AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/15 Report--

According to NHK, Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan signed a memorandum of understanding on March 15 to conduct comprehensive cooperation on the electric vehicle business, including joint procurement,

Jointly develop power platform and generalization of spare parts, Nissan and Honda hope to reduce costs through resource integration and enhance the product competitiveness of electric vehicles in China.

In the face of the complexity of the global automobile market and the cooling demand for electric vehicles, Honda and Nissan consider working together to overcome these challenges, seek to share R & D costs, accelerate the innovation of electric vehicle technology, and use economies of scale to reduce costs. to respond more effectively to competitive pressures in the global market.

As one of the earliest car companies in the field of electric vehicles, Nissan launched its first electric vehicle, the Leaf leaf, and entered the market as early as 2010, but under the slow pace of the local electrified industry chain and the slow updating of Sandian technology, Nissan has not been able to effectively improve the profit margin of its electric products. Competing with Toyota and Honda in the fuel car market and dealing with the technological precipitation of the two companies in the hybrid market ultimately made it difficult for Nissan to develop in the field of electric vehicles.

In 2019, Nissan launched the first pure electric SUV--ARIYA,ARIYA based on the CMF-EV platform, which is regarded as a landmark product of Nissan's electrification transformation and plays an important role in Nissan's electrification. However, the electric car was not officially introduced to the Chinese market until 2022, when the competition in China's electric car market has entered a white-hot stage, coupled with its price of up to 272800 yuan. This "iconic product" was sentenced to "death penalty" after its launch, with 3702 units sold in 2023, with monthly sales of just over 300, well below Nissan's expectations.

Honda's development in electrification is also not too late, launching the electric concept car EVX as early as the 1990s and mass-producing its first electric EV Plus, but Honda did not do much in the following decades. In the Chinese market, although the Honda joint venture has also launched several pure electric models, the market response has been muted. In October 2021, Honda China launched the new pure electric brand EVR N, and at the same time launched five new models of the "EVR N" series. The first two models are Dongfeng Honda e:NS1 and Guangzhou Automobile Honda e:NP1, which are regarded as the symbol of "stepping into a new era of electrification in an all-round way". At this time, great changes have taken place in China's auto market, also because of inflated market pricing. Coupled with the fact that consumers could not be impressed either in terms of brand tone or technology configuration, the two electric cars were eventually "sentenced to death" by the market, with sales of 4502 e:NP1 and 10562 e:NS1 in 2023.

At present, Japanese cars are overwhelmed by local electric car brands in the Chinese market, not just electric cars. In 2023, Qin PLUS sold a total of 434200 vehicles, surpassing Xuanyi's 376100 and Lang Yi's 345900. After the Spring Festival of the year of the Dragon, BYD took the lead in launching an attack on joint venture fuel vehicles, shouting the slogan "electricity is lower than oil". Qin PLUS, which sells for only 79800 yuan, directly lifted Xuanyi, Lang Yi and Carola's "table". Since then, more and more new energy brands have followed BYD in price reduction, triggering a new round of price reduction tide, so that joint venture car companies feel more pressure and have no choice but to follow the market to reduce prices, but even so it is difficult to restore the market situation.

Japanese car companies, led by Toyota, have always argued that reducing carbon emissions is not the only way to reduce carbon emissions, and that hybrid and hydrogen fuel should also be paid attention to, but electric car companies such as Tesla and BYD have been a great success in the Chinese market. make this development route controversial. In fact, it is not that Japanese brands do not want to develop electric cars. In April 2022, Honda announced a 10-year investment of 5 trillion yen in electrification and software technology research and development. By 2030, Honda will launch 30 pure electric vehicles worldwide, with an annual production capacity of more than 2 million. Nissan said in its "Nissan Ambition 2030" that it would launch 27 electric vehicles worldwide by fiscal year 2030, including 19 pure electric models and 8 e-POWER models.

Nissan and Honda's strategy adjustment in the Chinese market will be a long-term process. With the continuous progress of electric vehicle technology and the change of consumer demand, the two companies should not only maintain competitiveness, but also constantly explore and adapt to new market trends. Whether by adjusting production capacity or strengthening the layout of electric vehicles, Nissan and Honda are facing challenges and opportunities for transformation. According to the latest report from the Nikkei News, Nissan and Honda are planning to cut capacity at their joint venture plants in China, with Nissan planning to cut capacity by 30% and Honda by 20%.

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