AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/03 Report--

In April, major manufacturers will release sales reports for the past March and the entire first quarter. Affected by the epidemic, there was no accident that all manufacturers 'data declined. Honda was the first manufacturer to report March sales in China.

Honda's terminal sales in China totaled 60441 vehicles in March, down 50.8 percent year-on-year, according to data released by Honda. Among them, the terminal sales volume of GAC Honda in March was 32205 vehicles, down 50.1% year-on-year; the terminal sales volume of Dongfeng Honda in March was 28236 vehicles, down 51.5% year-on-year.

Almost throughout March, Dongfeng Honda was unable to produce normally, and most of its dealers sold inventory vehicles.

Dongfeng Honda began to resume production in a single shift in the middle of the month, and the production capacity gradually recovered. Starting from April, Dongfeng Honda will implement double-shift climbing and gradually return to normal level. Dongfeng Honda has three vehicle production plants, all located in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, producing hot-selling models including CR-V, Civic, XR-V, etc.

For the first quarter as a whole, Honda's sales in China fell 33.7%. From January to March 2020, Honda's terminal sales in China totaled 222108 vehicles, down 33.7% year-on-year. Among them, the cumulative sales volume of GAC Honda terminal was 116472 vehicles, down 35.6% year-on-year; the cumulative sales volume of Dongfeng Honda terminal was 105636 vehicles, down 31.5% year-on-year.

In addition, a personnel appointment for Honda Motor in China took effect. Yasuhide Mizuno, currently Honda's executive director and head of China, retired as head of China with effect from 1 April 2020 and assumed the position of head of Honda's automotive business. Katsushi Inoue, currently Honda Executive Director and Head of Europe, was promoted to Honda Executive Director with effect from April 1 and succeeded Yasuhide Mizuno as Head of Honda China, General Manager of Honda Technical Research Industry (China) Investment Co., Ltd. and General Manager of Honda Technical Research Technology (China) Co., Ltd.

At the same time, Moriyama will succeed Sato as General Manager of GAC Honda Automobile Co., Ltd. and General Manager of GAC Honda Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., effective April 1. Moriyama currently holds the position of head of brand communication of Honda Motor Japan Headquarters. He once served as head of sales department of Guangzhou Automobile Honda, so he is familiar with the business operation of Chinese market.

According to the plan, in terms of new car introduction, the medium-term modified model of GAC Honda Crown Road has been launched, and the Lingpai hybrid version with i-MMD+1.5L engine and the new generation of Fit will also be launched within this year.

Dongfeng Honda will introduce UR-V modified models, hatchback Civic and CR-V with plug-in hybrid system SPORT HYBRID e+ for the first time.

Honda China has said it will challenge its target of exceeding 1.55 million sales in 2019 by 2020.

As the epidemic fades, the auto market also ushered in a recovery period. However, the impact of the epidemic will hit the performance of each automobile enterprise greatly, and it will also add difficulty to the realization of the annual target.

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