A number of Japanese car companies have fallen into a counterfeiting turmoil, and Toyota, Honda and other 4S stores have reduced prices and promoted many models

Shell Finance

2024-06-16 14:05Published on the official account of Beijing Beijing News Shell Finance

The storm of certification violations and data fraud of Japanese car companies is still fermenting.

On June 14, Toyota Motor Corporation said it had decided to continue to suspend the production of three models that had been involved in fraud in Japan's national certification tests until next month, and had informed its parts suppliers that it would continue to suspend production, saying that it had not yet decided when production would resume. It is reported that Toyota will suspend the production of these three models from June 6 until the 28th of this month.

On June 11, Toyota Industries held a general meeting of shareholders at which President Ito apologized for certification violations such as automotive engines. Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has inspected all five Japanese auto companies involved in the violations: Toyota, Mazda, Yamaha, Honda, and Suzuki; At present, all five car companies have held press conferences to apologize for the violations.

"Consumers' trust in brands is based on product quality and safety, and counterfeiting incidents directly break that trust." Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Beijing News that "in addition, the counterfeiting incident will also seriously damage the reputation of these brands." ”

Counterfeiting has been exposed intensively, and Toyota certification issues or violations of United Nations standards have been exposed

At the beginning of June, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism notified Toyota, Mazda, Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki that five Japanese car companies had illegal operations and fraud in the process of mass production certification application, and 38 models produced by the above five Japanese car companies had certification fraud problems, of which 32 models have been discontinued. According to previously disclosed information, Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Yamaha and Suzuki violated a total of about 5.18 million vehicles.

Judging from the report, Toyota was involved in submitting false data for crash tests, etc.; Mazda was involved in tampering with the control software of the engine power test; Yamaha is involved in noise testing, etc., under non-compliant conditions; Honda was involved in making false entries on the test results of noise tests, etc.; Suzuki was involved in making false entries on the test results of the brake test.

On June 10, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism conducted an inspection of the headquarters of Honda and Mazda, after Toyota, Yamaha and Suzuki also underwent on-site investigations. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism will consider administrative sanctions based on the results. Subsequently, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism concluded that the six cases of violations that Toyota was found to have also violated United Nations standards adopted by 62 countries and regions, including Japan, South Korea and Europe.

In fact, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) initiated an investigation into the certification violations of the five Japanese automakers mentioned above. According to the relevant investigation results in December last year, Daihatsu Motor, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor, was found to have 174 illegal operations and was exposed to falsification of test data; After Daihatsu Automobile was exposed to certification violations, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan asked 85 companies in the Japanese automotive industry to self-check whether there was a similar situation, and the above five car companies found that there were also violations during the internal investigation.

Zhan Junhao, a well-known strategic positioning expert, believes that the counterfeiting storm of Japanese auto companies will have a serious impact on its global reputation; If consumer trust in car safety and quality is broken, it can affect the long-term development of the brand.

In fact, in recent years, the Japanese automobile industry has often been exposed to fraud.

Since 2009, Takata airbags have been recalled worldwide due to potential safety hazards that may cause secondary injury, and finally Takata Company ended in bankruptcy; In 2016, Nissan reported that Mitsubishi Motors had falsified fuel efficiency indicators, and in 2017, Nissan Motor was exposed to use unqualified inspectors to conduct factory inspections of vehicles for 38 years, and in the same year, Kobe Steel was exposed to data fraud, and in 2021, Akebo Brake was exposed to quality inspection data fraud.

"On the one hand, Japanese companies tend to pursue the ultimate in cost control and efficiency improvement, which may lead to neglecting the supervision of product quality and safety in the pursuit of goals." Zhan Junhao believes that the reason for the frequent counterfeiting incidents in the Japanese auto industry may be related to the Japanese corporate culture and management methods, "On the one hand, there may also be problems with the hierarchical system and communication mechanism within Japanese enterprises, resulting in a lack of effective supervision and correction of violations at the grassroots level at the top level." In addition, Wang Peng added that it is also related to market competition and profit-driven, and companies may sacrifice product quality and consumer interests in order to pursue higher profits.

Japanese brands have shrunk their market share in China's auto market, and prices have been lowered in the end market

Although Toyota, Honda and others have emphasized that the Japanese certification violation incident has nothing to do with the models on sale in the Chinese market, it is undeniable that Japanese brands are cold in the Chinese market.

According to the latest data from the China Passenger Car Association, the retail share of Japanese cars in May this year was 14.8%, down 3.2 percentage points year-on-year. In fact, the share of Japanese brands in China's auto market has fallen from 24.1% in 2020 to 17% in 2023, marking the third consecutive year of decline. Wang Peng believes that on the one hand, due to the impact of new energy vehicles, the layout of Japanese brands in the field of new energy vehicles is relatively lagging behind; On the other hand, the rise of independent brands, intensified market competition, and more diversified consumer demand.

Against the backdrop of declining market share, the end market of Japanese brands is stepping up promotional efforts. On June 15, a reporter from the Beijing News visited a number of Japanese brand 4S stores in the Beijing area and found that most models were reducing prices.

The sales staff of a Toyota 4S store in the Beijing area told reporters that at present, a number of hot-selling models in the store have different degrees of cash discounts, such as Corolla discount of 30,000 yuan, Asian Dragon can discount 40,000 yuan, Rongfang can discount 35,000 yuan, if the car cash discount can be further discussed. In addition, the sales staff of a GAC Toyota 4S store in the Beijing area also said that the discount in the store is relatively large, for example, the Highlander can be discounted by nearly 60,000 yuan, and the Camry discount is also close to 30,000 yuan; He said that after increasing the preferential range, there has been a significant increase in the number of consumers who have entered the store for consultation, but some consumers have a wait-and-see attitude, worried that the price will be reduced after buying a car for a while.

The sales staff of a Dongfeng Nissan 4S store in the Beijing area told reporters that the current discount is very appropriate, for example, the price of the 14th generation Sylphy Yuexiang Edition and Qashqai Classic Comfort Edition naked cars is less than 110,000 yuan, and the price of the black and gold version of the Tian Lai is less than 160,000 yuan.

A Dongfeng Nissan 4S store. Beijing News Shell Financial Reporter Wang Linlin/photo

In Zhan Junhao's view, Japanese brands should further increase the transformation of new energy vehicles, and at the same time, they also need to re-examine their market positioning and brand image to adapt to changing market demand and consumer preferences.

In the view of Ren Wanfu, an analyst in the automotive industry, after entering the new energy vehicle track, Japanese brands need to learn more from Chinese auto brands, adjust their strategies in a targeted manner, make product adjustments according to the development trend of the Chinese market, and how to accelerate and promote the transformation of intelligence and electrification, which may be the key to whether they can survive and be competitive in the Chinese market in the future.

Beijing News Shell Financial Reporter Wang Linlin

Edited by Chen Weicheng

Proofreading Fu Chunshu

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