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

On December 5, Honda China released its latest sales figures. Honda's terminal sales in China in November were 106654 vehicles, up 136.5% year-on-year (i.e., up 36.52% year-on-year and down 18.23% month-on-month), the sixth time in the year that sales exceeded 100,000 vehicles.

Since May this year, Honda China has no longer announced the specific monthly sales data of Dongfeng Honda and Guangzhou Automobile Honda joint ventures, and Honda China has not announced the sales of specific models. From November sales situation to see, Although November terminal sales month-on-month decline of 18.23%, But year-on-year decline of 42.8%, At that time officials said, Sales decline is mainly affected by the new crown epidemic.

By the end of November, Honda's cumulative terminal sales in China in the first November of this year were 1068383 vehicles, but fell 13.46% year-on-year. "Auto Industry Concern" believes that Honda's decline in sales in China is related to the rapid rise of the domestic new energy market.

At present, fuel vehicles are still the main source of Honda's sales in China. Taking October's retail sales volume as an example, Honda's top three models in China are Honda CR-V, Civic and Accord, with sales of 22,200, 19,600 and 17,100 respectively.

In terms of pure electric vehicle market, although Honda China launched two pure electric vehicles_e:NP1/e:NS1 in April 2022, sales of the two models have been sluggish since their launch. According to the data, the cumulative sales volume of Dongfeng Honda e: NS1 in October was 5880, while that of GAC Honda e: NP1 was 4415.

Honda is accelerating its electric transformation. Honda China has previously advanced the time point of "stopping selling fuel vehicles" from 2030 to 2027, that is, after 2027, all Honda models launched in China are hybrid models and pure electric vehicles, and no new pure fuel models will be launched; by 2035, Honda China will achieve 100% sales of pure electric vehicles.

In terms of specific joint ventures, the two companies have also made huge adjustments. On Oct.26, GAC Honda said it would no longer launch new fuel-only models from 2027 and that all Honda models sold in China would be 100% electric from 2035. Earlier on July 16, Dongfeng Honda announced that Dongfeng Honda will launch its brand-new independent pure electric brand in the second half of this year, with an electric ratio of more than 50% by 2025, no new fuel vehicles after 2027, and more than 10 pure electric vehicles by 2030.

Also in order to quickly turn to the electric vehicle market, on December 3, Honda said its joint venture Guangzhou Automobile Honda in China laid off 900 employees, the layoff plan is the first layoff in 25 years since its establishment. According to the calculation of about 13000 employees of GAC Honda, the layoffs accounted for 6.9%. A Honda spokesman said GAC Honda's production was decreasing, so the dispatch contract was terminated. In response to this, GAC Honda said to the media that GAC Honda and the labor dispatch company terminated part of the personnel dispatch agreement because of the phased adjustment of production. GAC Honda has cooperated with the labor dispatch company to ensure that the affected personnel obtain economic compensation in time according to laws and regulations, and actively assist them in re-employment.

In fact, not only Honda cars, since 2023, Japanese car enterprises in China development is not smooth. In the first three quarters of this year, cumulative sales of Japanese brands fell 15.4 per cent year-on-year to 2,612,700 vehicles, accounting for 17.2 per cent of China's market share, compared with 20.0 per cent of China's market share in 2022, according to the association. Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association, once said: "Japanese cars have shortcomings in the pure electric vehicle market, mainly because Japanese car companies are unwilling to change. "

At the Guangzhou Auto Show in 2023, Dongfeng Honda e: NS2 production version and GAC Honda e: NP2 production version were officially released. The two models are sister cars to each other. They are built based on Honda pure electric vehicle exclusive intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture "e:N Architecture F." It is the second model of Honda e:N series and is expected to be launched in 2024. In addition, the production version of Honda e: N SUV series concept car will also be officially launched in 2024.

The launch of new cars may improve Honda's product matrix in the pure electric car field, but under the background of strong rise of domestic new energy and continuous squeeze of market share of joint venture automobile enterprises, it is not easy for Honda China to turn over against the wind, which also means Honda China needs to lay out new energy track at a faster speed or make more innovations.

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