The "counterattack" of Japanese cars in China has started.

[? A billion euro guide? ]? Before 20 12, the title of "the largest foreign brand car in China market" once belonged to Japanese cars.

Author Zhang

Editor zhangyan

The counterattack of Japanese cars has entered a new stage.

In 20 19, German cars once again became the largest foreign brand car series in China market with a share of 24.2%. However, Japanese cars did not lose-the market share once again exceeded 20% after 8 years. In the same period, the sales volume reached 4.92 million vehicles, up by 65,438+00.7% year-on-year, and it stood out in the sorrowful China automobile market.

In the face of such transcripts, Japanese car companies are satisfied. "Impressive Toyota speed", even described the rapid growth of China market by Ueda Da Lang, chairman of Toyota China. In 20 19, Toyota's sales in China reached 1.62 million vehicles, up 9% year-on-year.

The title of "the largest foreign brand car in China market" once belonged to Japanese cars. However, after 20 12, under the influence of many factors, such as the tension between China and Japan, the rapid growth of German cars, and the conservative development strategy of Japanese car companies in China, the development of Japanese car brands is quite bumpy.

It is precisely because of losing its position in the China market that Toyota Group's sales in the global market lag behind Volkswagen Group. Japanese cars undoubtedly want to regain lost ground. Now, they are getting closer and closer to this goal.

Since 20 16, the market share gap between Japanese cars and German cars has narrowed for three consecutive years. If Japanese cars and German cars maintain 20 19 sales growth, the former can catch up with the latter within two years.

(Watchmaker/Yiou Automobile Analyst? Ding)

Of course, the high growth of 20 19 Japanese cars in China is difficult to replicate. However, in addition to sales volume, Japanese cars are rebuilding their advantages in many aspects and accelerating the pace of seizing the China market.

What brands do Japanese car companies have? How many opportunities do they have in the China market?

Advantages of Japanese cars

In the global automobile market, Toyota, Honda and Nissan have long been among the top ten global automobile companies, and Toyota is the largest automobile brand in the world. Even in the China market, these three brands can rank in the top five.

Economy of use has always been the competitive advantage of Japanese cars. In the same class, Japanese cars often have the lowest fuel consumption and the lowest maintenance cost. In addition, Japanese cars are also famous for their space utilization. In the medium-sized SUV market, Toyota Highlander is the space benchmark of its peers.

Toyota is most proud of the reliability and durability of its products. Words such as "Excellence" and "ingenuity" often appear in advertisements of Toyota's models. Toyota and its brands have also been in the top three for a long time in the ranking of automobile quality and reliability released by J.D.Power in the United States and Japan. Toyota's appearance rate is also the highest in West Asia, Central Asia, Africa and other areas with poor car environment.

The engine has always been Honda's advantage. Honda's "buy an engine and get a car" has been circulating in China auto market. Honda's engine can always produce maximum power with minimum displacement and fuel consumption. The current Honda Fit is called "Super Run GK5", and Civic is described by consumers as "every second counts".

(Guangqi Honda Fit Tide Run Edition/Guangqi Honda Official)

Nissan is famous for its comfort. Its mid-level car Teana is called "mobile sofa" in China. Not only Teana, but also Sylphy, its highest-selling model, has good comfort, which makes Nissan also have the title of "sofa factory".

However, Japanese cars also have many shortcomings-German cars have gained an advantage by relying on these "precise strikes".

A more flexible opponent

While pursuing economy, Japanese cars have to give up in some aspects, such as materials. Japanese cars that have just entered China are obviously inferior to German cars of the same class in terms of interior materials and grade sense. On the Internet, some Volkswagen car owners think that their cars are "advanced" and have a basis for implementation.

In addition, for the sake of safety and cost, Japanese cars began to pursue foldable energy-absorbing design very early. Early consumers in China didn't know this technology, so Japanese cars gave consumers the impression that they were "thin skin and thick meat" and unsafe. On the contrary, German cars with thicker steel plates are recognized by more consumers.

Although car companies all over the world adopt foldable energy-absorbing design, the stereotype that "German cars are safe and Japanese cars are unsafe" has been deeply imprinted in the minds of a large number of China consumers.

While Japanese car companies are still busy "educating" consumers in China that the foldable energy-absorbing design is safer, Volkswagen started a new game with more flexible ideas.

Japanese cars have advantages in space utilization, so it is difficult for German cars to improve through design in a short time. Therefore, German cars adopt a simpler way of satisfaction-lengthening. Magotan, Audi A6L, BMW 3 Series Long Wheelbase Edition, etc. Are they all products specially added for China? Even the "extended mode" has now entered the compact market.

(New BMW 3 Series Long Wheelbase Edition/BMW China Official)

In addition, Volkswagen also adopted the style of "one car and two meals" by using its two joint ventures. In other words, the same product is produced and sold in two different joint ventures. Magotan and Passat, LaVida and Bora, Santana and Jetta are all based on the same platform. For the consistent operation of German cars, Japanese car companies with relatively rigid thinking have not followed up for a long time. Gradually, Japanese cars are at a disadvantage in the competition of German cars.

A chance to fight back

Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Information Association, predicted that the market share of Japanese cars in China will continue to increase in recent years.

In terms of grade sense, in addition to the continuous improvement of Japanese car companies, more and more young people begin to pay less attention to grade sense and pay more attention to personalization, and the appeal of young and fashionable design style of Japanese cars is gradually increasing.

Thanks to the "opponent's foil", the reputation of Japanese cars began to slowly improve.

In recent years, German cars have continuously broken through the low line in terms of terminal concessions, and Japanese cars with lower terminal concessions have also begun to gain the favor of some consumers. While the automobile market has been declining for two consecutive years, Lexus owned by Toyota achieved a rapid growth of 25% in 20 19, even though some models were sold at higher prices.

(lexus ES/ Lexus China official with long-term price increase sales)

With the development of science and technology, it is more convenient for people to obtain information, and the foldable energy-absorbing design has been recognized by more and more consumers. In addition, German cars have appeared "exhaust door" and "odor door" in recent years, which declined in some safety tests, and the trust of some young consumer groups in German cars has also decreased.

In addition, Cui Dongshu told Yiou Automobile: "In addition to its strength, Japanese cars have paid more attention to the China market in recent years and adopted the successful experience of other car companies."

As it said, Toyota has indicated in 20 19 that the production capacity in China will increase from1600,000 to 2 million in 2020. Nissan even shouted the goal of expanding the production capacity of 1 10,000 vehicles in China in 20 18 years.

Part of the successful experience of Japanese cars comes from German cars, such as "one car for two meals". 20 14 at the same time that faw Toyota launched the previous generation corolla, GAC Toyota launched a brand-new compact Chevrolet. These two models are "sister models", and there is no technical difference except the design.

Corolla has long been the global car sales champion. Even in the China market, this car is a frequent visitor in the top three national car sales. After listing in Lei Ling, it not only did not threaten the market position of Corolla, but also quickly achieved the level of monthly sales exceeding 10,000.

After Lei Ling's success, Toyota and Honda turned their "broadsword" of sister models to their main sales models, especially SUV products. For example, Guangqi Honda Hao Ying, which just went on sale on 20 19 and 12, was built based on CR-V, and the only difference between Toyota Yize and C-HR in appearance is the trailer. SUV is the market segment with the highest sales growth rate in recent years, and its growth rate is ahead of cars for a long time, which will undoubtedly help it to increase sales.

At the same time, Japanese cars are in the replacement period of the main sales models in recent years, and this period is just the end of the replacement of most main sales models of German cars. In 20 19, Toyota corolla, RAV4 room harmony and Nissan sylphy ushered in a new generation. In 2020, the main sales models, including VIRANDA built by GAC Toyota based on RAV4, Fit by GAC Honda and Qi Jun by Dongfeng Nissan, will land in China market.

(Watchmaker/Yiou Automobile Analyst? Zhang Yuzhen)

Opportunities have emerged, but it is not easy for Japanese cars to surpass German cars in the near future.

It is difficult to sneak in 2020.

In fact, as early as the beginning of 2020, Japanese car companies had foreseen the difficulties in 2020, but never predicted that it would be so difficult.

At the beginning of 2020, major car companies announced their sales targets in China: Toyota's target is 6,543,800+0,760 vehicles, which is 8.6% higher than the actual sales in 2065,438+09. Nissan has set a target of 6.5438+0.6 million vehicles, only 50,000 vehicles higher than the sales in 2065.438+09. Honda's attitude is more cautious, and its requirement for 2020 is to "only" exceed the actual sales of 20 19 years.

By the year 2020, the pneumonia epidemic caused by novel coronavirus will rapidly attack the whole of China, and the difficulty of the market has made the above goal "impossible"? Mission.

As of February 18, 2008, there were more than 70,000 confirmed cases and more than 2,000 deaths in COVID-19. Under the epidemic situation, a large number of enterprises closed factories and laid off employees, and the automobile industry was also greatly affected. More importantly, a large number of consumers are forbidden to go out, a large number of enterprises close down, consumer income drops, and consumer confidence drops, which is not conducive to the development of the automobile market.

Cui Dongshu said that apart from Japan's proximity to China, due to its large market share in China, long-term adoption of low inventory rate model, and close industrial chain, Japanese car companies have weak anti-risk ability and are more affected by the epidemic. This will adversely affect the development of Japanese car companies in China in 2020.

It can be predicted that the market share of Japanese cars will increase slightly in 2020, but there is still a long way to go to replace the market position of German cars.

The opportunity has already appeared, and the counterattack will not happen overnight. Although it is impossible to surpass German cars in 2020, the "counterattack" of Japanese cars continues, and it is still not a dream to achieve this goal in the next three to five years.

Editor: zhangyan

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.