Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Japan lost to China, and now it's Mitsubishi Motors' turn.

Just now, an internal letter from GAC-Mitsubishi was released, which was jointly signed by the responsible persons of China and Japan.

Acknowledging the difficulties of Mitsubishi Motors in China, it has completely stopped production and has begun to lay off staff on a large scale.

Judging from the sales volume and reputation of Mitsubishi in the Chinese market, in fact, Mitsubishi is running out of luck.

In terms of normal joint venture time, Mitsubishi Motors has only lived in China for about 10 years.

Moreover, GAC-Mitsubishi is also the first Japanese joint venture to fall.

What happened? Yesterday, a letter to all employees of GAC-Mitsubishi was made public:

It says a lot, but the logic of splitting it is simple.

"made a tough decision": big layoffs.

What happened? "enter the temporary shutdown stage", "the company is in difficulties".

Why is this happening? "Mitsubishi products have been abandoned and eliminated by the times in the transformation of new energy."

What are we going to do? "I'm not sure. I don't know."

One detail worth noting is that GAC-Mitsubishi entered a temporary shutdown in June this year, but in fact Mitsubishi announced a shutdown in April.

The open letter did not say that Mitsubishi would withdraw from China, and Mitsubishi executives had previously said "never withdraw from China."

But the hell inner volume of the Chinese market, if you want to stay, you have to come up with something real.

Judging from some recent information from other sources, the last thing Mitsubishi has left to settle down in China has also been taken away.

According to the media TMC Power report, they received information from inside GAC that GAC-Mitsubishi's plant and R & D assets in Changsha, Hunan Province, have been confirmed to be taken over by GAC's own new energy brand, Ian.

Among them, the 200,000 capacity plant that used to produce Mitsubishi's main Olander models is planned to be changed to the third new energy plant in Eian, the internal code-named "ACS Project" has been officially launched, and the transformation of GAC-Mitsubishi production line has begun.

The bidding work related to stamping, welding, painting and final assembly workshop has come to an end, such as Ji No.2 winning the bid stamping machine, Beidou is responsible for the transformation of welding production line, Wuzhou Atmospheric Society is responsible for the transformation of painting production line, Milong is responsible for the transformation of general assembly line and testing equipment, and the new plant will be officially put into production at the beginning of 2024.

Unlike the previous Guangzhou plant, in addition to ready-made factories, production lines and employees, Ean is said to have invested 670 million yuan in the construction of GAC-Mitsubishi, with styling laboratories, EMC laboratories, new energy laboratories, comprehensive laboratories, trial-production workshops and R & D centers in scientific research buildings.

So judging from the start of large-scale layoffs and the takeover of physical assets by Ean, GAC-Mitsubishi, or Mitsubishi Motors in China, is already a "brain-dead" state, and it may only be a matter of time before it exits.

The result of a 10-year joint venture plant is to put it in an inappropriate metaphor:

Mitsubishi fell and Ian was full.

Of course, it is hard to blame GAC for all this, and Mitsubishi can only be blamed for its own hesitation and missed opportunities.

This plot has been staged more than once since Mitsubishi first entered China 50 years ago.

History of Mitsubishi China in 1972, with the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, a large number of Japanese enterprises landed in China, including Mitsubishi Motors.

In 1973, Mitsubishi Motor entered China for the first time as an import, mainly medium-sized truck products:

But the number is extremely limited.

After the reform and opening up in 1985, Mitsubishi Motors cooperated with Liuzhou Mini Automobile Factory, the predecessor of today's Wuling Automobile, to produce the L100 minivan. In the same year, Mitsubishi's commercial vehicle project was also launched in Shenyang with FAW.

Objectively speaking, Mitsubishi's automobile design scheme, engine technology and so on are the important reference objects and indispensable core parts in the early stage of China's independent automobile industry.

In fact, the name Wuling was also taken by Liuqi in the face of market competition, meaning "more than Mitsubishi."

In fact, it is not too much to say that Mitsubishi has played an important role in "paving roads and building bridges" for China's automobile development.

Because unlike other foreign car companies, early Mitsubishi came to China and only sold technology, not joint ventures.

In 1997, Mitsubishi cooperated with China to establish Shenyang Aerospace Mitsubishi engine, which mainly produces 4G6 series engines, which once became the core components for the survival of most domestic automobile companies.

You can call the name of independent car companies, including Great Wall, Chang'an, brilliance, BAIC, Chery … .. Almost everyone has used a Mitsubishi engine.

Even today, many domestic medium-and low-end pick-up trucks and SUV are still using high-quality, inexpensive, solid and durable 4G6.

In 1998, Mitsubishi set up a second engine company in Harbin, Dongan Mitsubishi, which is now Dongan Power (now Mitsubishi has withdrawn).

You read it correctly, the ideal ONE of the first car uses Dongan's three-cylinder booster.

The above can be regarded as the first stage of Mitsubishi Motors' entry into China. Giving priority to technical cooperation and transfer has objectively helped China's independent automobile industry to start.

In the mid-1990s, Volkswagen, the first to enter China, had been making money in China for 10 years, when Mitsubishi began to set up a joint venture car company in hindsight.

However, it is still a shareholder in the way of technology transfer, only participating in research and development, not in operation and sales. And in this way the Mitsubishi Delica van, SUV Pajero to the Chinese market, a time to sell hot.

The reason why Mitsubishi is willing to transfer technology to Chinese car companies, of course, is not benevolent, the direct reason is that Mitsubishi Motors' performance declined frequently at that time and was eager to find new business growth points.

By the way, the Ling Shuai model of Southeast Motor is actually the sixth generation of Lancer EVO, the miraculous car made by Mitsubishi to dominate the WRC Championship, which battered Subaru to pieces.

Now go to the second-hand market to find a Ling Shuai, prepare and refit the track, the performance-to-price ratio is not too high.

This is the second stage of Mitsubishi Motors in China. The joint venture plant is still technology transfer and has made a lot of profits, but it has not established the brand awareness and foundation of "Mitsubishi" in the Chinese market.

It was not until 2012 that GAC and GAC formally formed a joint venture with GAC-Mitsubishi, which was regarded as following the path taken by other foreign-funded enterprises 30 years ago.

Four years later, GAC-Mitsubishi ushered in the localization of the third-generation Outlander. At that time, the only 4-wheel drive and 7-seat joint venture SUV halo that could be bought within 200000 yuan on the head of domestic Olander, with a monthly sales of nearly 10,000 yuan.

Over the next three years, GAC-Mitsubishi sales exceeded 100, 000 each year, reaching a peak of 144000 in 2018.

But in fact, this kind of achievement is not excellent.

Because Orlande sales, in fact, has been less than a fraction of Tuguan, CR-V, RAV4.

What is more frightening is that from 2013 to 2021, GAC Orlande has not been replaced for nine years, the interior style is old and lack of luxury, and the previously eye-catching space is not good enough to compare with the constantly updated competition.

The decline in sales has led to a decline in the strength of the Orlande brand. In advertising and marketing, Jackie Chan can still be invited to the previous budget, but now we can only find the second endorsement of the bald bear.

In 2021, the hindsight of Mitsubishi finally replaced the new Outlander, but by this time Mitsubishi Motors already belonged to the "Nissan Renault-Mitsubishi" alliance, the new Eurolander, in fact, Nissan Qijun changed its shell.

What is more deadly is that at this point in time, China's independent automobile industry began to overtake by virtue of new energy and intelligent corners.

In 2022, GAC-Mitsubishi sold only more than 30,000 vehicles, nearly halving its sales compared with 2021.

The "best-selling" Outlander order in the first quarter of this year was only three figures. Only a dozen or even a few of other models have been sold. From the April production and sales of KuaiBao released by GAC GROUP, we can no longer see the separate data of GAC-Mitsubishi.

By the way, GAC-Mitsubishi built a pure tram Artuco with the help of Eian's platform. Since it went on sale in March last year, monthly sales have dropped from last year's double digits to this year's single digits. It is said that the cumulative sales are only 145.

According to the financial data released by GAC, by the end of 2022, GAC-Mitsubishi had total assets of 5.961 billion yuan, assets and liabilities of 5.953 billion yuan, and asset-liability ratio of 99%.

Although there is no official delisting, in fact, the situation is in danger.

For the future fate of Mitsubishi Motors in China, you can refer to today's Jeep, Subaru and Suzuki, mainly selling pure imported cars to some minority groups who love to play with cars.

For example, Mitsubishi's classic off-road vehicle Pajero and the famous super four-wheel drive system still have a strong appeal among outdoor players. The tenth generation of EVO is also attractive to performance car players.

The last sentence summarizes the nearly 50-year history of Mitsubishi Motors in China:

Hindsight represents the contestants, always getting up early in the morning and catching up for the evening collection.

With the collapse of the overall decline of the Japanese system, who is next? There is no objection to the overall decline in the Japanese system, is it?

Let's sort out and take inventory.

Suzuki, which withdrew from China in 2018, was the first to fail, which was a prelude. Chinese consumers upgrade their consumption and have higher requirements for the space size and configuration of cars, but Suzuki, which insists on building cars, is unwilling to compromise and withdraws from the Chinese market before it falls down against the backdrop of rapidly declining sales.

Then there is Mazda, which is hanging in one breath but falling all the way, and Chinese users are not buying it no matter whether it is stuck in traffic or not.

Followed by Nissan, the three-cylinder Qijun became a fuse, scrapping their main selling models, and now they can only rely on online ride-hailing Xuanyi to support the crisis.

Finally, Toyota and Honda. In terms of sales data, the decline in the first half of this year compared with last year was between 15% and 20%.

Especially the Japanese big brother Toyota, the high-end market of Hanlanda and Sena, it was difficult to get a price increase at that time, and now the sales volume is less than 5000 for four consecutive months. Mixed market, it took BYD two years to surpass all the cumulative sales in the past.

Its main selling models are now supported by Lei Ling Carola's online car-hailing market.

The Japanese system failed in China for different reasons, but there is one thing that is the same:

Rest on their laurels, have an arrogant attitude and refuse to transform.

Against this background, the first one to fail was Mitsubishi Motors.

Who will be next?

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: smart car reference (ID:AI4Auto). The author: have a car and have evidence.

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