Looking back at three catastrophes, the high yen, the tsunami and the Thai flood, a Japanese auto executive said to me last spring: “We’ve gone through hell, and made it. What else would be there, war?” He was close. A war of words over rocks in the East China Sea destroys Japanese car sales in China, while Korea profits.
- Honda’s China car sales plunged 54 percent in October from a year earlier, Reuters reports. In September, Honda’s sales fell 41 percent.
- Nissan sold 64,300 vehicles in China in October, down 41 percent. In September, sales had been down 35 percent
- Yesterday, Toyota announced that October China sales had dropped 44.1 percent.
At the same time, Hyundai’s China sales climbed 37 percent in October, after a 15 percent rise in September. Reuters comments that Hyundai’s 80,598 units sold in October exceed the 69,715 combined sales total of Honda and Toyota for October.
Is this really such a dynamic, ongoing, news worthy topic that I see two stories on this from Mr. Schmitt every time I look at TTAC? I get it, the chinese are pissed at the japanese and are engaging in some xenophobic hijinks by vandalizing japanese cars and dealerships, and japanese car sales are down. But I don’t think I need to get this message twice a day (or so it seems, I didn’t actually keep count)