21st Century Business Herald reporter Song Doudou reports
Japanese brands, whose market share in China continues to decline, hope to pass the critical moment of "dilemma" by closing factories and "slimming down".
On July 25th, it was reported that Honda plans to reduce its fuel vehicle production capacity in China by one-third, from 1.49 million units to 1 million units, equivalent to about 10% of Honda's global production. The specific method is to close or suspend one factory each of the joint venture companies Guangzhou Honda and Dongfeng Honda in China. The factories located in Guangzhou and Wuhan will be closed or suspended from October and November respectively, and another factory in Guangzhou is also on the "shutdown list".
That evening, the official response from GAC Honda stated that the company currently has 4 complete vehicle production lines (with an annual production capacity of 770000 units) and 1 production line under construction (with a design capacity of 120000 units). The fourth production line with an annual production capacity of 50000 units is planned to be closed in October 2024, and the new energy production line under construction will be put into operation in November this year.
21st Century Business Herald reporters learned that Guangqi Honda's fourth production line mainly produces the mid size car Accord. After the production line is closed, this model will be transferred to the second production line for production, and the original production line production facilities may be dismantled. It is planned to be used as a warehouse in the future.
On July 26th, Honda China responded to this by implementing capacity optimization and accelerating the transition to electrification. In addition to Guangzhou Honda's plan to shut down its fourth production line with an annual production capacity of 50000 vehicles, Dongfeng Honda plans to shut down its second production line with an annual production capacity of 240000 vehicles in November 2024. After adjustment, Honda's total automobile production capacity in China has increased from 1.49 million vehicles to 1.2 million vehicles.
According to official website information, GAC Honda has three factories and four vehicle production lines in Huangpu District and Zengcheng District of Guangzhou, with a basic production capacity of 770000 vehicles; Dongfeng Honda has three factories with a designed annual production capacity of 768000 vehicles. This production capacity reduction is also the largest scale reduction by a Japanese car company in China.
A spokesperson for Honda stated that these adjustments are part of Honda's response to changes in the Chinese market. With the rapid development of the Chinese automobile market, especially the new energy vehicle market, Honda is facing strong competitive pressure from Chinese domestic brands.
Data shows that in June of this year, Honda's terminal car sales in the Chinese market were less than 70000 units, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 40%, and have been declining for five consecutive months; From January to June this year, Honda's cumulative sales in China were 415900 units, a year-on-year decrease of 21.5%.
According to the production and sales reports of GAC Group and Dongfeng Motor Group, the cumulative sales of GAC Honda in the first half of this year were 207900 units, a year-on-year decrease of 28.28%; During the same period, Dongfeng Honda had 237900 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 4.79%; Both production volumes showed a year-on-year decline, with a decrease of 42.02% and 6.6% respectively, and the capacity utilization rate further decreased.
In response to the current situation of shrinking market share of fuel vehicles and expanding market share of new energy vehicles in China, Honda will quickly take measures to cope with environmental changes. "In an interview with 21st Century Business Herald reporters in April this year, Masayuki Igarashi, Executive Director of Honda Motor Corporation, Minister of China Headquarters, General Manager of Honda Motor Corporation (China) Investment Co., Ltd., and General Manager of Honda Motor Corporation (China) Technology Co., Ltd., stated that Honda is currently facing two urgent problems that need to be solved: first, it must quickly respond to the current situation of expanding market share of new energy vehicles; Secondly, Honda needs to consider whether to make adjustments in productivity in response to the widening decline in fuel vehicle sales.
While adjusting the production capacity of fuel vehicles, Honda is also accelerating its transition to new energy. Honda plans to compensate for this production capacity reduction by building two new electric vehicle factories, one with joint ventures with GAC and the other with Dongfeng, to produce electric vehicle models. Its goal is to start production at these two new factories later this year, with an expected restoration of production capacity to 1.44 million vehicles. A Honda spokesperson emphasized that China, as the world's largest market, remains an important market for Japanese car manufacturers such as Honda.
According to the plan, GAC Honda will launch 6 new pure electric models by 2027; Dongfeng Honda will achieve a 50% proportion of electrified models by 2025, no longer release fuel powered models by 2027, and launch more than 10 pure electric models by 2030.
In the increasingly fierce competition in the new energy vehicle market, the rapid rise of domestic brands has posed greater challenges to traditional joint venture brands that have dominated the Chinese market for decades and heavily rely on fuel vehicles, especially Japanese car companies that have been slow to shift towards electrification and intelligence, and are committed to traditional hybrid and hydrogen energy vehicles in their technological roadmap.
In addition to Honda, Nissan announced last month the official closure of its passenger car factory in Changzhou, Jiangsu, which is a joint venture with Dongfeng Motor. The factory mainly produces the X-Trail model, with an annual production capacity of about 130000 vehicles, accounting for about 10% of Nissan's total production in China. The production work of the factory will be transferred to other factories of Dongfeng Nissan. This is Nissan's first time closing a passenger car factory in China.
At that time, insiders of Dongfeng Nissan responded to 21st Century Business Herald reporters that based on changes in overall strategy and business environment, Dongfeng Nissan optimized and adjusted its internal production capacity and resources to better adapt to the company's transformation and development. On the premise of ensuring the production capacity of existing fuel vehicles, Dongfeng Nissan will increase its production line layout and investment in new energy vehicles.
According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in June of this year, the retail share of Japanese brands dropped to below 15% (14.3%), a year-on-year decrease of 3.5 percentage points, while the share of domestic brands increased by 9.3 percentage points to nearly 60% (58.5%). According to the data on insurance coverage, only the Xuan Yi, a gasoline powered car, was among the top five models from January to June this year. The top four were the Qin PLUS, Model Y, Song PLUS, and Seagull, all of which were pure electric or plug-in hybrid models.
An industry insider told 21st Century Business Herald reporters that the large-scale rise of pure electric vehicles in China has a comprehensive impact on traditional cars, involving production modes, market competition, supply chains, employment, and energy structure. Although Japanese cars have certain technological advantages in the field of new energy vehicles, their new energy vehicle strategy in the Chinese market seems to have not been fully implemented, which has to some extent affected their market position. Faced with increasingly fierce competition from local manufacturers such as BYD, how Japanese car companies can consolidate and expand their market position is a test of their wisdom and strength