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Honda just had its first ever layoff, in China
The first of the dominos
Kodak moment incoming
siiuuu
Chinese market is cutthroat competitive.
It’s because the Chinese are making better, more advanced EVs faster. The Japanese have fallen behind in the EV race
It’s looking like betting on hydrogen sealed their fate. The Japanese seems to be behind everyone on EV’s.
Nissan had some momentum with the Leaf early on but after that model’s intitial success seemed to just twiddle their thumbs and let the competition catch up and pass them.
>“Production volume is decreasing, so dispatch contracts are terminated in line with that,” the spokesperson said of the employees, hired through dispatch agencies, at Honda’s venture with China’s state-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group.
Least convoluted employment relationship, maybe ever
For Toyota at least it sounds like they’re cutting older models. Really hope the Yaris keeps on trucking!
Anyway, I’ve always been a bit surprised at how well Japanese products sell in China; the Japanese did not treat them particularly well for nearly half a century of colonialism to put it mildly
Then again, French, British, and American products are all popular there too, so maybe they hold grudges less than I would
I think there is a love hate relationship.
The war was a long time ago.
Chinese younger people are heavily into Japanese culture. And a reliable car is a reliable car.
Sure they don’t like Japanese war memorials honoring war criminals and Japanese claims on remote islands and some will set some Japanese cars on fire if they think the government will let them to protest that. But they’ll happily watch a Japanese anime the week after.
However combustion engine cars are getting obsolete fast. A reliable car that is not allowed in cities and whom’s manufacturer might go broke in 2 years is not so interesting any longer.
Japanese automakers don’t have good EV cars in a market where 40% of cars sold are EVs.
Japanese car makers are totally shooting themselves in the foot, with not a single competitive pure EV in the market. Tesla/Korean are lapping up that segment in US and Tesla/Chinese elsewhere. At this rate they will end up being bag holders when the markets are saturated with the above EVs and they enter late with 1st Gen vehicles.
When Toyota said hybrids are the answer…
Hybrids are the answer for Toyota. It still requires much maintenance and they can make combustion engines profitable.
It’s not an answer for the climate goals and for the consumers as EV’s are becoming ever cheaper.
like any other non-chinese companies lol
Toyota - “EV’s are not ready for primetime yet”
China - *Continues transitioning to EV’s at a furious pace*
Toyota - pikachuface.jpg