No right to choose a car? The Australian people laughed.

You don't respect Australian taxpayers.

This is a public attack by the Australian Prime Minister after GM announced its withdrawal from the Australian and New Zealand markets. Unexpectedly, according to the confidential documents obtained by foreign media CarAdvice recently, Honda is about to make a final decision on its future development in Australia, or withdraw from or greatly reduce its dealer network.

After GM, Honda is another international car company that reconsiders its business in Australia, but Honda will never be the last car company to leave Oceania. Of course, GM's departure is obviously expected.

Interest first

In recent years, due to the continuous global business restructuring, GM is investing heavily in new technologies instead of trying to repair its core manufacturing business. Bora continues to push for accelerating its exit from unprofitable markets, so it has become a routine action for GM to exit unprofitable markets.

Chevrolet, for example, left Europe on 20 15 and Russia in the same year. 20 17 Opel and vauxhall's European operations were sold to PSA, and they withdrew from the South African and African markets. Bora said that GM is focusing on those markets that can get good returns through strategy, such as China. This is also one of the practices that Bao has been putting profit margin above sales volume and global business since he took office as CEO of 20 14.

This practice has also paid off. Although the 40-day strike in 20 19 caused losses of $3.6 billion to GM, GM recently said that the financial data in the fourth quarter of 20 19 was better than expected, and it is expected that the profit will be flat in 2020.

With the gradual reduction of sales, design and operation in Australia and New Zealand, GM will also eliminate the Horton brand before 202 1. For Australia, Horton brand is the first step of its automobile industry. From 1948, the first Horton car "48-2 15" rolled off the assembly line, to 20 13, GM announced that it would stop the assembly and engine development of Horton brand cars, and the Australian automobile industry completed its life in a regrettable way.

Mark, President of General Motors? Reece took charge of Horton brand in 2008 and 2009, but its market share has dropped from nearly 13% to 4. 1%. In a statement, Reece said that as the sales of Horton brand in Australia plummeted, the company could not prove the rationality of continuing to invest in this brand of cars.

The local government strongly condemned GM's withdrawal. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, "I am extremely disappointed with GM". According to the Australian government, over the years, GM has received as much as $2.2 billion from the Australian government for the Horton brand.

A spokesman for the Australian Prime Minister said that GM did not communicate with the government in advance. The Prime Minister received an email notice three minutes before GM officially released the press release, and the Prime Minister's policy adviser was informed 15 minutes before the official announcement. Currently, GM has 828 employees in Australia.

Honda's reason for leaving the company is similar to GM's, that is, sales declined and it didn't make money.

The data shows that in 20 19, Honda's sales in Australia decreased by 15%, while the overall sales in Australia decreased by 7.8%. Honda Australia's sales performance in 20 19 was the worst in three years. However, Honda sold 43,800 vehicles in Australia in 20 19, which was still higher than the annual sales from 2009 to 20 16. In 20 18, Honda sold 5 1000 new cars in Australia, which was the same as that in 2008 when the financial crisis occurred.

According to CarAdvice, Honda dealers have been told that the company is considering three options: quitting Australia, closing the national sales network of 65,438+006 dealers, reducing the number of exhibition halls, or selling cars through independent dealers. Honda will make a specific decision at the end of March.

In response to this report, Honda Australia said in a statement: "Honda is committed to the Australian market and regularly evaluates its operational and organizational performance as part of its normal business. We promised to the dealer network that we will update the company's long-term plan to them in the first quarter of 2020, and we will announce relevant plans later this month. "

In May last year, Honda Australia announced to its dealers in a confidential briefing that it was facing pressure from its Japanese headquarters to improve its profitability, or it would face "serious" consequences.

"Our profit situation has been discussed on the agenda of the global board of directors and efforts are being made to solve this problem. This means that the problem is very serious. " After meeting with overseas Honda executives, the representative of Honda Australia said: "We still have unanswered questions. Mainly profitability, and with the depreciation of the Australian dollar, profitability is declining. We are studying how to solve this problem. "

It is reported that between March 23 and 26 this year, Honda's Australian dealers will be informed of the future fate of the brand in Australia. In addition, Ford Motor Company is gradually losing its market. It is understood that since 20 14 years, the sales volume of Ford Motor Company has decreased by 16. 1%.

Rise and fall microcosm

Toyota became the biggest winner in the Australian market after GM and Honda said that they would or would withdraw from the Australian market.

According to the latest data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the number of motor vehicle registrations in Australia increased by 1.7% in the past year to19.5 million. Among them, Toyota has once again become the most popular automobile manufacturer in Australia.

The data shows that Toyota sold a total of 205,766 new cars in Australia in 20 19, which also made the brand's market share in the Australian auto market hit a new high in the past seven years, reaching 19.4%, and its market share exceeded the total market share of two or three local auto brands for the third consecutive year.

In addition, Hyundai Motor is also increasing its competitiveness in the Australian market, and continues to improve its brand awareness and sales by releasing luxury car brands to Australia. Manfred, Executive Vice President of Hyundai Motor Company and Global Head of Genesis Brand? Fitzgerald said that the company will launch more models in the next few years, its first SUV will be launched at the end of this year, and three models including its first electric car will be launched by 202 1.

Another company that shines in the Australian market is Tesla, which has occupied a very high share in the American electric vehicle market.

According to the data shared by Vfacts, in February and June 2020, Tesla sold 65,438+0,050 new cars in Australia, accounting for about 80.77% of its total sales of electric vehicles. Bring a model? With the delivery of Y, Tesla's market share in Australia is expected to further increase. According to the analysis, besides models? Y has attracted some Australian SUV interest groups, and the fan conversion of major car companies that have withdrawn from the market due to poor sales has also become one of the reasons for the surge in Tesla sales.

Several families are happy and worried, but the decline of Australia's automobile industry is certain.

Lauren, head of traffic statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics? Binns said: "The total number of vehicles increased last year, but the growth rate was much lower than the annual growth rate of 2. 1% since 20 15 years."

As we all know, the automobile industry is the most important force in manufacturing. To some extent, the development history and extinction history of Australian automobile industry can be regarded as the epitome of the rise and fall of Australian manufacturing industry.

"Every (Australian) car manufacturer blames their choice not to continue to produce cars in Australia on high cost, high competition, fragmented domestic market and changing consumer preferences." On the other hand, as one of the most powerful trade unions in the world, Australia's trade unions constantly demand higher wages and better working conditions from business owners and governments. Even though Australia's wage level is already the highest in the world, its welfare is one of the best in the world, which also increases the pressure on automobile manufacturers.

Of course, the population distribution in Australia has also become one of the reasons for the decline in sales.

Due to its vast territory and sparse population, Australia has formed a small and scattered domestic market. With the influx of a large number of imported cars, the personalized needs of consumers are also expanding, so that Australian consumers' preferences for cars are becoming more and more diversified, which further increases the production costs of automobile manufacturers, which is undoubtedly unbearable for the Australian automobile industry.

The dual dispersed market of domestic region and consumer preference makes it increasingly unrealistic to rely on Australia's domestic market for survival. At the same time, Australia's automobile industry is not competitive in export.

Throughout the past decade, due to the tightening of immigration policies, weakening of welfare, increasingly unfriendly policies towards immigrants, rising tax rates and changes in international geopolitics, the aura of Australia, the most attractive immigrant country in the world, is fading. At the same time, the high wage level that the Australian people are proud of is also becoming a growing economic cancer. The departure of the automobile industry will also be a fatal blow to the Australian economy.

However, for the Australian people, it is not a bad thing to quit the established automakers such as General Motors and Honda. At least in the matter of car selection, there are more new choices such as Tesla and Genesis to choose from.

Pino/Wen

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.