AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)02/07 Report--

In the first month of the New Year, the sales volume of the top three Japanese companies in China collectively "misfire".

As of February 7, Toyota Motor, Honda Motor and Nissan Motor have announced their monthly report cards in China in January 2023. According to the list of statistics of "Automobile Industry Concern", the sales volume of the three automobile enterprises that have announced sales volume in China has been "Waterloo", among which Toyota China has fallen by 23.5% year-on-year, Honda China and Nissan China have "cut", down 56.2% and 64.4% respectively.

Toyota China, as the head brand of Japanese automobile enterprises, still sold 113,800 vehicles in January, but fell 23.5% year-on-year, which is Toyota's sales volume in China for three consecutive months of year-on-year decline. As for the reasons for the decline in sales volume, Toyota said it was affected by factors such as the Spring Festival holiday, the reduction of dealer store customers and the end of the purchase tax halving policy.

Among them, GAC Toyota's January sales fell 24.4% year-on-year to 75,500 vehicles. Among the specific models, the cumulative sales volume of GAC Toyota Camry, Highlander and Sana flagship models was 29,700, accounting for nearly 40%, an increase of 39% compared with the previous month. So far, however, officials have only announced sales of the Sana model, which exceeded 8000 for the first time in January, a record high.

Sana is a new MPV model launched by GAC Toyota on October 30,2021. This car is the first MPV model under GAC Toyota. It is built based on TNGA-K platform. There are 6 models launched in total. The price range is 309,800 - 405,800 yuan. The whole series is equipped with 2.5L hybrid system.

As of the time of publication, FAW Toyota has not announced January sales, but from the above sales data it is not difficult to speculate that FAW Toyota sales in January or less than 40,000 vehicles, of course, this is only speculation, whether the final sales results need to be subject to official data. On February 7,"Auto Industry Concern" noted that the enterprise status of FAW Toyota Technology Development Co., Ltd. changed from existence to cancellation. According to Sky Eye Inspection, the company was founded in November 2012, with Huang Yong as its legal representative and a registered capital of RMB 640 million. Its business scope includes research and development of automobiles, parts and related products, technical services and consultation, inspection and testing, etc. Equity penetration chart shows that the company is wholly owned by FAW Toyota Motor Co., Ltd.

In addition, Toyota's luxury brand Lexus sales in January also fell 62.4% year-on-year to 6600 vehicles, the decline may be related to its domestic production stagnation in Japan. Earlier media reports said Toyota would limit orders for all Lexus models, and a shortage of parts, including on-board semiconductors, is expected to continue until 2023. Reported that Toyota for Lexus brand nine models set order limits, the specific limit number varies according to dealer size, once sold out, can not accept more orders, a dealer revealed that many Lexus models "need to wait at least six months to pick up the car, but may also be longer."

In the early days, Toyota, Honda and Nissan were called the Japanese Three Swordsmen, and their sales scale and growth rate remained relatively consistent, but from the performance of automobile enterprises in recent years, this is already the past. Data show that Toyota, Honda and Nissan are gradually widening the gap.

Although Toyota China fell 23.5% year-on-year in January, Honda China and Nissan China fell more sharply year-on-year. Data show that Honda China sold 64,200 vehicles in January, down 56.2% year-on-year, down 56.2% year-on-year for five consecutive months. Among them, GAC Honda sold 40284 vehicles, down 49.63% year-on-year, Dongfeng Honda sold 23909 vehicles, 64.14% year-on-year. Nissan's sales volume in China in January was 47,500 vehicles, down 64.4% year-on-year, falling year-on-year for six consecutive months. Among them, Nissan passenger cars (including Nissan brand, Qichen brand and Infiniti brand) sold 45623 vehicles in total, down 59.02% year-on-year; light commercial vehicle plate (Zhengzhou Nissan) sold 1898 vehicles.

In fact, the sales volume of the overall automobile market in January was affected by the Spring Festival holiday, and the new brands of domestic car-making forces were no exception, including NIO Automobile, AION, AITO, smart, ZEEKR, Nezha Automobile, Xiaopeng Automobile, Zero Run Automobile, etc., which basically showed a sharp decline in sales volume compared with the previous month. However,"automobile industry concern" thinks, Japanese car enterprise sales decline reason besides traditional festival Spring Festival factor influence, More important reason and current automobile market overall trend related.

At present, the market share of fuel vehicles in the automobile market is continuing to be cold, while Japanese automobile enterprises have not yet had products that can be offered in the new energy vehicle market, that is to say, Japanese automobile enterprises are in a weak position in the field of new energy vehicles, and part of the sales volume is divided by self-owned brand new energy vehicles, resulting in a decline in the market share of Japanese vehicles. According to the data of risk, from 2020 to 2021, the sales volume of Japanese automobile enterprises in China was 4.985 million and 4.725 million respectively. After entering 2022, the sales volume of Japanese automobile enterprises in China fell by 7.7% year-on-year to 4.36 million, and the market share fell to 21%, down 1.2% year-on-year. Automobile electrification has been the trend of the industry. Under this background, the industry believes that the relatively lagging development of electrification has greatly dragged down the sales performance of Japanese automobile enterprises. 2023 may be a challenging year for Japanese car companies.

According to the latest data of the Passenger Association, according to preliminary statistics, the retail sales of domestic passenger car market in January was 1.241 million vehicles, down 41% year-on-year and 43% month-on-month; the wholesale of passenger car manufacturers nationwide was 1.341 million vehicles, down 38% year-on-year and 40% month-on-month. According to the association, due to the expiration of some policies such as car purchase tax and the Spring Festival holiday time to guide consumption demand in advance, the terminal price of the industry continued to decline to stimulate demand, the sales volume of the automobile market increased sharply in the first two weeks of the Spring Festival, but the price increase of new energy models in the early stage was too much, orders were few, and the price reduction of Tesla and other head enterprises was superimposed, resulting in consumer wait-and-see mood, with a large month-on-month decline. In addition, the early epidemic control has a greater impact on the marketing system and crowd base of fuel vehicles. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the penetration rate of new energy has risen beyond expectations, and there has been a certain natural decline after the adjustment of epidemic prevention and control policies.

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