AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/09 Report--

As of August 9, Japanese car companies Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda have successively announced their latest monthly sales in China. According to the sales list focused on statistics by the auto industry, Toyota, Honda and Nissan all achieved year-on-year growth in July, with Honda the best performer, with an increase of 23.5% in July far surpassing that of Toyota and Nissan. Mazda became the only car company to decline, down 33%.

In recent months, Mazda's performance in China has been the focus of attention among Japanese car companies. The latest figures show that Mazda's sales in July were 9044, down 33.0% from a year earlier, the only car company to decline, while Mazda fell for the 16th month in a row.

Unlike Toyota, Honda and Nissan, Mazda has been so "silent" since 2022 that it does not even publish monthly sales on its official website. At present, Mazda's official website sales data remain in March this year, and industry insiders point out that the reason for not releasing sales is or because of a serious decline in sales. At the end of last month, Mazda's Japanese official website showed that the Mazda 6 would no longer accept any orders for current models, and that the current Mazda 6 was in stock and immediately stopped selling after clearing the inventory. This news immediately triggered all kinds of speculation on the Internet, and Mazda officials clarified that the Japanese market for fixed production of Mazda 6 decided not to accept new orders because of a shortage of chips, but the market was not affected.

In fact, Mazda had its peak in China, when sales reached 300000 in 2018, but declined in subsequent years, with sales of 280000, 227000 and 184000, respectively, from 2017 to 2021. Since FAW Mazda withdrew, Mazda mainly relied on a car company in Changan Mazda in the domestic market. Data show that in the first half of this year, Changan Mazda sold only 58165 vehicles, accounting for only 0.62% of the market.

Mazda models in China include Onksera, Atez, CX-8, CX-5, CX-4, CX-30/CX-30 EV, etc., among which Atez has stopped production and sales due to the merger of FAW Mazda into Changan Mazda. Although there are many Mazda models, the only one whose sales are optimistic is Onksera. According to the cumulative sales of 58165 vehicles in the first half of the year, Mazda 3 Oncella is responsible for 65% of its sales. But it is not practical for Mazda to grow solely on the Onksera, which means that Mazda needs to launch more popular products to help it grow. Mazda is scheduled to launch four models, including the CX-60, CX-70, CX-80 and CX-90, between 2022 and 2023, but it is not clear whether it will be introduced into the Chinese market, making it difficult for Mazda to return to the top track.

Toyota, the leading car company in the Japanese camp, still had the highest sales, with 184000 vehicles in July, although it rose only 6 per cent in July. As for its brands, according to official sales figures, Guangzhou Auto Toyota sold 84000 vehicles in July, up 11.8% from a year earlier, although July sales were still down from 100866 in June. Among them, Hanlanda sold 7119 vehicles, Sena sold 6109 vehicles, Camry sold 20598 vehicles, Wellanda sold 12652 vehicles, Leiling family sold 16881 vehicles and Feng Landa sold 9061 vehicles. Compared with June sales, all of these models fell month-on-month.

Honda's terminal sales in China were 133556, up 23.5% from a year earlier, making it the highest year-on-year increase among the Japanese companies, with Guangzhou Auto Honda selling 68337 and Dongfeng Honda selling 65219. According to the auto industry's previous statistics, Honda showed the highest year-on-year growth in June and July. As a reference, Honda's sales in China rose 19.4 per cent to 141142 vehicles in June from a year earlier. According to Honda's own sales data, Honda's sales have gradually picked up.

Nissan sold 100203 new cars in China in July, up 4.6 per cent from a year earlier and the first year-on-year increase in five months. It should be noted that Nissan's sales in China include passenger cars and commercial vehicles. Of this total, passenger vehicles increased 7.5 per cent to 86474, while commercial vehicles fell 10.6 per cent to 13729.

In addition, Mitsubishi Motors, one of the Japanese car companies, has also released sales figures. Although they are both Japanese car companies, the size of Mitsubishi Motors can not be directly compared with Mazda, but what they have in common is a marked decline. According to wholesale sales figures disclosed by GAC GROUP, GAC-Mitsubishi sold 3777 vehicles in July, down 17.9 per cent from a year earlier. Cumulative sales from January to July this year were 17525, down 49.4% from the same period last year.

Generally speaking, due to the impact of the general environment this year, the sales of Japanese car companies in China have also been affected in previous months. Since May, relevant domestic departments have introduced a series of measures to boost the car consumption market, such as purchase tax relief and new energy vehicles going to the countryside. In June, some Japanese car companies ushered in a rebound. Toyota and Honda both achieved year-on-year growth, and the two car companies both increased by more than 19%. With the development of car companies, with the exception of Mazda and Mitsubishi Motors, the sales of new cars in China have increased.

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