Originality makes business more valuable
In 1999, the first domestic Honda Accord went off the assembly line. At about 300,000 yuan that year, you could buy a 75-square-meter house in Panjiayuan, Beijing. But no one expected that 25 years later, the evergreen tree, which used to be the most valuable in the B-class car market, would also drop its price.
Author | Huang Shuo
Editor | Tian Yanlin
Operation | Liu Shan
The price will be reduced after less than a year of replacement.
"Honda Accord Smart Edition with an official guide price of 196,800 yuan, now you only need 140,000 more naked cars after the discount!" Recently, news about "Honda Accord price reduction 50,000" "bottom fishing Honda Accord" spread on social media.
"After the Spring Festival, there are sales messages on the Internet saying that the cash discount is 30,000, and there should be another round of discounts recently. I haggled for a few rounds and got a discount of 49,000, and the final landing price of the Smart Enjoy version is around 168,000." A new Accord owner from Shandong told "City" that he always felt that the Accord discount 50,000 "tricky", which is a "comprehensive discount" after including installment loans or replacement subsidies. But when he went to the 4S store for consultation a few days ago, he found that he could really get this discount by buying a car in full, and there were almost no strings attached.
In early April, GAC Honda officially released the April limited-time subsidy policy, of which all Accord models can enjoy up to 11,000 yuan replacement subsidy and 32,000 yuan car purchase subsidy.
The sudden increase in preferential intensity has "captured" many consumers, and they have posted their own price list – "The landing price of the smart version with two years of interest is 164,000 yuan, and I feel that the price is in place." "The guide price is 197,800 yuan for the luxury version, and the installment landing 150,000 more, and the interest is 162,000 yuan." "The luxury version installment naked car is 134,300 yuan, and the landing price including interest is 166,500 yuan."
There are also some "regretful" car owners who think they have copied the bottom line, but they did not expect to buy it a few days earlier. "The luxury version I just mentioned has a discount of 45,000 yuan, and the full amount 173,400 landed. If only I had waited a little longer." "After four months, it dropped by 40,000 yuan, which is equal to my loss of 10,000 a month."
The Accord, a B-class "magic car" launched by Honda, was born in 1976 and has since developed to the eleventh generation. In 1999, the sixth-generation Accord was officially launched in China by the joint venture Guangzhou Honda (later renamed "GAC Honda"), becoming Honda’s first domestic model in China. It is also the first representative model of the joint venture B-class sedan in the Chinese market.
At that time, the news of Honda Accord’s domestic production also caused quite a stir. Because the fifth-generation Accord was introduced through imports, it has a large mass base in China by virtue of high value retention and product quality. The starting price of the first batch of domestic models of the sixth-generation Accord was 298,000 yuan, which was not only about 100,000 yuan lower than the imported models of the same level at that time, but also greatly lowered the price threshold. At the same time, it can be called the first model in the Chinese market to synchronize with the global market.
The sixth-generation Accord went into production in overseas markets in August 1997, and Guangzhou Honda localized it in late March 1999. It took only about a year and a half for the Accord to go from global release to domestic production. The other iconic model of the same period, the Shanghai Volkswagen Passat B5, took nearly four years, and it was not launched in China until Germany stopped production.
The product power that keeps pace with the times and the price that is close to the people make it difficult to find a car for the sixth-generation Accord, creating a precedent for "price increases" in the Chinese auto market.
The Accord currently on sale belongs to the 11th generation model, which was officially launched in May 2023, including the fuel version with 1.5T engine and the e: PHEV plug-in hybrid two-power model belonging to the new energy camp. The official guide price is 179,800~ 258,800 yuan.
You know, the mainstream joint venture B-class sedan is theoretically the most powerful product after the big replacement. Compared with the relatively old models such as Maiteng, Passat, and Teana, Accord should have fought hard to grab the market of its competitors. However, Accord reduced the price of the new model less than a year after the replacement, breaking the filter of the outside world. This was almost impossible in the previous car consumer market.
Recently, "City" visited several GAC Honda dealers in the Beijing area, and the sales staff said that the preferential treatment recently circulated on the Internet is basically true. "The replacement subsidy depends on the old car model, ranging from 8,000 to 11,000 yuan. The manufacturer’s car purchase subsidy is basically reflected in the end point discount. The full price of the Accord fuel version can be discounted by nearly 50,000 yuan. If the plug-in version is less, it can be discounted by nearly 40,000 yuan."
At present, the cash discount range for the full purchase of Honda Accord fuel version models in April is basically about 47,000 to 50,000 yuan in some places. Buying a car through a 5-year installment loan can be discounted by about 10,000 yuan to support early repayment for two years. Some regions and dealers may also give greater discounts.
I didn’t escape the pit of "acclimatization"
Since the introduction of the sixth-generation model in 1999, Accord has sold more than 20 million vehicles worldwide, and its cumulative sales in China have exceeded 3.30 million vehicles, ranking among the top five in the B-class car market almost every year.
But the tide of the new energy era is rolling in, and all the glory is finally gone.
In fact, price-for-volume is not uncommon in the automotive industry. Not only the Accord, but old rivals in the same class – Volkswagen Maiteng, Passat, Toyota Camry, Nissan Teana – are inevitable. However, the Honda Accord may be the most unwilling of them all.
But no matter how unwilling you are, sales are the confidence of the OEM.
According to the data of the Easy Car App, the sales of the fuel-powered Accord from June to August 2023 fell from the previous "10,000-class" to only 9,008, 7,110 and 6,915 vehicles respectively.
Although there is a significant decline in sales during the old and new period, which is a normal phenomenon in the automotive industry, considering that this is a superposition of the results of some old models clearance, and it also shows a gradual decline, Accord is anxious and takes the initiative to "bleed". Take out a discount of about 10,000~ 30,000 yuan.
The effect of the discount is very significant. With the increase of the discount in September 2023, Accord finally returned to the usual monthly sales level of over 10,000. After the largest discount up the ante to 40,000 at the end of the year, Accord sales reached 22,661 units in December 2023.
In 2022, the Accord was brilliant. It won the title of runner-up in the B-class sedan market with more than 220,000 sales, second only to the Toyota Camry. In 2023, its sales fell to 174,000, and were overtaken by Volkswagen Maiteng and Passat, ranking fourth.
In January 2024, sales of the Honda Accord declined from the previous month to 15,456 units; in February, the Accord began to recover its preferential treatment, resulting in sales further falling to 6,519 units, ranking only ninth in the B-class sedan.
As the best-selling car in the Chinese market, the Accord "left behind" is something that GAC Honda does not want to see. But under the impact of the new energy wave, the optimization and upgrading of the Accord replacement is increasingly difficult to arouse consumer interest.
Some netizens said that the appearance design of the 11th generation Accord is not in line with people’s aesthetics, and the "eye edge" at first glance is not strong enough. Although compared with the old 10th generation model, a lot of configuration has been added, and the sound insulation has also been improved, but the power specifications and performance have hardly changed. The difference between the old and new models is not big, and it cannot be compared with more new energy models on the market.
"Although the 1.5T engine has improved a bit, the actual feeling has not changed. The end point price of the 10th generation Accord low-end is about 140,000 to 150,000. Considering the overall environment now, I think it is normal to sell the 11th generation at this price." Some fans said. But some netizens felt that, "The 11th generation modern Sonata of 1.5T only dares to set the starting price of 139,800 yuan now, and the Accord sells 140,000 is not low."
Consumers complain that the Accord’s mid-range and low-end models are not equipped with a reversing radar. "What era does it have? It doesn’t even have a reversing radar. Honda still doesn’t understand what consumers want."
But in fact, in order to cater to the rapid development of the new energy era in China’s auto market, Honda launched several plug-in hybrid models (e: PHEVs) in 2023 that can be green-labeled for new energy and have some strength. At the same time, it cancelled the gasoline-electric hybrid models (e: HEVs) that could not be green-labeled for new energy before. Although this strategy was considered a "risky move" by some industry insiders.
Why is this? The lack of gasoline-electric hybrid models (e: HEV) has affected Accord’s mid-to-high-end image and product differentiation to some extent. And from the pricing point of view, the price range of the 11th generation Accord e: PHEV plug-in hybrid models is 225,800~ 258,800 yuan, compared with the tenth generation e: HEV oil-electric hybrid models 199,800~ 259,800 yuan, not only has the price threshold increased by 26,000 yuan, even in the entire new energy market also lacks some competitiveness. And from the product itself, Accord e: PHEV plug-in hybrid models are also difficult to meet the most valued places of consumers.
First of all, the Accord e: PHEV does not come from the "oil-to-electricity" identity of the pure hybrid platform, so its trunk has a large bulge in order to make room for the fuel tank and battery, which affects the practicality of storage, so it is ridiculed by netizens as "7-seat Accord".
In addition, the e: PHEV plug-in version does not have fast charging function, and the pure electric cruising range of WLTC operating conditions is only 82 kilometers. There are many restrictions on usage scenarios, which has dissuaded some consumers.
"Even 70,000 or 80,000 Wuling Colorful Fruit and BYD Seagull pure electric cars have fast charging. All Honda e: PHEV models sold in China are oil-to-electricity, and it feels like the battery pack is only enlarged on the basis of e: HEV oil-electric mixing." An industry insider commented.
It is not difficult to understand why the Accord e: PHEV’s driving performance is quite good, but the actual sales volume cannot keep up. Since its launch in May 2023, the monthly sales of the Accord e: PHEV have been difficult to reach 1,000 units.
In contrast, the Lantu Chasing PHEV listed in December 2023 and sold from 252,800 yuan, although the price is much higher than the Accord e: PHEV, but the WLTC working condition pure electric battery life reached 202 kilometers, with fast charging function, December 2023 and January 2024 The monthly sales volume exceeded 1000 vehicles.
It’s time to keep a low profile
Accord has not been able to completely avoid the pit of "acclimatization" of the new energy models of the joint venture brand. Is Honda only left with price concessions – this simple and crude trick?
As the first model of GAC Honda to be put into production, Accord has played a key role in the development of GAC Honda and even the entire GAC Group.
The financial report shows that in 2023, GAC Honda’s sales volume exceeded 640,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 13.66%, and the sales revenue was 93.528 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 18.75%. At that time, GAC said that the joint venture brand is accelerating the transformation. It is reported that GAC Honda’s new energy vehicle (annual output 120,000 vehicles) capacity expansion construction project is progressing as planned, and it is planned to be completed and put into operation within 2024.
But it is undeniable that the new models launched by Japanese joint venture automakers in the past two years are mainly pure fuel vehicles and HEV hybrid models.
According to industry sources, Honda will make major moves in the period from 2025 to 2026. For example, the e: PHEV plug-in hybrid model will increase the fast charging function, while optimizing the problem of battery encroachment on the trunk space. The most popular Accord e: HEV oil-electric hybrid model is likely to be directly equipped with the latest 4.5-generation i-MMD hybrid technology when it is changed. Return to the market.
Honda actually has ready-made technology, and the main reason for the delay is that costs cannot be reduced.
"People think e: PHEV is more expensive, but in fact e: PHEV’s capacity battery and e: HEV’s multiple battery price are almost the same, so the cost of e: HEV bicycle is similar to that of e: PHEV. The 2.0L DI engine of the fourth-generation i-MMD used now is the first generation of high-voltage direct injection models. It has done a lot of redundant design, and the cost cannot be reduced. Honda is more stubborn and unwilling to replace the existing mature but expensive suppliers, resulting in the high cost of e: HEV models." An industry person close to Honda said.
At present, GAC Honda owns cars and SUVs such as Accord, Haoying, and Fit. Although the 11th generation Accord e: HEV model is temporarily absent, GAC Honda has given special treatment to the main SUV model "Haoying".
In June 2023, the new Haoying e: HEV model with the 4th generation i-MMD hybrid technology was launched, and it was sold in parallel with the 1.5T pure fuel version and the e: PHEV plug-in hybrid version. This seems to explain from the side that it is more profitable to sell SUVs than sedans.
In terms of product and technology development planning, the above industry insiders said that "Honda will return to the hybrid + strong power level, add high-power P4 motors to achieve strong power and four-wheel drive", and accelerate the development of new pure electric models.
From 2025 to 2026 is also the time node for the implementation of the "National VII" emission standard. Some industry experts speculate that GAC Honda is likely to stop production of all pure fuel models equipped with 1.5T and 2.0T engines, and fully change to the product layout of "e: HEV oil-electric hybrid + e: PHEV plug-in hybrid + EV pure electric".
This also means that the 1.5T fuel version of Accord may be a transitional product in the current transition phase.
After 25 years of cooperation with Guangzhou Automobile Group, according to the Nikkei Chinese Network, Honda China’s head of state, Yaxing Igarashi, said in an interview with the media that in 2024, it will continue to transition to new energy vehicles and cope with price reduction competition, and said that "due to the price reduction, it is difficult for fuel vehicles, including hybrid vehicles, to be profitable. Before full electrification, we will use previous profits and fuel vehicle profits to survive."
However, unlike Honda’s situation in China 25 years ago, the current Chinese auto market can be called a "purgatory model". Once a product fails to keep up with consumer demand, it is a step closer to the edge of "obsolescence". It is still uncertain whether the new model will be able to adapt to the future era when it is launched.
Accord, GAC Honda and Honda China are facing not only sales, but also a series of word-of-mouth problems derived from "price for volume". Paying attention to consumer demand and presenting sincere products, prices and services are actually adding to the future.
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Original title: "Honda’s ruthless hand, Accord dropped to 140,000"
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