AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/06 Report--

As of February 6, Japanese car companies Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda have released their latest monthly transcripts in China one after another. According to auto industry concern statistics, Honda is undoubtedly the best performing car company in China in February 2022, with year-on-year growth of 30.1% far surpassing that of Toyota and Nissan, while Mazda became the only car company to decline, falling by 23.8%. In addition, Honda grew 5.7% from January to February from a year earlier, making it the only car company to grow, while Toyota, Nissan and Mazda all fell, but Toyota is still the highest-selling company.

Toyota China reported sales of 128500 vehicles in February 2021, up 9.5 per cent from a year earlier. It should be noted that Toyota's sales in China are made up of joint ventures Guangzhou Auto Toyota, FAW Toyota and imported Lexus. Toyota China does not disclose the specific sales of Guangzhou Auto Toyota, FAW Toyota and Lexus. Generally speaking, the sales gap between Toyota joint venture and Honda joint venture will not be very big, but due to the support of Lexus, Toyota is higher in sales than Honda.

From the product point of view, Toyota's sales in China mainly come from Camry, Leiling, Wiranda, Hanlanda, Carola, Asian Dragon, Rongfang. As for the models launched in 2021, such as Sena, Asian Lion, Ling Fang, Crown-Lu Fang, Ling Shang, Ling Ling, Feng Landa and other models, the current sales performance is still very mediocre, and it is not a popular Toyota model for the time being.

From the perspective of cumulative sales, although Toyota has the highest sales volume, it has dropped 9.6% compared with the same period last year, mainly due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic in Tianjin in January. The shutdown of the FAW Toyota plant in Tianjin led to a decline in sales, while the lack of production capacity to a certain extent affected sales in the end market and affected Toyota's overall market performance.

If you look at Honda China, Honda China was stronger in February than in previous months, as it set an all-time record for terminal car sales in February. Data show that Honda's China terminal sales in February 2022 were 106100, up 30.1% from a year earlier, of which Guangzhou Auto Honda was 51200, up 39.9% from a year earlier, and Dongfeng Honda was 54900, up 22.1% from a year earlier.

It is understood that Dongfeng Honda will launch a number of new models this year, including the new Civic, the new Civic hybrid version, the new Civic HATCHBACK, the new Civic TYPE-R, the new generation XR-V, the new generation CR-V, the new pure electric e:NS1 and a brand new SUV model, totaling 8 models, which can be called the year of the product. From the above product layout, CR-V, XR-V are Dongfeng Honda's best-selling models, once these two models are upgraded, the product power will also be greatly improved, further driving Dongfeng Honda's sales level.

In addition, on March 4, Honda and Sony Group official Xuan jointly built the car, and the two sides will jointly fund the establishment of a new company to develop pure electric vehicles. In this partnership, Sony is mainly responsible for developing car software and in-car entertainment systems, as well as providing a travel service platform, while Honda focuses on production and sales. It is worth mentioning that this cooperation was first proposed by Honda. Are you optimistic about this pair of car-building CP?

Let's take a look at Nissan. Unlike Toyota and Honda, Nissan's sales in China include passenger cars and commercial vehicles. Data show that Nissan sold 77500 vehicles in China in February 2022, up 2.5 per cent from a year earlier, of which Dongfeng Limited (including Nissan / Qichen / Infiniti) sold 63700 vehicles, down 1.5 per cent from a year earlier.

Specifically, Nissan brand terminal sales in February 57800, including Teana sales of 10300, Xuanyi series sales of 28500, Xiaoke sales of 9743. As for Qijun, although Nissan has not announced Qijun's sales results for a long time, according to the data of the Federation of passengers, even if Qijun Glory was only 1184 in January this year, then it was affected by the Spring Festival holiday in February. It is estimated that Qijun's sales should be less than 1000.

For the other two brands, Qichen sold 7416 vehicles in February, of which Qichen V sold 3041. Although Nissan China did not disclose the specific sales of Infiniti, it can be calculated to be 477. At present, Infiniti is in a very worrying situation and was incorporated into the Dongfeng Nissan system in January this year, but whether it can promote the development of Infiniti can only be answered by the market. February 28th, the new generation of Dongfeng Infiniti QX60 officially launched, the new car launched a total of 6 models, the price range is 39.98-619800 yuan. It is understood that QX60 is Dongfeng Infiniti's first medium-and large-scale SUV, and it is also the third domestic model after Q50L and QX50. Infiniti said: the new round of product introduction led by the new QX60 will further meet the needs of Chinese consumers for luxury brands.

Finally, let's take a look at Mazda China, where sales in February 2022 were only 8047 vehicles, down 23.8% from a year earlier, making it the only brand on the list to decline. Perhaps sales are not satisfactory. Mazda China only reported model sales from January to February, but according to the auto industry's calculations, Unksera, CX-5 and CX-30 sold 4879, 1238 and 853 vehicles respectively in February. In terms of model sales, Mazda model sales declined collectively under the influence of the Spring Festival holiday, of which the Onksera is Mazda's highest-selling model in China, which is as important as Xuanyi to Dongfeng Nissan.

It is worth mentioning that not long ago, Mazda said it would reorient its brand and gradually shift to a luxury brand. Jeremy Thomson, head of Mazda's UK, said: "Mazda's goal is to become a true luxury brand, so it does not intend to imitate high-end German brands, but will replace traditional mainstream luxury brands." When asked if Mazda wanted to be the next Lexus brand, Jeremy Thomson said that why can't Mazda become the only Japanese brand that can compete with three German luxury brands?

It is understood that the killer mace of Mazda to enter the luxury market is the upcoming launch of rear-drive RWD models with rotor engines, in-line six-cylinder engines and hybrid technology, including Mazda CX-60 to Mazda CX-90. Some netizens mentioned that this is to replace Acura? According to media reports, Honda luxury brand Acura is rumored to be pulling out of China in June and is currently clearing inventory.

The sales volume of car companies in February can be used as a reference, because the Spring Festival in 2021 is also in February, and the year-on-year growth means that the demand in the mainstream car market is still very large, but for the performance that is significantly lower than the market, then the influencing factor is not only the Spring Festival holiday, but also the product quality.

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