AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/07 Report--

On May 7, GAC GROUP announced the production and marketing of KuaiBao in April. According to the data, GAC GROUP sold 177200 vehicles in April, up 42.57% from a year earlier. In addition, GAC GROUP's cumulative sales from January to April were 717100, down 2.10% from a year earlier. From the market point of view, in the same period, the national large-scale epidemic control measures led to a decline in production and sales, and now return to the normal state of operation, GAC GROUP sales soared is to be expected.

The biggest change in April from March's production and sales figures is that GAC-Mitsubishi has disappeared from GAC GROUP's list. Mitsubishi Motors has stopped production of new cars at its plant in Changsha, Hunan province, due to persistent sluggish sales, and is expected to resume production in June, according to Nikkei Chinese website. Earlier, a car blogger revealed that a certain day-to-day joint venture brand was about to withdraw from China, and the production line was converted to OEM with the same group's own brand.

Auto Industry concern speculated that GAC-Mitsubishi was "hidden" by GAC GROUP, or that the production and sales figures were too ugly because of the factory shutdown, while the deeper reason may have something to do with previous market rumors, even if officials deny it. Of course, this is just speculation, GAC GROUP has not disclosed the specific reasons.

Japanese brands such as Honda and Toyota have successively established stable cooperative relations with two local automobile groups, making use of local resources to accelerate the development of the Chinese market, while Mitsubishi has been changing joint venture partners in China since the 1990s due to factors such as joint venture stock ratio. It was not until the cooperation with Guangzhou Automobile that it was temporarily stable, but it also missed many opportunities to dig deep into the Chinese market and continue to build brand influence.

In 2016, at the end of the outbreak of the domestic SUV market, Mitsubishi officially launched the Olander model in China. With the prominent label of "2047", that is, "the only seven-seat four-wheel drive joint venture SUV within 200000 yuan", Olander helped Mitsubishi achieve great-leap-forward development in China. In the following three years from 2017 to 2019, GAC-Mitsubishi ushered in the most "highlight" moment, with sales of 117300, 144000 and 133000 respectively, making it the largest single market for Mitsubishi in the world.

However, starting from 2018, the growth rate of the domestic SUV segment began to slow, and Mitsubishi also fell. In 2020, Mitsubishi sold only 75000 vehicles in China, down 43.62% from the same period last year and halved compared with 2017. There were even rumors that Mitsubishi was about to withdraw from China, which was officially denied.

According to the strategic plan previously announced by the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, the three member companies have established benchmarking companies in specific areas in terms of market regions. The benchmark company of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance is Nissan in China, Renault in Europe and Mitsubishi in Southeast Asia. This may mean that the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance will be represented by Nissan in the Chinese market, while Mitsubishi will focus on the Southeast Asian market.

On March 22, GAC-Mitsubishi officials responded to the news that "Mitsubishi will withdraw from the Chinese market" and said: GAC-Mitsubishi is operating normally, Mitsubishi is not withdrawing, and the factory is operating normally. Earlier, it was reported that the joint venture brand GAC-Mitsubishi would sell the Changsha plant to produce GAC-Ean electric cars, and that the Mitsubishi brand might withdraw from the Chinese market. GAC-Mitsubishi said: this is false news, the enterprise is operating normally.

Although Mitsubishi Motors has officially denied withdrawing from China, the current situation is worrying for the outside world. According to the data, sales from 2019 to 2021 were 133016, 75001 and 66006 respectively, down 7.64%, 43.62% and 11.99% respectively from the same period last year. After entering 2022, the situation of GAC-Mitsubishi is even more critical, with annual sales of 33600 vehicles, down 49.13% from the same period last year.

According to data released by GAC GROUP, by the end of 2022, GAC-Mitsubishi has total assets of 5.961 billion yuan, total liabilities of 5.953 billion yuan, asset-liability ratio of 99%, and is about to face the risk of insolvency.

On April 25, Mitsubishi Motors issued a confirmation notice of non-operating expenses and special losses. Mitsubishi Motors said that GAC-Mitsubishi Motor Co., Ltd. launched the new Euroland in December 2022, but sales targets continued to fall short as competition in the Chinese market intensified. as a result, it is expected to include an abnormal loss of 22.6 billion yen in its consolidated results for the fiscal year 2022, including 12.1 billion yen in non-operating expenses and a special loss of 10.5 billion yen (544 million yuan).

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