AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/04 Report--

On September 4, Honda China announced terminal car sales in August and January-August 2024. Data show that Honda's terminal car sales in China in August were 56959, down 44.29% from a year earlier. However, Honda China did not disclose the August sales of Guangzhou Auto Honda and Dongfeng Honda.

Lengthening the time to the previous August, Honda's cumulative sales of terminal cars in China from January to August were 525432, compared with 72.8% in the same period, or 27.19% lower than the same period last year. Honda's sales in China have fallen for several months since the start of 2024. Honda's sales in China rose 57.28% in January from a year earlier, and then fell by double digits from February to July, down 38.63%, 26.32%, 22.18%, 34.66%, 39.04% and 41.4%, respectively, according to official figures.

As for the decline in Honda's sales in China, industry insiders believe that the main reason is that Honda's fuel cars are difficult to sell and electric cars are weak. Take July retail sales as an example, Honda sold more than 10,000 Accord models in China in July, while the previous sales of Accord, CR-V and Haoying easily no longer exist, which is also one of the main reasons for Honda's obvious decline in sales in China. Specifically, in July, Accord sold 10479 vehicles, Honda CV-R 9673, Haoying 8435, and the rest were less than 5000, such as 4834 in fourth place, 3186 in Civic, 2548 in Yingshi and 2481 in Odyssey, and less than 2000 in other models.

Electric car sales performance is even worse, although Honda China has four e:NS1/e:NS2/e:NP1/e:NP2 models, but the sense of market presence is not high. Retail sales figures show that July sales of e:NP2, e:NS2, e:NP1 and e:NS1 were 295,209,163,22 respectively.

On July 26, Honda China announced that it would close two factories. GAC Honda plans to close its fourth production line with an annual capacity of 50, 000 units in October 2024, while Dongfeng Honda plans to close its second production line with an annual capacity of 240000 units in November 2024. After the adjustment, Honda's total car production capacity in China has been changed from 1.49 million to 1.2 million. At the same time, Dongfeng Honda's new electric dedicated plant under construction will be put into production in September 2024, and Guangzhou Auto Honda's new new energy plant will be put into production in November 2024. Honda plans to make up for capacity cuts through two new electric car plants under construction, which are expected to restore capacity to 1.44 million vehicles.

Then, on Aug. 7, the market reported that Honda planned to further reduce its total car production capacity in China by 200000 vehicles due to fierce competition between Honda and local manufacturers and depressed sales. But officials did not respond to the news at the time.

At present, Honda's development in China is not optimistic, but Honda's current situation is not alone. With the continuous improvement of the competitiveness of independent brands of new energy, the share of Japanese joint venture brands in China is gradually decreasing. From January to July this year, the cumulative market share of self-branded passenger cars was 57.2%, while that of mainstream joint venture brands was 29.4%, of which Japanese brands accounted for only 14.6% of the market in China, according to the Federation of passengers.

At present, Honda is carrying out capacity optimization in China to accelerate the electrification transformation. In July 2023, Honda China announced that it would achieve more than 50% electrification by 2025, no new fuel cars after 2027, and a total of more than 10 pure electric models by 2030. In April, Honda China launched its new electric brand, Ye S7 and Ye P7, which will be mass-produced by Dongfeng Honda and Guangzhou Auto Honda respectively in 2024, and will launch a total of six new cars by 2027. In addition, with the help of Dongfeng electric vehicle platform, Dongfeng Honda also launched the world's first joint venture independent electric brand, Lingzhi, in September 2023, and the first model, Lingzhi L, is scheduled to launch this month.

Whether it is the layout of new brands or new cars, the pace of Honda's electrification transformation in China is not slow, but judging from the current pure tram sales, Honda's Huazhun trams are still uncompetitive, and its main sales still rely on fuel vehicles. Honda urgently needs to launch more consumer-recognized models in China to make a qualitative change.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat