energy vehicles has put pressure on Japanese manufacturers who are "lying flat." Japanese cars driven by fuel vehicles are gradually abandoned by consumers.

Throughout 2023, Toyota China's biggest update is the introduction of the replacement Camry. On January 1, the ninth generation Camry was officially pre-sold, including four gasoline models and four electric hybrid double-lift models, among which the pre-sale price of gasoline version was 173,800 - 199,900 yuan and that of electric hybrid double-lift version was 181,800 - 208,800 yuan. It is understood that the brand-new Camry is built on TNGA-K platform and provides 2.0L gasoline/oil-electric hybrid in terms of power. In 2023, Camry terminal sales of 198,600 vehicles, is the best-selling medium-sized car, far more than Honda Accord, Nissan Teana.

Honda China and Nissan China have a more profound impact than Toyota China. According to official data, Honda's terminal sales volume in China in 2023 was 1.2342 million vehicles, down 10.12% year-on-year, among which GAC Honda fell 13.91% year-on-year to 620,500 vehicles and Dongfeng Honda fell 4.90% year-on-year to 613,700 vehicles.

At the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, Honda announced the acceleration of the electric transformation of the Chinese market. Specifically, Honda will no longer launch new fuel models in China after 2027, and all new models launched after 2027 will be electric models such as hybrids and pure electric vehicles.

According to the official website, Honda has a brand-new electric e:NP1/e:NS1, in addition to the replacement CR-V, Accord and other models also launched plug-in hybrid models. At present, Honda has formed a model matrix including PET (fuel), HEV (hybrid power), PHEV (plug-in hybrid), EV (pure electric) and other multi-power platforms, but due to the relatively late transformation of new energy, Honda's non-fuel vehicle sales performance is not very bright.

As for Nissan cars, including passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, the cumulative sales volume was 793,800 units, and copper coins fell 24.06%, which was the largest decline among Nissan's three major manufacturers and the first time it fell below one million sales. Among them, Dongfeng Nissan (excluding Qichen/Infiniti) sold 673,800 vehicles for the whole year, down 14.95% year-on-year. Nissan brand bears the bulk of Nissan's sales volume in China. The main sales models include Xuanyi, Teana and Xiaoke. These three models will decline to varying degrees in 2023, among which Xuanyi is 376,100 vehicles, down 10.60% year-on-year, Xiaoke is 113,600 vehicles, down 24.56% year-on-year, while Teana falls below 100,000 vehicles.

As for the smaller Mazda, its sales volume in 2023 was 88,500 units, down 4.53% year-on-year, among which the highest sales model was Mazda 3 Angksela with annual sales of 49,400 units, followed by CX-5 with 17,900 units and CX-50 with 10,300 units. In 2023, Chang 'an Mazda launched the CX-50, the first model launched after the merger of North and South Mazda. In terms of power, CX-50 is equipped with 2.0L and 2.5L power options, and transmission is equipped with 6AT gearbox. At present, CX-50 faces strong rivals such as CR-V and RAV4 Rongfang, and fails to bring effective market increment.

In 2023, the most important news among Japanese automobile manufacturers is that GAC Mitsubishi terminates domestic production. On October 24, Mitsubishi Motors of Japan announced that the local production of Mitsubishi brand automobiles in China will be terminated, GAC Mitsubishi Automobile Co., Ltd. established with GAC Group will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of GAC Group, and GAC Ai 'an will use GAC Mitsubishi factory to increase production and capacity, and plans to realize mass production in June 2024. According to disclosure, as of March 31,2023, GAC Mitsubishi's total assets were 4.198 billion yuan, total liabilities were 5.613 billion yuan, net assets were-1.414 billion yuan, and the company was insolvent.

Japanese brands want to stay in the Chinese market, they must do something in the electric vehicle market, but it turns out that there is not much time left, and many Chinese car companies, including BYD, have begun to encroach on the joint venture market, which will bring great pressure and challenges to the electrification of Japanese manufacturers. At a time when domestic automobiles are developing rapidly and intelligently, Mitsubishi is not the only foreign company that wants to cooperate with Chinese enterprises in the field of electric smart vehicles.

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