Changes take place in Acura’s Production in China; Dongfeng Honda may join the manufacturers

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai Dec 28) Recently, reporters got news that apart from GAC Honda, Dongfeng Honda will also join Acura’s manufacturer team in China with relevant teams already established. Zhu Linjie, spokesman for Honda China, said he didn’t know about the case, while relevant person in Public Relations Department of GAC Honda said GAC Honda will produce Acura in the middle of next year, and other information will be issued later. Till the time of writing, we have not received any reply from Dongfeng Honda.

In April 2013, after the withdrawal of many dealerships, Acura decided to take a chance to produce vehicles in China in the future three years to save the annual sales volume, which was less than 5,000 units. Afterwards, Dongfeng Honda and GAC Honda both expressed their desire to compete for the project. But only three months later, Honda China declared that it has signed a fundamental agreement with GAC to produce Acura in 2016. “Acura chooses GAC Honda for the consideration of production time, efficiency and other factors. If we want to produce vehicles as soon as possible, efficiency is a key role. Besides, GAC has a very strong desire.” Zhu Linjie said.

However, although GAC Honda has signed agreement on Acura’s production, no detailed or clear plan has been published, and possibilities that Dongfeng Honda may join the project always exist. Kuraishi Seiji, General Manager of Honda China, once said to the press that, “We have two joint ventures in China to take the project. It is a fair game between them.” Several professionals believe that Dongfeng Honda has its own advantages. Most of its domestic models enjoy the same production platform with Acura, which will benefit production of Acura’s follow-up models in China. Besides, Dongfeng Group’s cooperation with Renault, Infiniti also accumulates its experience of producing luxury vehicles in China.

Besides, Honda is always promoting the project after the signing of agreements, but little news has been issued from GAC Honda. In addition, GAC has not issued any relevant announcement in the two years. Professionals believe that the inactive attitudes of GAC Honda may stimulate Honda China to cooperate with Dongfeng Honda.

According to GAC Honda’s schedule, the first model of domestic Acura will be launched in the middle of 2016. But till now, Acura’s sales channel is still pending.

After the signing of agreement with GAC Honda, Chen Yue, Vice Minister of Acura Business Unit, Honda China once said,” One important principle is that Acura’s dealerships provide the channel.” That is to say, no sole domestic vehicle sales channel will be established, and Acura’s domestic and imported vehicles enjoy the same sales channel. But currently, some professionals guess that domestic Acura will be sold through GAC Honda’s channel. “Because Acura’s insufficient channel coverage has hindered its development in China.” It’s known that there are about 40 Acura 4S dealerships in China, along with continuing dropping out of dealerships because of long-term deficits.

Yu Jun, Executive Vice President of GAC Honda has not replied for any guess. He believes Acura has imported vehicle channels, and it is “difficult” to coordinate imported vehicle channels and domestic vehicle channels.

Now, Dongfeng Honda’s possible joining brings more uncertainties to Acura’s sales channel battle.