To say that Honda is a legend in the era of fuel vehicles, I am afraid that no one opposes it. "Honda Dafa", "buy engine and send cars", "one Japanese field, lifetime Honda", are all a generation of recognition of Honda models, Dongfeng Honda, which entered the Chinese market in 2003, has sold 7 million cars in China in 19 years. However, Honda has not had a good time this year.
On April 6, Honda China released its March sales. Honda's terminal car sales in China were 101,061 units, down 33.2% year-on-year, which is the combined sales of North and South Honda, compared with BYD New Energy's sales of 104878 units in March, more than 3,000 more than Honda China. In other words, the total sales of all models of North and South Honda have not sold sales of BYD's new energy vehicles. For Honda fans, this may be a difficult fact to accept, but it also means that a new era has arrived.
Honda's sales decline is certainly affected by chip shortages and other issues, but it is also because Honda's movement in new energy vehicles is too slow. It is no secret that Honda is paying for a pure electric strategy mistake.
For a long time, Honda has been wavering in terms of fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles, unwilling to give up its huge dividends in the field of fuel vehicles, so although Honda has an IMMD hybrid system, in order to comply with the domestic new energy policy, Honda has also launched a plug-in version of the hybrid model, but these models look like hasty coping, and do not intend to sell seats at all. Pricing is high and uncompetitive. In terms of pure electric models, Honda has not yet had a product based on a pure electric platform, and has launched an oil-to-electricity model, which is far from the new forces of car-making, whether it is mileage, driving experience, and intelligent configuration. Until the end of March, Guangqi Honda released a new electric brand, Extreme Pan (English name e:NP), as a way to announce the acceleration of electric transformation in a new solution. But such an action seems to be a little late.
In contrast, in the field of hybrid and pure electric, BYD's attitude and determination are more resolute than those of Toyota and Honda in Japanese cars. Recently, BYD has announced the complete suspension of fuel vehicles to show its determination in the field of new energy. The same is the dual motor series parallel hybrid system, BYD in the development of plug-in hybrid models to be more aggressive and thorough, its plug-in hybrid models, from the price and configuration, are more competitive.
In addition to BYD, the domestic car companies in the field of pure electricity are moving faster than Honda, Geely released the blue Geely action plan early, and released the SEA Haohan architecture platform in 2020. Weilai Xiaopeng Ideal and other new car-making brand, the establishment time is short, there is no historical burden, there is no need for transformation, all the resources are used for new energy vehicles, and have gained a firm foothold in the new energy vehicle market. Honda Automobile, the giant of the fuel vehicle era, has become a latecomer.
In March 2022, oil prices reached the highest point in nearly a decade, on the one hand, the higher and higher cost of use of fuel vehicles, on the other hand, the low cost of use of new energy vehicles, as well as free purchase tax, unlimited travel and other policy preferences, consumers vote with their feet, more and more new energy vehicles.
Honda can be said to represent the current dilemma of traditional car companies, in the field of fuel vehicle research and development for many years of traditional car companies do not have the technical advantages of the three-electric system, and the cost of batteries in the vehicle proportion rose to 50%, resulting in a large number of vehicle profits will be diverted by battery suppliers. Following the trend and completely turning to new energy means abandoning the huge dividends of the era of fuel vehicles and facing greater profit pressure. If it oscillates between fuel vehicles and new energy, it means that it may miss a good opportunity, or even eventually become a foundry of new car-making forces, and Jianghuai Automobile is a bloody lesson for the past.
Every little increase in electric vehicle sales means a loss in the fuel vehicle market. Auto giants, including Honda Motor, are facing the threat of disruption while meeting the challenges of new technologies and new products. Although unwilling, but the trend will not be transferred by the will of the people, drastic changes are happening, can only wish Honda and traditional car companies good luck!