AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/05 Report--

China's auto market has experienced an overall downturn that has lasted for nearly a year, and the decline in recent months is basically close to the red line of 20%. Gone are the days of sustained rapid growth. The sales of giant Volkswagen have declined, American brands have fallen into the doldrums, and the share of independent brands has declined, while Japanese mainstream brands have maintained a relatively strong sales momentum, forming a sharp contrast.

In the just released Chinese sales statistics of the four major Japanese automakers in March, the three giants Toyota, Nissan and Honda all achieved growth to varying degrees, while small Mazda continued to fight hard and still experienced a significant decline in sales. Strictly speaking, sales are far less than the other three Mazda, and joining the array can only be regarded as a forcible four.

Toyota's sales in china grew by only 1.1% in march, lagging behind the other two in terms of sales and growth, but temporarily rose to the top of the overall ranking. Toyota sold 120900 vehicles in March, with a total of 347900 vehicles from January to March, up 8.1% from a year earlier, narrowly leading Nissan, which ranked second, with more than 4000 vehicles.

Toyota saw little growth in March, mainly due to a decline in sales of its main models and a sudden decline in the high-end brand Lexus. Among them, Carola's sales fell 13.5% that month, and Lexus's sales in China fell 14.2% from a year earlier, in sharp contrast to the singing sales status, but the specific sales figures have not yet been officially released.

In March, Toyota launched three new cars. The Corolla\ Leiling double Rock Ebike, which is listed in response to the new energy policy, officially became Toyota's first new energy vehicle in China. FAW Toyota Asia Dragon was also officially launched with a price of 20.88-289800 yuan. In the remaining three quarters, Toyota will launch a new generation of Corolla / Liling and RAV4 Rongfang models.

Nissan fell to second place after being overtaken by Toyota, rising 8.2 per cent year-on-year to 133000 vehicles in March and 2.3 per cent to 343700 vehicles from January to March. Nissan's current state depends on the volume of old products, and new products do not take over the market well.

Xuanyi sales reached 38265 in March, up 27.9 per cent in the first three months from a year earlier to 105693, while Qijun sold 18405 in March, with cumulative sales of 48962 from January to March. The launch of the new generation of Teana has become the biggest headache for Nissan at present. It is understood that dealers only sell 2.0L low-end models, while high-end models with 2.0T engines are not on sale for the time being. It is reported that there is no engine in the production line due to a shortage of engines. Another sound indicates that defects in the engine involving core components will not be produced in a short period of time.

Honda surged 25.8 per cent to 122700 vehicles in March from a year earlier, but a comparison shows that Honda was in the midst of a quality problem with engine throttle in the first half of 2018, and it was not until May that the CR-V continued to sell normally, resulting in a low base in the first half of last year, so there will be a big increase this year. Honda sold 335000 vehicles from January to March, a double-digit year-on-year increase.

Honda will no longer release the specific terminal sales of each model from this year, only in a general way. Among them, Civic sales continued to reach a high of 21078 in March, while Accord and CR-V Ling Pai exceeded 10, 000.

In terms of new cars, Honda is expected to launch only one new model this year-the Guangzhou Automobile Honda SUV, which is expected to be a sister car to CR-V, while the rest are new Civic, new colorful wisdom, and so on.

Mazda was the worst, with sales falling in China in November.

Mazda announced that sales in China fell to 18078 in March, down 22.8% from a year earlier, and the 11th consecutive month of decline in sales in China. So far, Mazda sold 52466 vehicles in China from January to March, reaching 19.4 percent of the target of 270000 vehicles.

Changan Mazda, which has three models for sale, is better, with sales of 10449 in March, with a total of 32784 from January to March, while FAW Mazda sold only 7629 in March, with a total of 19682 in the first three months.

Mazda China said the overall Chinese car market is cooling and sales in the first quarter are not optimistic. In the future, the market will remain in the doldrums for a period of time, hoping to increase sales through the implementation of tax cuts and the strengthening of brands.

In fact, problems such as minority brands, products not entering the mainstream, and hard prices have become the main reasons for consumers to give up buying Mazda. When sales continue to decline, Mazda needs to iterate quickly on its models and introduce a new generation of products and technologies to improve product power. For the problem of rising prices caused by improving the brand image, Mazda will lose more potential consumer groups.

The overall sales of new cars in China have been declining, while the mainstream Japanese brands have bucked the trend, but there is also polarization, such as Suzuki has already withdrawn from local production in China, Mazda sales have fallen for 11 months, and Mitsubishi is in the doldrums. If you zoom in to the entire Chinese market, it can be expected that more automakers have been caught in an uphill battle.

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