AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/09 Report--

In 2023, Japanese car companies are still unable to reverse the sluggish sales in China. According to the sales list of Japanese manufacturers in March and the first quarter of 2023, no matter monthly or quarterly sales, sales of Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda in China are all on a year-on-year decline, with Mazda falling the most, falling 66.11% in the first quarter of 2023 and 46.17% in March.

According to the latest report of Japan's Kyodo News Agency, Toyota sold 136400 new cars in China in March, down 18.5% from the same period last year. FAW Toyota sales rose 7.2% year-on-year, compared with Guangzhou Auto Toyota, which fell 31.1% year-on-year and Lexus 44.1%. Toyota said that although the company also carried out price cuts and promotions, it was still affected by factors such as wait-and-see expectations for future economic stimulus policies.

According to previous data, Toyota sold 113800 vehicles in China in January and 129600 in February, down 23.5 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively from a year earlier, which means that Toyota sold 379800 vehicles in China in the first quarter of 2023, 14.57 per cent year-on-year. Although the year-on-year decline was the lowest among the above four car companies, Toyota actually performed poorly in the Chinese market in the past year. Data show that Toyota's new car sales in China in 2022 were 1.9406 million, down 0.2% from the same period last year. This is Toyota's first year-on-year decline in China in a decade. Among them, Lexus terminal sales in China fell by 16.06%, the first decline in 16 years since Lexus entered China.

On April 7, Toyota announced that it would launch 10 new pure electric vehicles by 2026. Toyota's chief technology officer, Hiroki Nakajima, said Toyota would set up a new special department to focus on the research, development and production of pure electric vehicles. The goal is to produce 1.5 million battery-powered vehicles a year by 2026. At the same time, Toyota's new president, Henji Sato, said Toyota will accelerate the development of battery electric vehicles and expand its product line in the important field of pure electric vehicles in the next few years. As for whether Toyota can catch up and increase its market share at that time, the answer is to leave time to test.

Compared with Toyota, Honda's sales in China are declining. Honda's terminal car sales in china fell 18.8 per cent year-on-year to 82041 in march, the seventh consecutive month of decline, according to official figures. Among the brands, Guangzhou Auto Honda fell 28.4 per cent year-on-year to 41813 vehicles, while Dongfeng Honda fell 15.1 per cent to 40228 vehicles. It should be noted that in early March, Hubei launched a large subsidy for joint government-enterprise car purchases, in which Dongfeng Honda subsidized models basically covered all its models, and all models included subsidies up to 68000 yuan discount. However, this move did not bring obvious sales benefits to Dongfeng Honda.

From January to March this year, Honda's sales in China fell 56.2%, 30.1% and 18.8% respectively compared with the same period last year. Judging from the year-on-year trend, the decline in Honda's sales in China is narrowing, but Honda's cumulative sales in China in the first quarter were only 220400 vehicles, down 37.7% from the same period last year, which means that Honda is still facing greater market pressure in China. Among them, Guangzhou Auto Honda's sales fell 36.2% to 117926 vehicles in the first quarter compared with the same period last year, while Dongfeng Honda fell 39.4% to 102441 vehicles. The industry generally believes that Honda's declining sales in China are mainly due to the lack of product power after refurbishment and fierce competition in the domestic car market. at the same time, the slow progress of electrification is also one of the important reasons affecting Honda's sales in China.

Unlike Toyota and Honda, Nissan's sales in China include passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles. Official data show that from January to March 2023, Nissan's sales in China (including passenger vehicles and light commercial vehicles) were 47521, 59997 and 54443 respectively, down 64.4%, 22.6% and 25.3% respectively from a year earlier. Cumulative sales in the first quarter of 2023 were 161961 vehicles, down 36.8% from a year earlier, of which sales of Dongfeng Nissan (including Nissan, Qichen and Infiniti brands) were 151467, down 37.7% from the same period last year. Light commercial vehicle business sector (Zhengzhou Nissan) sales of 10494 vehicles, up 7.6% year-on-year.

At present, Dongfeng Nissan is the main source of sales of Nissan cars in China. Dongfeng Nissan passenger cars are mainly composed of Nissan, Infiniti and Qichen brands. models on sale include Xuanyi, Teana, Qijun, Xiaoke, Bluebird, Tuda, Jinke, Loulan and so on, but the main selling models are only Xuanyi, Teana and Xiaoke, but at present these traditional fuel vehicles have lost their advantage in the Chinese market. The industry believes that Nissan's poor sales in China are not only due to environmental factors, but also to the decline in the market performance of Dongfeng Nissan's traditional fuel models and the slow progress of new energy vehicle products. so far, Nissan has only an all-electric SUV model in China, which went on sale last year with a price range of 27.28-342800 yuan, but the car did not achieve the desired results. New car traffic insurance data show that Aliya sold 111 vehicles from January to February in 2023, of which only 52 were sold in February, which is a big gap with the sales of similar products on the market.

As for Mazda, although its volume in the Chinese market is not comparable to that of Toyota and Honda, its decline is particularly significant. Official figures show that Changan Mazda sold 6000 vehicles in March, down 46.17% from a year earlier, and 13900 in the first quarter of 2023, down 66.11% from a year earlier. Judging from the sales performance of the four car companies in the list, Mazda suffered the highest decline in both monthly and quarterly sales.

According to the official website, Changan Mazda's models for sale include Unksera, Atez, CX-30/CX-30 EV, CX-4, CX-5, CX-8 and other models, but only one model has better sales. Take 2022 sales as an example, the total annual sales of Changan Mazda in 2022 is 107602, of which Zhong Anksera is 62478, accounting for about 58.06% of the total sales, and CX-5 is 17511. CX-30 is 11708, Atez is 7314, CX-4 is 6580, CX-8 is 1276. In addition to the above-mentioned car companies, Changan Mazda will announce the Chinese name of the CX-50 model on April 18 and unveil the CX-90 model at the 2023 Shanghai International Auto Show.

In addition to the above models, GAC-Mitsubishi, which is also a Japanese car company, also released first-quarter sales figures. GAC-Mitsubishi sold 3969 vehicles in the first quarter of 2023, down 57.95 per cent from a year earlier, according to official figures. Earlier, there was news that "GAC-Mitsubishi will withdraw from the Chinese market", but this news was quickly denied by GAC-Mitsubishi officials. GAC-Mitsubishi said that GAC-Mitsubishi was operating normally, Mitsubishi did not quit, and the factory was operating normally. In terms of first-quarter sales, although GAC-Mitsubishi officials have denied rumors of withdrawing from the Chinese market, its lacklustre sales performance still cannot hide the embarrassing situation it faces in the domestic market. By the end of December 2022, the annual capacity utilization rate of GAC-Mitsubishi was only 17.75%, with total assets of 5.961 billion yuan and total assets and liabilities of 5.954 billion yuan.

In view of the reasons for the decline in sales of Japanese car companies in the first quarter of 2023, Japanese media pointed out that the main reason is that the domestic market halved the purchase tax on fuel vehicles at the end of 2022 and sales subsidies for new energy vehicles. In addition, Honda said the end of the purchase tax halving policy was the main factor, while Nissan said there was still a shortage of chips.

Japanese car companies once crushed their own brands, but now they are not what they used to be. "do not worry about selling" and "lie down to win" are no longer the key words of Japanese car companies. Prior to this, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Federation of passengers, said that the decline in Japanese car sales is related to the development trend of the car market, the market share of fuel vehicles is facing a sharp decline, and independent brands rely on new energy vehicles to quickly seize market share. As a reference, data show that Chinese brands sold 9.1766 million vehicles in 2022, with a market share of 45%, while Japanese brands sold 4.3605 million vehicles, with a market share of only 21%.

According to the latest estimates of the Federation of passengers, retail sales in the passenger car market are expected to reach 1.596 million in March, unchanged from the same period last year, and the cumulative retail sales in the passenger car market so far this year are expected to reach 4.275 million, down 13% from the same period last year. Among them, the retail sales of new energy vehicles are 549000, up 5% from the same period last year, and 1.319 million so far this year, up 15% from the same period last year. At present, Japanese car companies are still in a weak position in the field of new energy. obviously, if Japanese car companies want to increase sales and market share in China, they urgently need to spend more resources and energy to accelerate the launch of cost-effective and more attractive electric models.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat