From January 1, 2022, the restriction on foreign equity ratios of joint ventures in the Chinese market for nearly 30 years should not exceed 50%. At present, the Chinese automobile market is rapidly transforming and upgrading, which means that the survival of the fittest of automobile companies has accelerated, and there have been a number of joint venture car companies that have changed their share ratios.
As early as 2018, BMW Group and Brilliance Automotive Group signed a joint venture agreement to increase BMW's acquisition of 25% of the joint venture company to 75% by 2022, but it was temporarily postponed due to special circumstances. At the end of 2021, Dongfeng Group listed to sell all of its 25% stake in Dongfeng Yueda Kia, and this year Yueda Group acquired this 25% stake.
Recently, there are also network news that GAC Mitsubishi, a joint venture between GAC Group and Mitsubishi Motors, will adjust its share ratio. The shareholding ratio of GAC Group decreased from 50% to 6.3431%, the shareholding of Mitsubishi Corporation increased from 20% to 92.4705%, and the shareholding of Mitsubishi Motor Industry Co., Ltd. decreased from 30% to 1.1864%.
In response to this rumor, according to the Observer Network, the relevant person of the GAC Group said that there was an error in the relevant report. Subsequently, the financial network auto checked public information shows that GAC Group did not reduce its shareholding in GAC Mitsubishi, and the shareholding ratio of the three parties remained unchanged.
Zhang Xiang, an analyst in the automotive industry, said that AS a joint venture company, GAC has also recently made a series of adjustments. GAC new energy vehicle sales can also be, in the country can be ranked in the top few, want to make the new energy business independent, and then go to the IPO listing, these need funds. In addition, GAC is now strengthening China's strength and voice, while Mitsubishi is in a weak and eliminated state under fierce competition. Like Suzuki has been squeezed out of the Chinese market, Mitsubishi may not be able to escape suzuki's fate. GAC wants to concentrate its funds and resources and focus on its own brand, so it may want to sell some of its joint venture shares.
In fact, as early as 2020, there was network news that Mitsubishi Motors would gradually withdraw from some global markets, including the Chinese market. In this regard, Mitsubishi Motors also issued an official statement saying: China is an important market for Mitsubishi Motors, and Mitsubishi Motors will further deepen cooperation with its Chinese partner GAC Group to expand business development and improve revenue; Mitsubishi Motors will effectively use limited resources and reduce fixed costs through structural reform as the highest priority to improve the revenue of markets in various countries.
Previously, the Chinese market was indeed the core market of Mitsubishi Motors' "Drive For Growth" strategic plan, and ten years ago, as the demand for the Chinese auto market continued to rise, the Chinese market also became mitsubishi Motors' largest single market. In 2017, Mitsubishi Motors' global sales exceeded 1.03 million units, an increase of 10% year-on-year, while sales in the Chinese market reached 129,160 units, up 56% year-on-year, contributing 12.5% to global sales.
By 2021, Mitsubishi's sales in the Chinese market have declined for the third consecutive year, which may be the source of the rumors. Gac Mitsubishi sold 66,006 vehicles and produced 61,106 vehicles in 2021, with production and sales down 19.7% and 11% year-on-year, respectively. GAC Mitsubishi's sales volume slipped second only to GAC Fiat Chrysler in the GAC Group joint venture. And in the sales ranking of Chinese manufacturers, it has fallen back to the 2014 ranking, 52nd.
At the same time, all the models currently on sale of GAC Mitsubishi have a comprehensive decline in sales. According to the data of the Association of Automobiles, the sales volume of GAC Mitsubishi in 2021 is 56,000 vehicles per year, accounting for 84.8% of GAC Mitsubishi's total sales in 2021, still down 2.2% year-on-year, while the sales of Jinxuan and Yige models are both more than 40%. Gac Toyota and GAC Honda, which are also joint ventures, will sell 840,000 and 780,000 vehicles respectively in 2021, and both set new sales records.
Zhang Xiang, an analyst in the automotive industry, said that foreign brands and joint venture brands are now in a state of survival of the fittest in China, unlike the automobile market a decade ago, which was in short supply and in the foreign market. Now that China's automobile production capacity is seriously overcapacity, foreign brands with poor conditions and poor sales may be eliminated in the future. For brands like Mitsubishi, where sales decline is obvious, if GAC sells, there may be no other car companies in China willing to take over and joint ventures, because it is difficult to obtain revenue.
In the past, the joint venture company's voice was mainly in the outside world, and the market mainly relied on foreign brands to sell cars. But now China's automotive industry is doing new energy transformation, and the level of new energy technology of local brands is higher than that of joint venture parties and foreign parties. The technical characteristics of Mitsubishi no longer meet the requirements of the current market. Mitsubishi's racing car, the engine performance is good, Mitsubishi's off-road vehicle, is also very famous in The country. But these are the achievements of ten years ago, and now the automotive market is the development of new energy and intelligence. After all, Mitsubishi is a small company with limited funds, and the headquarters itself has not done much technological transformation, and now Mitsubishi's technology is no longer in line with domestic policies.
In 2016, when Nissan announced the acquisition of a 34% stake in Mitsubishi, Takaki Nakanishi, an auto analyst at the Jeffrey Group, said that as standards for vehicle emissions and safety become more stringent, the number of Japanese automakers could shrink to less than three by 2020. "It's normal for a country to have one or two large auto groups, and it helps to improve the competitiveness of car companies, but there are too many Japanese automakers and resources are scattered, so it is an inevitable trend to integrate existing resources and reduce waste," he said. "Perhaps, the same applies to the Chinese market."