Original title: global trend has changed, Japanese car "housekeeping ability" has been frustrated.
Japanese media reported on January 22 that small cars have always been the "housekeeping skills" of Japanese cars, but Japanese car companies will scale back their overseas operations in this field.
According to the Nippon Keizai Shimbun website on January 21, Japanese companies accounted for 40% of global small car sales of 24.15 million units in 2019, according to British research firm IHS Markett. Japanese companies account for 30% of the total share of new cars.
Demand for small cars peaked as the US market shifted to large cars and rising incomes in emerging markets. At the same time, the trend of electrification also brings headwinds to small cars. Compared with the growing number of medium and large cars, the deceleration of small cars is obvious.
Japanese car companies have begun to adjust. According to the report, Honda will stop selling small cars in the United States as early as 2021 and reduce its models in Southeast Asia and other markets; Honda's main small car "fly" will not be launched in the United States and Southeast Asia, and sales of existing models will end in 2021; in addition, Nissan will reduce the number of brands sold in emerging market countries and reduce small car development.
The report believes that the ride-hailing service is one of the reasons for the above situation. Yoshiaki Kawano, manager of IHS, said that for consumers, a simple ride-hailing ride is enough.
The report points out that there are also profit reasons for switching from small cars to medium-and large-sized cars. According to Honda's 2018 securities report, the gross profit per light truck is about 35 per cent higher than the average of all models, while the "passenger cars" of cars and small cars are about 20 per cent lower than the average.
The profits of small cars are likely to deteriorate further if a new generation of technologies such as connected cars, self-driving, sharing and electrification become practical, the report said. The reason is that with safety aids such as automatic brakes and batteries, the cost will inflate, but small cars with limited profit margins will find it difficult to absorb the rising costs.
