China is the last straw of Japanese auto companies

　　The just passed 2010, to Japanese auto companies, can be described as a disaster. Not only Toyota suffered recalls of the largest scale, Honda also had several recalls. As a result, year on year sales declined constantly, and maybe on the way of losing the world’s NO. 1position. Without Chinese market, the declination of Toyota may be even worse.

　　1. Recall

　　The word “recall” brought a shadow to two major Japanese car companies Toyota and Honda in 2010. Since the massive recalls at the beginning of the year, Toyota’s global sales have reached 10 million units totally. Meanwhile, Honda also carried out a lot of recalls. February 2010, Honda announced to recall 437,700 globally due to a security risk of the airbag. In March, Honda again recalled 412,000 in the United States because of the troubled brake pedal. In December, Honda recalled 1350,000 Fit worldwide for the faulted headlights.

　　But relatively speaking, Honda recalls have not caught as much attention as Toyota. Maybe due to the strikes of the U.S. government or just as China saying goes “good deed goes unpunished”, Toyota was much more influenced than the Honda. In the U.S. market, Toyota sales dropped over the past three months. At the end of November, in the U.S. market Ford sold 155,000 more than Toyota. Toyota’s runner-up position in the U.S. market since 2007 was seized by Ford this year. And, perhaps Toyota will be the only automaker that suffers declination in 2010.

　　Toyota’s recalls are possible to speed up the replacement of the world’s first place. Although the sales date have not been released at present, in 2010 champion will be GM in recovery or developing Volkswagen.

　　2. China is the last straw

　　Different from the American market, Toyota’s sales performance in the Chinese market is not impacted much. In addition to at the beginning of the recalls, due to substantial price cuts and the introduction of a large number of new vehicles or replacement vehicles, later Toyota’s sale was not affected significantly. In November Toyota car sales in China rose 17.2% to 82,900. At the same time, the company announced that ever though the sales volume of the December this year is similar to last year, Toyota can still reach the yearly sales target of 800,000 in China.

　　Not just Toyota, other Japanese auto companies in 2010 are all winners in the Chinese market.

　　Though only a very small car, Nissan held more than a grand public ceremony for 2011 Teana. Only from this point, it can be seen that Japanese carmakers are quite rich. It can be said that when the Europe and other developed countries market are still fluctuating, China has become a straw of Japanese business.

　　3. Independent brands of JVs

　　Referring to independent brands of JVs, the “credit” of Japanese companies can never be ignored. Currently, only three JVs have independent brands. Guangzhou Honda Automobile can be said a forerunner.

　　Venucia launched by Dongfeng Nissan in 2010 is the most popular one. At the Guangzhou Auto Show, as the hosts, the two companies also exhibited Everus and Venucia respectively. Massive production will begin within 2011.

　　This year independent brands of JVs have arousing hot discussion within the industry. Although someone held an attitude of devaluation while others gave out their praises. For me, I hold the same contempt for independent brands of JVs because by the renewed purchased models, independent brands of JVs are aimed to impact the normal independent brand market. To some extent, they can not be called “independent brands”. To independent brands of JVs, they are only another kind of localized products with no fundamental changes.

　　4. Fit’s failure

　　Among the present Japanese brands, the two most unsuccessful models are both Honda’s. One is Dongfeng Honda’s European version of Accord, Platinum and the other probably is Guangzhou Honda Fit. While Platinum has the gene of Honda Accord, its sales has been too bad compared to Accord.

　　The other, Honda Fit car, was once the best-selling model in domestic car joint venture. However, since the second half of the 2009, Fit has been suffering a downturn with the lowest monthly sales of 2000 or even less.

　　The first reason is that models priced between 80, 000 to 100, 000 Yuan are quite rich while the second is cost performance of Fit is declining, leading to consumers’ switch.

　　Although Honda has completed its 2010 sales target, the embarrassment status of the current two models also gave them alarm for their future.

　　If Honda can not reduce the prices and improve performance, Honda’s future may be worse.