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This could be a "smoke bomb" used to spy on market firepower.
Author: Liang Zhihao
With the slowdown in economic growth and the change of people's concept of car purchase, Japanese models with value preservation and durable reputation have gradually risen in the Chinese market, and even "infected" with a problem of selling cars at a higher price.
However, it is not that all Japanese can make money lying down, such as our clichéd Acura, Infiniti and other luxury brands with sluggish sales cannot take advantage of the trend, and the market performance is far from their own parent brands. However, although the sales of these two luxury brands are not good, at least many people are worried about it, and Mitsubishi, which is also a Japanese brand, seems to have few opportunities to be mentioned.
Unexpectedly, such a brand that does not have much sense of existence has recently brushed a wave of existence because of a "oolong".
GAC Mitsubishi share ratio adjustment?
A few days ago, some media suddenly broke out that a company inquiry website showed that GAC Mitsubishi, a joint venture car company of Japan Mitsubishi, had undergone a major equity change, and the proportion of shares of both parties would be changed from the original 50%: 50% to: GAC Group accounted for 6.3431%, Mitsubishi Corporation accounted for 92.4705%, and Mitsubishi Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. accounted for 1.1864%.
From occupying half of the shares to occupying single-digit shares, in the face of the current dilemma of GAC Mitsubishi, does THE GAC Group want to let go?
However, soon, the GAC Group came forward to clarify, saying that the above news was an error in media reporting, and the current shareholding of GAC Mitsubishi displayed on the company's inquiry website has also returned to normal. By querying multiple websites, we can also find that at present, GAC Group still occupies 50% of the shares, while Mitsubishi Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corporation occupy 30% and 20% of the shares, respectively.
It seems that this "stock ratio adjustment" is just a false alarm, but the undercurrent that GAC Mitsubishi has to face may be far more ferocious than a "false report".
Mitsubishi has reached the end of the road?
In 2021, GAC Mitsubishi sold 66,006 vehicles in the whole year, while the production volume was 61,106 vehicles, and the higher sales than production was not due to "short supply", on the contrary, the extra 4900 vehicles were just the previous inventory. According to the data, GAC Mitsubishi's sales in 2021 fell by as much as 19.7% year-on-year, and production fell by 11%. In contrast, GAC's other two Japanese joint ventures, GAC Toyota and GAC Honda, will have 840,000 and 780,000 units in 2021, respectively, both setting new sales highs.
Therefore, whether it is from the perspective of volume or sales trends, Mitsubishi, an established Japanese car company, has entered the end of the road in the Chinese market.
It is Mitsubishi itself that has put Mitsubishi in this predicament.
At present, GAC Mitsubishi has a total of three models on sale, namely The Lander, Jinxuan ASX and Yige, which are compact SUVs despite their different body types and design styles.
Among them, as the main model, Orlander sold 55,856 new cars in 2021, accounting for 84% of GAC Mitsubishi's sales, but the history of the current Orlander can actually be traced back to 2016, which is a well-deserved "old car", and such a living fossil can also occupy such a high sales volume of the GAC Mitsubishi brand, in fact, it is to set off the two cars of Jinxuan ASX and Yige.
The sales of 6006 units (Jinxuan ASX) and 4144 vehicles (Yige) are not a satisfactory answer for them in the compact SUV market that is highly sought after by the market. When they resolutely cut the sedan product line, everyone thought that Mitsubishi saw the unlimited potential of the SUV market, but they could even screw up the SUV...
The reason why these two cars are not popular is actually very simple - the rudimentary interior design, the lack of highlights of mechanical quality and overconfident pricing. For example, the new Jinxuan ASX, as a car that was only launched at the end of 2019, was not outstanding in appearance, and it was even more difficult to say in the interior design.
This is also why the starting price is only 99,800 yuan, which is the cheapest joint venture compact SUV, and its presence in the market can be so low.
On the other hand, the situation of Yige is not much better, although its interior part is no longer difficult to accept, but its appearance is not in line with the public's aesthetics, coupled with its fairly confident pricing: 12.98-18.58 million yuan, directly let this new car that should have provoked the beam, become another forgotten product in the market.
Even with the Pajero's off-road god car, the Mitsubishi brand still has a very good reputation in China, but for consumers, this reputation is still difficult for them to "bite their teeth" to accept such products.
Is it an oolong or a smoke bomb?
In fact, when we first heard the news of the change in GAC Mitsubishi's stock ratio, our hearts actually did not have much waves, and even without exaggeration, even if GAC completely withdrew from GAC Mitsubishi, everyone would not be surprised, after all, in 2020, we have seen the departure of too many weak brands.
Gac FCA, which also performed poorly in the market and is also a joint venture brand of GAC, has officially closed its factory in Guangzhou last year, retaining only the Changsha plant, so it is not difficult for GAC to "cut" the chicken ribs of GAC Mitsubishi.
On the one hand, the sales of more than 60,000 new cars, want to fully support a joint venture brand, is obviously a bit difficult, not to mention that the current Orlander is still facing the pressure of replacement, once the replacement of Outlander's sales can not be reinvigorated, then GAC Mitsubishi is really smashed in the hand.
Secondly, due to Mitsubishi's own lack of layout of new energy models, although GAC-Mitsubishi's sales are not high, it will still bring a certain double integral pressure, after GAC's GE3 and GS4 PHEV pseudonyms Mitsubishi Qizhi EV and Qizhi PHEV are sold under the GAC-Mitsubishi channel to reduce the integral pressure of the Mitsubishi brand, and last year GAC-Mitsubishi also released a new electric SUV - Artuk AIRTREK, which is actually a replacement GAC AION V, although it is only " Re-marking", but for both "publicity" and production, in fact, it will still cost a lot. Whether it is worth spending so much energy on such a brand, perhaps GAC will also weigh it itself.
Perhaps this stock ratio adjustment may be just an inadvertent mistake in querying the website, but this is accurate to four decimal places, and the increase or decrease is quite reasonable, and it may also be a "smoke bomb" used to spy on the market firepower.
(Some image source network)
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