AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/07 Report--

All three major Japanese car companies reported new car sales in China in July.

Toyota sold 143400 new cars in China in July, down 6.1 per cent and 1.7 per cent from a year earlier, according to the data. Nissan fell 20.8% year-on-year to 47100 vehicles. Honda's sales in china plunged 41.4% to 52600 vehicles in July. It is understood that Toyota and Honda's sales have fallen for six consecutive months, and Nissan has also declined for four consecutive months, a series of data highlighting the huge challenges faced by Japanese car companies in the Chinese market.

In the past, Japanese cars have become the first choice for Chinese people to buy cars because of their high value preservation rate, high fuel economy and low maintenance costs, but with the rapid popularization of electric vehicles in China and the improvement of the brand appeal of local enterprises, it is difficult for Japanese cars to survive only on the quality and fuel consumption of German and Japanese brands.

As one of the three giants of the Japanese system, Honda's position in the Chinese market is far more difficult than expected. It is understood that Honda China has two joint ventures, Guangzhou Automobile Honda and Dongfeng Honda. After reaching a sales peak of 1.627 million vehicles in 2020, Honda's sales declined sharply for three consecutive years. Honda's sales in China from 2021 to 2023 were 1.5615 million, 1.3731 million and 1.2342 million, respectively, down 4.0%, 12.07% and 10.12% respectively from 2021 to 2023. After entering 2024, Honda's sales decline in China has not been alleviated, falling 24.4% from January to July compared with the same period last year, with cumulative sales of 468500 vehicles, of which July sales were 52600, down 41.4% from the same period last year.

Honda's dilemma in the Chinese market is that fuel cars are becoming more and more difficult to sell and electric cars are difficult to become big, but Honda doesn't seem to have any ingenious ways to deal with it. In the first half of the year, there were only three Honda models with more than 50, 000 vehicles, namely CR-V, Accord, Civic and Haoying, of which 88900 were CR-V, while the previous best-selling models such as XR-V, colorful Intelligence and Feido remained in the doldrums.

Nissan, the world's largest car market, is also having a hard time in China. In the first half of the year, Nissan's top-selling model in China was still Xuan Yi, with cumulative sales of 161400 vehicles, followed by Xiaoke and Teana, with 53400 and 38400 respectively. In March this year, Dongfeng Nissan launched Land Exploration, the first medium-and large-scale SUV owned by Dongfeng Nissan, which sells for 21.28-274800 yuan. Since its launch, it has sold 4005 vehicles, which is in order. In addition, in the context of the major car companies have to speed up the electrified layout, Nissan's competitiveness in the field of new energy vehicles has not been significantly improved. At present, only Ariya is on sale, with cumulative sales of only 1682 vehicles in the first half of the year.

Toyota's performance in the Chinese market has been sustained, but it has declined for six months in a row. In the first half of the year, Toyota had more than 50, 000 models in six models, namely, Feng Landa, Carola Ruifang, Rongfang, Weilanda, Camry and Carola, of which the newly upgraded Camry sold 60500.

From the perspective of product layout, although Toyota's fuel vehicle technology is mature, it seems somewhat inadequate under the general trend of energy transformation, and the field of new energy vehicles is almost blank. With the penetration of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market exceeding 50%, consumers are becoming more and more receptive to new energy vehicles, while Toyota has been unable to launch competitive new energy products for a long time. This makes Toyota's space in the Chinese market getting smaller and smaller, and its competitiveness is gradually weakening. In the face of the fierce competition of new energy vehicles, Toyota has to adopt a price reduction strategy to try to find a chance in the market.

In fact, whether it is Toyota, Nissan or Honda, the situation in the Chinese market is more or less the same, that is, fuel cars are difficult to sell and trams are not popular. If Japanese brands want to stay in the Chinese market, they must do something in the electric car market, but it turns out that there is not much time left, and many Chinese car companies, including BYD, have begun to encroach on the joint venture market. this will bring great pressure and challenges to the electrification of Japanese manufacturers. With the rapid development of electric and intelligent cars in China, Mitsubishi is not the only foreign company that wants to cooperate with Chinese enterprises in the field of electric smart vehicles.

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