Don't be presumptuous! Starve to death without the Chinese market? Exiting China, car companies are living better

Zhiyi Auto / Chen Yi

On September 4, 2018, Changan Automobile acquired the shares of Changan Suzuki held by Suzuki of Japan and Suzuki China for 1 yuan, so far, Suzuki and Chinese consumers officially "broke up".

Suzuki is the third joint venture brand to enter the Chinese market, in 1993, Changan Suzuki was formally established, relying on Alto, Swift these small cars, Suzuki in that era of material is not rich quickly became popular, and later was once called the "king of small cars".

In 2011, Changan Suzuki's sales exceeded 220,000 units, creating a peak moment since entering China. But since then, Changan Suzuki has begun to decline, with sales of only 115,000 units in 2016 and only 24,000 units in the first half of 2018.

The main reason why Suzuki lost to China was "misjudgment of the market".

After entering the 21st century, small cars are increasingly unable to meet the consumption needs of Chinese, and Suzuki has only sold Alto, Swift, Tianyu and Antelope for a long time. Under the trend of consumption upgrading, Suzuki finally lost to the bulging "Chinese wallet".

Suzuki is not the last person in the "retreat" team, in fact, in recent years, there are many joint venture brands that have withdrawn from the Chinese market, including Fiat and Acura, including GAC Mitsubishi, which has just crashed to the ground.

On October 24, GAC Mitsubishi "sold itself" at a consideration of 1 yuan and officially became a wholly-owned subsidiary of GAC Group.

This is almost a copy of Suzuki's ending.

Another point like Suzuki is that GAC Mitsubishi has also had a highlight moment in the Chinese market. From 2017 to 2019, GAC Mitsubishi sold 117,300 new cars, 144,000 units, and 133,000 units, respectively, which is quite good as a mid-sized car company that only produces SUVs.

Unfortunately, GAC Mitsubishi has been sluggish since 2020, and in the first half of this year, GAC Mitsubishi's sales were only 12,000 units.

According to common sense, the loss of such a huge market as China is a loss in the eyes of any car company, however, the Japanese may not think so, because the Chinese market accounts for only 4% of Mitsubishi's global sales.

In other words, it is not a good thing to sell Mitsubishi's business in China, to paraphrase a self-media big V, that is, "at least Mitsubishi no longer needs to make dumplings for this little vinegar".

On the other hand, the loss of the Chinese market will not have much impact on Mitsubishi. Indeed, Mitsubishi produced about 1.4 million units in the global market last year, and this figure is not low no matter how you look at it.

Suzuki was in the same situation.

In 2022, Suzuki's sales in India exceeded 1.61 million units, accounting for 54.36% of the local market, which means that for every 2 cars sold by Indian car dealers, 1 is from Suzuki. In the global market, Suzuki sold more than 2.96 million units in 2022.

You see, those joint venture car companies that have left in China are actually not as bad as they imagined, and they are even quite nourishing.

There are many similar cases, such as Skoda, which is regarded as a "mass replacement".

From 2016 to 2018, Skoda's sales in the Chinese market exceeded 300,000 units, and its performance was remarkable. However, in 2022, Skoda's sales volume will only be 44,600 units. Due to the poor performance of the market, the CEO of Skoda had to consider "only selling cars in China and not engaging in production activities".

But guess what? The number of new cars sold by Skoda in the global market last year was 731,300 units, and at this volume, it has nothing to do with the "closing of the door".

Another example is Hyundai Motor, before 2017, Beijing Hyundai was able to wrestle with the "North and South Volkswagen", in contrast, its sales in recent years have really stretched its hips, taking 2022 as an example, Beijing Hyundai's sales are only 284,000 units. However, Hyundai Group's global sales last year were 6,848,200 units, which is the "third in the world".

On the whole, these old acquaintances, who are increasingly marginalized in the Chinese market, are not impoverished because of the loss of their "Chinese wallet", and the so-called "starvation to death" is nonsense.

China's auto market is very important, but far less important than Chinese think, for joint venture car companies, China is just an ordinary market, neither the core nor the only.

This is good news, at least it can allow joint venture car companies that are accustomed to "not kneeling and licking" Chinese to continue to retain face; But the bad news is that if joint venture car companies want to continue to sell cars well in the electrification era, they have to turn back to learn technology from the Chinese, after all, at present, in the key areas of new energy vehicles, Chinese have a great right to speak, including intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, battery, lidar, etc., which is why Volkswagen, Toyota, Audi, Stellantis, etc. have begun to seek cooperation with Chinese companies.

A few years ago, there was a saying circulating on social networks, called "You used to ignore me, but now I can't let you climb high", time, life, this is used to describe the current joint venture car companies, just right.

Write at the end:

Looking back on history, the Chinese once opened the door to joint venture car companies in the way of "market for technology", but the blind low profile did not exchange much core technology, but countless "double standards" and "discrimination" behaviors. Fortunately, the rise of independent brands has rewritten the pattern of China's auto market, even if the current joint venture car companies can still disdain the Chinese market, but under the effect of the wind of new energy, joint venture car companies can only put down their arrogant posture and take the initiative to show favor to the Chinese in order to survive. Who says it's not a thirty-year feng shui cycle?

Zhiyi Automobile's original article, if you need to reprint, please contact us

*The picture comes from the Internet, if there is any infringement, please contact the author to delete*