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At this year's Beijing Auto Show, most of the discussion focused on Mr. Lei, who was chased and called "Dad" all the way, and the model in red sitting on the roof of the car.

On the other sideHondaThere was a slogan on the booth:

A Honda car that can’t be broken down.

I don’t know if it’s because the quality is so good, but Honda has earned a reputation of “the car remains even after the owner leaves”, so much so that no one buys new cars anymore. Taking June as an example, Honda sold 68,966 vehicles in China, a year-on-year decline of 39.04%.

Recently, news broke that Honda plans to close two fuel vehicle factories and reduce its vehicle production capacity in the Chinese market.Reduction of 490,000 vehicles, which accounts for one-third of Honda's production capacity in China.

The media exaggerated that this set a record for the largest production cuts among Japanese automakers.

Honda responded quickly, saying that it has seven vehicle production lines in China. The one closed in October was GAC Honda's fourth production line with an annual production capacity of 50,000 vehicles, and the one suspended in November was Dongfeng Honda's second production line with an annual production capacity of 240,000 vehicles.

The total reduction is 290,000 vehicles, that isNIOandXiaopengLast year's sales volume was by no means the largest production reduction record.

As for the 200,000-vehicle production capacity gap between media reports and official announcements:

Whether to stop production at another factory in Guangzhou is still under discussion.

After this adjustment, Honda's production capacity in China will be only 1.2 million vehicles. It should be noted that although Honda's sales in China have been declining every year, it still achieved sales of 1.234 million vehicles last year.

In other words, Honda is very sure that

It is impossible to catch up with last year this year.

In the first half of the year, Honda sold a total of about 410,000 vehicles, compared with 529,700 vehicles in the same period last year. If it wants to achieve the same results as last year, it must sell at least 800,000 vehicles in the second half of the year, which is obviously out of reach.

Taking June as an example, Honda's 24 modelsThere are only two models with monthly sales exceeding 10,000.AccordandCR-V。During the same period,BYDThe retail volume of passenger cars reached 280,000 units, with BYD Qin family alone selling more than 60,000 units.

Honda's best-selling year in China was 2020, when it sold approximately 1.63 million vehicles. This result may be hard to see again.

In any case, Honda is slashing at itself this time. In fact, Honda is also gambling. In 2022, Honda successively announced the electric vehicle factory projects of Dongfeng Honda and GAC Honda, with an initial annual production capacity of 120,000 vehicles. Behind the full-speed advancement of the electric vehicle project is the collective stalling of Honda's fuel vehicle system.

Counting Honda's past hit models, CR-V,Civic, Accord andFitI guess everyone has a name.

In the minds of Chinese people, Fit is Honda's best car. It is small and easy to park, and can be used for both work and grocery shopping. More importantly, it has the durability and high value retention characteristics of Japanese cars. So far, Fit has more than 8 million owners worldwide, with more than 1.3 million in the Chinese market alone.

But in June this year, only 961 units of Fit were sold, which was comparable to the sales champion in the A0 class market.BYD SeagullCompared to the previous day, the difference is more than 30,000. To quote a highly praised comment on Zhihu:

"Only a fool would not buy a Fit at this price in 2017, and anyone who buys a Fit at this price in 2024 is a fool"。

Seven years ago, the competitors of Fit were Volkswagen POLO,ToyotaVios, Hyundai Ruiyi andKiaK2, the choices in the small car market are dazzling nowadays. The ones ahead of Fit areWulingbingo,dolphin、Ora Good Cat、Dongfeng Nano、CheryeQ and other electric models.

Not to mention that the appearance of the Fit has changed a lot in the more than 20 years since it entered China. The price of the 2024 Fit has even been increased by 10,000 yuan. At a price of 97,800 yuan, it does not have a central control screen, the interior is still plain, and the reversing image can only be installed by yourself.

Even in terms of fuel efficiency, how can the cost of using the Fit be comparable to that of a pure electric car? In terms of car price, the high-end version of the Seagull is comparable to the low-end version of the Fit. It's not that Chinese people don't understand cars, but the Fit has not changed, but the Chinese market has changed.

Besides, there is a god in the 100,000-level market that joint venture cars can never surpass——

BYD Qin.

The Fit was once called the "civilian supercar", a nickname that is actually more suitable for the Civic.

As a best-selling model with global sales of more than 25 million units, Civic has captured the hearts of a large number of Chinese consumers with its Earth Dreams engine. In the minds of many young people, this car satisfies their various fantasies about a 150,000 yuan car:

It has strong power, fast acceleration, good looks, and looks like a sports car. Because of the speeding behavior of some car owners, the Civic is also nicknamed "Ferrari" by netizens.

A few years ago, 150,000 would have been a no-brainer.

Xiaomi SU7At the time of the release, a netizen asked Xiao Ai "If you had 215,900 yuan, what car would you buy?" The answer she got was "Honda Civic", ignoring SU7 who fainted in the toilet. This also indirectly reflects the important position of Civic in the hearts of Chinese netizens.

But now, Civic is also facing a big impact. In June, the domestic sales of Civic were only 6,486 units, ranking 22nd in the A-class car market.

Last year, Civic once achieved a monthly sales of 26,000, beating VolkswagenLavida, but the real reason is the big terminal discount. The car that once required a premium to buy has now been reduced to less than 100,000 yuan. This year, Civic's sales have returned to mediocrity, and the sales champion in the A-class market is still from the BYD family.Destroyer 05。

In this main market, Volkswagen and Toyota are also sandwiched between domestic cars.

You know, the Volkswagen Lavida is also a well-deserved god car in the sedan market. It has won the sales champion of fuel sedans for many years since its launch, but now it is 10,000 vehicles away from BYD Destroyer.

As the former undefeated champion of B-class cars, Accord can be regarded as the originator of premium sales in the Chinese auto market.

In June, the Accord ranked fifth with 12,197 units sold, but only 650 units of the PHEV version were sold.Tesla Model 3The leading advantage of VolkswagenPassatandMagotanFollowed by.

Back in 1999, the first domestically produced Accord rolled off the production line in Guangzhou. At that time, it was China's first car model that was in sync with global technology. The advertising slogan was "Starting in sync with the world." More than 10,000 cars could be sold a year at a price of 298,000 yuan.

As of last year, Accord has sold more than 3.3 million units in the Chinese market, but the fate of this "magic car" is not as good as that of the Magotan andCamryIt seemed inevitable that the company would go from being in the lead to being overtaken by the sudden emergence of the Model 3.

Even Honda, the Chinese people’s favorite SUV, could not escape the law of “the best car is not great”.

Honda's popular SUV is none other than the CR-V. When it comes to this car, the first thing that comes to mind is definitelyToyota RAV4, the latter is recognized as an urban SUVpioneerWhen the first generation RAV4 was released, Musk was still in college, and CR-V was seen as RAV4's biggest competitor.

Among the world's best-selling SUV models in 2023,Model YFirst, RAV4 second, CR-V third, with global sales close to 850,000 units. However, in the Chinese market, CR-V's performance can only be considered average.

In June, CR-V sold more than 16,000 units, ranking second after BYD Song Pro DM-i. Here we are talking about the compact SUV market. If we ignore the size, Model Y, with monthly sales of more than 40,000 units, is the well-deserved first place.

CR-V's sister model in MayShadowIt also achieved sales of over 10,000 units, but the number dropped to 8,841 units in June. Now the only Honda models in China with monthly sales of over 10,000 units are the Accord and CR-V.

The biggest difficulties Honda faces are the sluggish growth of fuel vehicles and the poor sales of electric vehicles.

In terms of sales of pure electric vehicles, the monthly sales of the two models in Honda's e:N series are only about a hundred units, but compared with Toyota bZ4X, which has close to zero units, it is already far ahead.

Three years ago, Honda China launched the pure electric vehicle brand "e:N". "e" stands for energize and electric, and "N" means New and Next. From the name, you can roughly know Honda's determination to transform into electrification. For this purpose, Honda has also developed a new pure electric architecture.

However, the sales of the first model, e:NS1 (极湃1), could not even be described as dismal. Honda was not discouraged and released the second batch of e:N brand models in November last year: GAC Honda e:NP2 (极湃2) and Dongfeng Honda e:NS2 (猎光). The former was officially launched at the end of April, and the latter has just been launched.

I don’t understand why Honda and Toyota choose to use verification codes when naming their electric cars?

Not long ago, Honda launched a pure electric brand "Ye" developed specifically for the Chinese market. The name means "brilliant and shining", full of Chinese style. The two models of the Ye brand, Ye S7 and P7, should be officially launched at the end of the year.

According to Honda's plan,Launch 10 pure electric models in the Chinese market by 2027 and achieve 100% pure electric by 2035。

The most common complaints about Japanese brands by Chinese consumers are their lack of ambition, slow response to changes in the domestic market, and lack of innovation, but at least Honda is serious about its electrification transformation.

No matter how serious we are, let’s take a look at our big brother Toyota.

In 2020, Toyota said it would launch at least 10 pure electric vehicles in 2025. Last year, Toyota changed its mind and postponed the time to 2026. Toyota's attitude towards electrification transformation has been repeated over the years, so much so that Akio Toyoda has a famous saying:

Electric cars are overhyped.