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At the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, Honda China's eHonda brand launched three pure electric vehicles in the world, including e:NP2, which will be launched by GAC Honda in early 2024, and e:NS2, which will be launched by Dongfeng Honda in early 2024. This time, the launch is close to the final design of the prototype model-e:NP2 Prototype, which is developed and built by Honda's China team and comes from the intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture of pure electric vehicles. In addition, Honda China has also unveiled the concept car "EVA N SUV Preface" and "EV N GT Concept", which will adopt the new exclusive structure of EV, "EVV N Architecture W", which are scheduled to be launched in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

At the press conference, Honda China announced that it had fully entered the electric era. After 2027, all Honda models launched in China will be hybrid and pure electric vehicles, and will no longer launch new pure fuel models. By 2035, Honda China will account for 100% of pure electric vehicle sales. Earlier, Honda China announced that it would sell only pure electric and hybrid models in China from 2030, instead of launching new fuel vehicles.

As one of the three giants of the Japanese system, Honda's life in the Chinese market is getting harder and harder. In 2022, Honda's terminal sales in China were 1.3731 million, down 12.1% from a year earlier, of which the annual terminal sales of electric models were 231300, accounting for about 16.8% of the total sales. In response, Honda China blamed the decline in sales on the repeated COVID-19 epidemic, tight supply of spare parts, rising prices of raw materials, and so on.

Inexplicably, although domestic epidemic prevention policies have been unbound and the negative impact of similar outbreaks has diminished, Honda's sales in China have not improved much. In the first quarter of 2023, Honda's terminal sales in China were 220400, down 37.7% from the same period last year, including GAC Honda down 36.2% and Dongfeng Honda down 39.4%.

Fuel cars are difficult to sell and electric cars are not popular, which is a difficult problem that Honda has to face in China. In terms of products, although Honda has renovated the main models, including XR-V, CR-V, colorful Intelligence, Haoying and so on, these models have definitely accumulated some word-of-mouth and brand awareness in the domestic market, but today, with the increasing calls for de-fueling, the updates of these products are only aimed at the appearance and interior, no matter how comprehensive the Honda CONNECT 3.0 system is used. Can not change the fact that they are "backward" in the design concept.

At the 2023 Shanghai International Auto Show, GAC Honda unveiled a new generation of Accord. As a replacement model, Accord is similar to colorful wisdom, Haoying and other models, it is still aimed at making trouble in the appearance and interior decoration, and the power system has almost not changed, even though it has taken the lead in the field of fuel vehicles and hybridization. but the oil truck is still an oil truck after all.

In the field of new energy, in addition to the mixed models, the monthly sales of the two pure electric models-- e:NP1/e:NS1, which belong to the EVR N brand, are basically maintained at three digits, which is almost negligible compared with other traditional independent new energy brands. Consumers can rest assured to buy domestic compact models with longer battery life and higher intelligence.

From this point of view, Honda is facing a lot of pressure in the Chinese market, and in order to reverse the situation, Honda also made a comprehensive adjustment of its company structure in China in January this year to speed up the electrification of its products, including the merger of Honda Technology (China) Co., Ltd. (HMCT) and Honda production Technology (China) Co., Ltd. (EGCH). And reduce the six major global market segments to "North America, China and other regions, and set up a new electric industry development headquarters to be more focused on the electric car business."

Honda in the era of fuel cars, "one Japan, lifelong Honda" has become the loyal slogan of Honda fans, which is the resonance of users brought by the strong product power, but the consumer groups who have experienced the baptism of new energy development and changes, the market is becoming more rational, when the product advantage is no longer, consumers will always choose other brands.

Of course, life for other Japanese brands besides Honda is also very difficult. Toyota is also accelerating the electrification layout, which will spend $35 billion by 2030 to accelerate the electrification transformation, and its Lexus brand will be fully transformed into an all-electric brand. However, like Honda, the bZ4X, the first pure electric vehicle based on e-TNGA architecture, has not performed well in the domestic market, with FAW Toyota bZ4X selling 3065 vehicles in the first quarter, while Guangzhou Automobile Toyota bZ4X only 1729 vehicles. This time, Toyota, FAW Toyota and even joined BYD to launch the second bZ series model-bZ3, designed by Toyota, equipped with BYD Sandian technology, FAW Toyota is responsible for production, the price range is 16.98-199800 yuan.

At present, BYD is not only the largest new energy vehicle manufacturer in China, but also the largest new energy vehicle manufacturer in the world. Industry insiders said that if Toyota joined forces with BYD and bZ3 did not achieve the desired results, Toyota really did not know how to go.

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