When it comes to Honda's past god cars, the Fit, Civic, Accord, and CR-V are all on the list. But the times in the automotive industry have changed dramatically, and these four god cars are not selling well now. Behind this is Honda's deteriorating situation in China, even closing two Chinese factories to reduce excess production capacity of 490,000 vehicles. Can't Honda survive in China?
1. The Fit and Civic don't sell anymore
The body is small and easy to park, durable and high-value, the Fit can be called a generation of god cars, and has become the first car for many young people in the past. Moreover, there are many people who buy it for modification. Some car critics praised the Fit, "the best car within 500,000". In the field of small cars, the Fit has always been the hegemon in the past, and it is common for monthly sales to exceed 10,000, even exceeding 15,000 units at one time. However, under the impact of new energy vehicles, the Fit is now gradually abandoned by the Chinese people. In June this year, the Fit sold only 961 units, while the BYD Seagull was as high as 35,201. In the small car segment, it is an indisputable fact that the Fit fell off the altar and its position was replaced by the Seagull.
In the field of compact cars, the Civic, which has sold more than 25 million units worldwide, once satisfied young people's various reveries about 150,000 yuan cars: strong power, fast acceleration, and high appearance, similar to a sports car. Some netizens refer to the Civic as a "civilian supercar", and some even jokingly call it "Farad Domain". The monthly sales of the Civic once exceeded 30,000 units, which is the same level as Lavida and Sylphy. However, now the Civic is gradually returning to mediocrity, and only 6,589 units were sold in June this year. In the compact car market, the Civic was beaten by new energy plug-in hybrid vehicles such as BYD Qin PLUS and Destroyer 05.
2. 雅阁和CR-V也都无力
The Honda Accord can be said to be the originator of China's joint venture price increase car. In 2003, the seventh-generation Accord was launched, and at that time there were very few B-class cars in China, so it was difficult to find a Accord, and the terminal market even increased the price by 40,000 yuan. As a perennial winner in the B-class car field, the Honda Accord has long overtaken the Camry and Passat, and has firmly ranked first in the B-class sedan segment, with monthly sales of nearly 40,000 units. However, now the Accord is no longer in the limelight, and its sales fell to 11,964 units in June this year, ranking only seventh in the B-segment sedan segment. New energy vehicles such as Tesla Model 3 and BYD Qin L have seized the position of Accord in the past.
Even the Chinese's favorite SUV, Honda, has not escaped the law of "god car is not god". The Honda CR-V is regarded as the biggest competitor to the Toyota RAV4 in the world. In the Chinese auto market, the CR-V once appeared on the altar. At its peak, the monthly sales of nearly 40,000 units made the CR-V the best-selling joint venture SUV model and the second largest in the SUV segment. However, the sales of CR-V are also fluctuating, with 16,570 units sold in June this year, ranking only ninth in the SUV field, and sales are far lower than the 30,000 or 40,000 Model Y, Song PLUS and other new energy models.
3. Honda closes two factories in China
As a large multinational car company, Honda has created an incomparably brilliant record in the Chinese auto market. In 2020, Honda sold 1.627 million units in China, far exceeding Toyota, Nissan, etc. However, under the impact of new energy brands such as Tesla and BYD, Honda's core selling points such as economy and practicality of traditional fuel vehicles have gradually disappeared, and its own electrification pace is slow, and new energy products are far behind the times, so sales continue to plummet. In 2023, Honda will only sell 1,234,200 units in China, plummeting by nearly 400,000 units in three years. In the first half of this year, Honda continued to plummet by 21.5% to 415,900 units, and the decline became more and more obvious.
As sales continued to plummet, Honda had to reduce production capacity in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Previously, it was reported in the media that Honda plans to close and suspend some plants in China, reducing its annual production capacity from 1.49 million units to 1 million units. The production capacity will be reduced by 490,000 units, which is equal to 30% of Honda's production capacity in China and 10% of its global production capacity. According to the media, this is the largest production reduction record of a Japan car company. Honda recently announced that it will close a 50,000-unit plant in Guangzhou in October and a 240,000-unit plant in Wuhan in November. As for the other 200,000 shortfalls, the media said that the suspension of production at another factory in Guangzhou is still being discussed.
The deterioration of traditional fuel vehicles and the inability to sell new energy vehicles are the biggest difficulties facing Honda in China. For example, the two models of pure electric models, Honda's awkward e:N series, have monthly sales of only about 100 units, and their market presence is extremely low. Of course, Honda is also working hard, and previously released a pure electric brand developed specifically for the Chinese market, named "Ye", full of localized colors. At the same time, Honda is also actively deploying new energy plants while closing its fuel vehicle plant, and will start operations at two new energy plants in September and November. Whether Honda can regain its glory in China, only time will give us the right answer.