On October 10, Honda China announced its vehicle sales for September 2024 and January-September 2024. According to the data, Honda's terminal car sales in China in September were 62,586, a year-on-year decrease of 42.93%, which is also Honda's decline of more than 40% in China for three consecutive months. From January to September this year, Honda's cumulative sales of terminal vehicles in China were 588018, a year-on-year decrease of 70.7%, or 29.27% year-on-year.
In fact, since entering 2024, Honda's sales in China have been declining for many months. According to official data, Honda's sales in China increased by 57.28% year-on-year in January this year, and the sales from February to August fell by double digits year-on-year, down 38.63%, 26.32%, 22.18%, 34.66%, 39.04%, 41.4%, and 44.29% respectively, that is, Honda has seen a year-on-year decline in China for 8 consecutive months since February.
"Fuel vehicles are not selling, and electric vehicles are weak" is one of the key reasons for the continuous decline in Honda's sales in China. According to the retail sales data in August, Honda only sold more than 10,000 models in China in August, with Honda CV-R and Accord selling 12,105 and 10,374 respectively, while the sales of more than 20,000 Accord, CR-V, and Haoying in the past no longer exist.
In the field of pure electric vehicles, Honda's market performance in China is also not ideal. Up to now, Honda has four models in China: e:NS1/e:NS2/e:NP1/e:NP2, but the market presence is not high. According to retail sales data, the sales of e:NP2, e:NS2, e:NP1 and e:NS1 in August were 341, 169, 101 and 11 units, respectively.
With the decline in sales of gasoline-powered vehicles, Honda is optimizing its production capacity in China and accelerating the transition to electrification. In July this year, Honda announced that it would shut down two joint venture plants in China, of which Guangqi Honda plans to close its fourth production line with an annual production capacity of 50,000 units in October 2024; Dongfeng Honda plans to suspend the second production line with an annual production capacity of 240,000 units in November 2024. After the adjustment, Honda's total vehicle production capacity in China will be increased from 1.49 million units to 1.2 million units. In addition, Honda plans to compensate for the reduction in production capacity through two new electric vehicle plants under construction, which are expected to resume production capacity to 1.44 million units.
At the same time, Honda is also accelerating the launch of electric vehicles in China. On September 26, Dongfeng Honda's new compact car, Lingxi L, was launched, and only one model was launched, with a price of 129,800 yuan. As a new model, the new car adopts a new brand LOGO, and is powered by pure electric drive, which mainly competes with BYD Qin PLUS, Changan Qiyuan A07, Dongfeng eπ007, Aion AION S and other models in the car market. In April, Honda China released a new electric brand - "Ye", its Ye S7 and Ye P7 will be mass-produced by Dongfeng Honda and Guangqi Honda respectively in 2024, and the brand will launch a total of 6 new cars by 2027.
On October 9, Honda also announced the Honda 0 Tech Meeting 2024 and unveiled the next-generation technology plans and latest achievements of the Honda 0 series. It is understood that the new global pure electric vehicle "Honda 0" series will be launched for the global market in 2026, as a new pure electric vehicle, the "Honda 0" series will be based on the "Thin, Light, and Wise" three new pure electric vehicle research and development ideas, built from scratch. According to the plan, the new cars in this series will be the first to be publicly unveiled at CES 2025 in January 2025.
According to the original plan, Honda China will achieve more than 50% electrification by 2025, no more new gasoline vehicles after 2027, and launch more than 10 pure electric models by 2030. However, according to the latest media reports, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe told investors at the company's technology day: "Honda's plan to build electric vehicle factories around the world has a certain degree of flexibility, and if the market trend is unexpected, it can adjust its strategy." It was also mentioned that the construction of part of the battery production line may be delayed.
Although Honda's pace of electrification transformation is not slow, Honda's current performance in China shows that its sales are not optimistic. Of course, Honda's current situation is not unique, including Toyota Motor and Nissan Motor sales in China have also declined. Today, Nissan China also announced its latest sales figures. According to the data, in September this year, Nissan Motor China's sales in September, including passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, were 61,395 units, a year-on-year decrease of 3.8%. Among them, Dongfeng Nissan (including Nissan, Venucia and Infiniti brands) sold 57,741 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 5.8%. From January to September this year, Nissan Motor's cumulative sales in China, including passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, were 496998 units, down 9.10% year-on-year.
With the sharp shrinkage of the market share of fuel vehicles and the continuous improvement of the competitiveness of new energy independent brands, the market share of Japanese joint venture brands in China is gradually being carved up. According to the data of the Passenger Car Association, from 2021 to 2023, the market share of Japanese cars will be 22.6%, 20%, and 17% respectively, showing a downward trend year by year, and it has fallen to 14.9% in the first half of this year.
Nowadays, the situation of "not worrying about selling" and "lying to win" of joint venture brands is gone, especially for Japanese joint venture brands, at the same time, the transformation of joint venture brands has entered a critical period, and there will not be much time left for the transformation of joint venture car companies. Industry insiders believe that if Japanese brands want to stay in the Chinese market, they must quickly innovate in the field of electric vehicles and achieve qualitative changes.
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