AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)11/03 Report--

Many car companies in the "gold nine silver ten" can come up with a lot of market performance higher than usual, but Honda's performance is surprising, because it has been two consecutive months of sharp decline, do not see a little "gold nine silver ten" hot signs.

According to Honda China's latest release, Honda sold 106,101 vehicles in China in October 2022, down 28.5% year-on-year, including 55,804 vehicles for GAC Honda, down 28.2% year-on-year, and 50,297 vehicles for Dongfeng Honda, down 28.8% year-on-year. It is worth mentioning that Honda China has fallen sharply for two consecutive months. In September 2022, Honda sold 101,069 terminal vehicles in China, down 16.8% year-on-year, including 60,851 vehicles of GAC Honda, down 0.7% year-on-year, and 40,218 vehicles of Dongfeng Honda, down 33.1% year-on-year.

Japanese cars dominated the Chinese market. In 2020, the overall automobile market in China was depressed, but Honda grew against the trend, with a cumulative sales volume of 1.627 million vehicles in China throughout the year, the highest sales volume in history. However, with the recovery of China's auto market, Honda sales volume will not increase but decline. From 2020 to October 2022, Honda sales volume will be 1.2468 million, 1.2561 million and 1.1565 million respectively.

It is understood that Honda launched a number of brand-new models in China during the year, including a new generation of XR-V, a new generation of CR-V, a new pure electric e:NS1/e:NP Extreme Pai 1, ZR-V Zhizai and other models, and will launch a new generation of Haoying, a new generation of Binzhi, HR-V and other models before the end of the year, which can be called a new year of products. However, the models including e: NS1/e:NP Extreme Pai 1 and ZR-V have been launched and failed to bring good market performance. CR-V, XR-V, Binzhi and other new generation models will lead consumers to wait and see in the early stage of launch, while CR-V, XR-V and Binzhi are Honda's main models, which are bound to affect their overall sales volume.

Honda's rapid rise depends on its "affordable" price advantage, while its own brands are "nibbling" the market of all joint venture brands at more affordable prices. According to the sales data of September, except for Accord, ZR-V and e:NP, the sales ranking of other models declined to varying degrees compared with August. For example, CR-V (12815 vehicles), Binzhi (6464 vehicles) and XR-V (3009 vehicles) dropped by 23,38 and 113 respectively. These three models were mainly affected by the replacement. In addition to the above three models, including Civic, Haoying, Model, Fit, etc. all declined, ranking fell by more than double digits, at present can only be attributed to the epidemic situation and parts supply impact.

In addition, Honda's failure in the layout of the new energy vehicle market, or its business in the fuel vehicle market, has caused Honda to lose its advantage. According to the list of new energy vehicles released by the association, in the first three quarters, except FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen, two joint venture brands entered the list, and Tesla, a foreign-funded enterprise, all others were independent brands, among which BYD's sales volume was almost the sum of Tesla, SAIC GM Wuling, Geely and GAC Ai 'an. More simply, for every 10 new energy vehicles sold in China, three come from BYD.

Obviously, this excitement does not belong to Honda, or to Japanese brands. According to the data, the sales volume of Dongfeng Honda e: NS1 and GAC Honda e: NP1 in September was 200 and 400 respectively. It is understood that Dongfeng Honda e: NS1 and GAC Honda e: NP1 are sister models to each other, positioning compact pure electric SUV, selling price of 175,000 yuan-218,000 yuan, compared with domestic models obviously lack advantages.

In fact, motorization is only one aspect, Honda's real hard injury or intelligence. In the domestic market, Honda stands on the same starting line with Baidu and Xiaomi, but in the intelligent field, Honda's technology accumulation is obviously inferior to Baidu and Xiaomi, especially NIO, Ideal and Xiaopeng. These brands initially build the Great Wall of Sales. For Honda, they may face more challenges. As for the overseas market, Honda is on the same starting line with Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, etc. Tesla is a dominant player in the global market and has no other strong competitors to disrupt the situation. Therefore, Honda still has advantages in the overseas market, but the current independent brand accelerates to go to sea and will face development pressure in the future. Of course, Honda is not alone. In fact, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi and other Japanese car companies all have the same problem.

Among the joint venture brands, only FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC-Volkswagen have developed well at present. In 2021, Volkswagen launched five pure electric models in the Chinese market, including ID.3, ID.4 X/ID.4 CROZZ and ID.6 X/ID.6 CROZZ. Although the sales volume of these models is far less than that of mainstream independent brands, they are the best among joint venture brands.

In fact, Volkswagen is more decisive than Toyota, Honda and other brands. As the world's largest automobile market and the world's largest new energy automobile market, Volkswagen is highly dependent on China, and Volkswagen's achievements in new energy vehicles are following the pace of the market, while Toyota, Honda and other brands are in concern and swing. After all, decades of fuel technology layout will be completely overthrown. Difficulties are inevitable. However, with the rapid rise of Tesla and China's own brands, there is not much time left for pioneers.

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