Introduction: Dongfeng Honda's production capacity shortage has been going on for quite some time. At present, this manufacturer, which is extremely eager for production lines, is expected to take over the previous Shenlong second factory immediately. However, how to use it has become the focus.
(Text/Zhang Jiadong Editor/Lou Bing) On February 8, some media reported that Dongfeng Honda had officially taken over the second plant of Dongfeng Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone.
In response to the above news, the "Observer Network" auto channel learned from the relevant people of Dongfeng Honda's public relations department that the relevant work of the new factory is indeed advancing in an orderly manner, but the specific use of the factory is not yet clear, and the statement mentioned in the previous report that "the factory will be transformed into a new factory specializing in the production of pure electric vehicles" is not accurate. At present, Dongfeng Honda has not clearly planned the direction of its production capacity.
Solve the urgent need first
It is reported that the annual production capacity of the second plant of DPCA is planned to be about 150,000 units. Since the sharp decline in sales of DPCA vehicles in 2016, the plant has been shut down several times. In 2018, the second plant of DPCA officially entered a "dormant" state, and was collected and stored by the government of Wuhan Economic Development Zone to complete the land regulation and meet the conditions for listing and transfer of commercial land.
In the stock environment of the automobile market, there are car companies that overflow their production capacity, and naturally some car companies will have insufficient production capacity when filling the gap in the market. Dongfeng Honda, which has continued to increase sales in recent years, is the latter.
Since 2016, dongfeng Honda's "insufficient production capacity" problem has become a major shortcoming in the development of the enterprise for the first time. In 2016, Dongfeng Honda officially completed the strategic transformation of its product system, and its sales soared from 400,000 to 600,000 units under the rapid promotion of the 10th generation Civic, CR-V, XR-V and other major sales models. According to the production capacity of Dongfeng Honda's first and second plants at that time, its basic production capacity was 480,000 vehicles, which was far from enough to meet the rising sales figures.
In order to solve the mismatch between the compound annual sales growth rate of more than 10% and the production capacity side, Dongfeng Honda had to start the third plant construction project "emergency". In the two years since the third plant was officially put into operation, Dongfeng Honda's first and second factories have adopted the extreme load operation mode of overtime production on weekends, implementing "9+ 9" shift production, running the production line for 18 hours a day, and only resting on Sundays. Even so, at that time, it took two months for a Civic to pick up the car from the time it was ordered to the time it was picked up.
In April 2019, Dongfeng Honda's third plant, which has an annual production capacity of 120,000 units (which will increase to 240,000 units per year according to changes in demand), was officially put into operation. Even so, the current situation that Dongfeng Honda's production capacity cannot meet the demand for sales has not been fundamentally alleviated.
From 2016 to 2018, Dongfeng Honda's annual sales rose rapidly, at 595,000 units, 727,000 units, and 697,000 units, respectively. For three consecutive years beginning in 2019, Dongfeng Honda's terminal sales reached about 800,000 units. According to official information, the current full capacity of Dongfeng Honda's three factories is planned to be 768,000 units, which is still difficult to meet the further growth of sales.
In January this year, Dongfeng Honda released the latest sales data, January sold 77,000 vehicles, an increase of 7% year-on-year, coupled with 2022 is still Dongfeng Honda's product year, the year will launch the Civic Hybrid Edition, the new XR-V, the new CR-V and other up to 8 new cars, sales growth is imperative, in the lack of core conditions have eased the general trend, Dongfeng Honda or will be expected to achieve a sales breakthrough of 850,000 or even 900,000 vehicles in the new year.
Dongfeng Honda's production capacity is still insufficient. Therefore, the "fourth factory" is in urgent need of launch.
As for the second plant of DPCA Automobile that took over this time, as for the view that the new plant that has flowed out before is "specializing in the production of pure electric vehicles", the "Observer Network" car channel believes that the new factory will definitely consider the future production needs of new energy vehicles, but this is obviously not all and only.
First of all, based on the current sales structure, the lack of production capacity of existing products is still an urgent need for Dongfeng Honda. Secondly, even if the production needs of new energy vehicles are considered in the future, it is not necessary to fully use this factory for the production of new energy vehicles at this time.
Honda's goal of promoting new energy vehicles in China is not as urgent as officially expressed. According to the data, in the past 2021, Honda only sold 10,000 electric vehicles in the domestic market, which is far from the planned sales of nearly 800,000 electric vehicles.
As for Dongfeng Honda, although the first model of its e:N brand, e:NS1 special edition, will be launched in the spring of 2022, according to the plan, in the next five years, Dongfeng Honda will only have three e:N brand models launched.
Comprehensive analysis shows that the factory that will soon be acquired by Dongfeng Honda is only used to produce new energy vehicles, which is really a tyrannical thing for Dongfeng Honda. In the end, the mission of the factory is already very clear: like the third factory that has been built: it has the ability to produce new energy vehicles.
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