AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)07/04 Report--

On July 3, Honda China announced terminal car sales in June and the first half of 2024. Data show that Honda's terminal car sales in China in June 2024 were 68966, down 39.04% from a year earlier to 415906 from January to June, compared with 78.5% in the same period, or 21.48% lower than a year earlier.

Honda China did not disclose specific sales figures for its two joint ventures in June and the first half of the year. For now, Honda China's performance is not optimistic, either in June sales or in the previous six months' cumulative sales. Honda's sales in China rose 57.28 per cent to 100960 vehicles in January from a year earlier, and then fell by double digits from February to June, down 38.63 per cent, 26.32 per cent, 22.18 per cent, 34.66 per cent and 39.04 per cent, respectively, according to official figures. However, Honda has grown in other markets compared with the Chinese market. It is understood that Honda sold 690281 vehicles in the first half of the year in the United States, an increase of 9.3 percent over the same period last year.

Looking back at the Chinese market, at present, most of Honda's sales in China still come from fuel vehicles, but fuel cars are becoming more and more difficult to sell. Taking January-May retail sales as an example, Honda's top three models in China were Honda CR-V, Accord and Civic, with sales of 72300, 54400 and 53300 respectively, followed by Haoying and Xingge, with 42500 and 39100 respectively.

Pure electric car market, although Honda China has four e:NS1/e:NS2/e:NP1/e:NP2 models, but the sense of market presence is not high. Retail data show that Dongfeng Honda sold 2037 e:NS1 vehicles from January to May, GAC Honda e:NP1 413 vehicles and Guangzhou Automobile Honda e:NP2 33 vehicles. Dongfeng Honda Shoguang e:NS2 launched on June 25, a total of four new models, the price range is 15.98-179800 yuan, the power is equipped with permanent magnet synchronous battery produced by Weili Automotive Electronics (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., the maximum power is 150kW, the power battery matching capacity is 68.8kWh ternary lithium battery, produced by Jiangsu Times New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.

Auto Industry concern believes that the decline in Honda's sales in China is related to the rapid rise of the domestic new energy market. Now a number of Chinese car companies, including BYD, have begun to encroach on the joint venture market, after BYD took the lead in launching an attack on joint venture fuel vehicles and chanting the slogan "electricity is lower than fuel", putting pressure on the joint venture companies. As a reference, BYD sold 341700 cars in June, 47800 ideal cars, and more than 20, 000 cars, including Lulai and zero cars, each month.

It is worth mentioning that Honda China's performance in the car market is only a microcosm of Japanese brands. According to the CAC data, in May this year, the market share of Japanese brands in China has fallen to 14.8%, German brands 18.6%, and American brands 6.7%. All the above foreign brands have declined to varying degrees, while the share of independent brands has reached 57.6%, an increase of 7.3% over the same period last year.

In the face of changes in the industry, Honda China has also launched more radical transformation measures, but judging from the actual market feedback after the launch of Honda's new car, Honda's transformation plan has not been implemented smoothly. In order to reverse the trend, Honda has made significant changes to its "electric transformation plan", bringing forward the period for "stopping the release of fuel vehicles" from 2030 to 2027. In addition, Honda will invest 10 trillion yen in electrification by 2030, double the 5 trillion yen Honda promised in April 2022. In terms of new products, for the Chinese market, Honda China will launch 10 pure electric models by 2027, and 100% of all electric vehicles will be sold by 2035. In addition to the current launch of the eROR N series, specific products will continue to expand the lineup of pure electric vehicles through the release of the new pure electric vehicle "Ye" brand.

Honda is facing the challenges and opportunities of transformation in China, and Japanese joint venture brands, including Honda, still have a lot of lessons to make up for if they want to turn the market against the wind.

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