Hiroca Holdings, a Taiwan-headquartered automotive interior parts supplier, used to supply a large portion of its products made in China to Japanese carmakers. With the automotive electrification, Japanese companies have seen their sales decline. At its latest earnings call, Hiroca shared insights into the development of Nissan, Toyota, and Honda in China.
According to Huang Sheng-Chang, Hiroca's CFO, the three major Japanese automakers' market share in China has decreased from over 23% to about 17%. While they have been slow on EV development, the companies have launched several electric models like the Nissan Ariya, Toyota bZ4x, and Honda e:NP1, which brings Hiroca orders.
CFO Huang said Hiroca has received orders from Nissan and other automakers for the second half of 2024. Therefore, Japanese companies are expected to accelerate their EV efforts. Whether they can compete with Chinese homegrown brands and regain the market remains to be seen, he added.
Huang Jian-Zhong, Hiroca's general manager, said Japanese automakers will experience less decline next year than in 2023 and stay promising in the Chinese market. He also said Hiroca's partnership with Honda covers at least five vehicle models. Although whether future sales would facilitate the carmaker still needs to be determined, Hiroca would not miss any opportunities to grow.
The general manager said Hiroca is optimistic about the future of German and Japanese carmakers in China compared to South Korean automakers, which have decreased their market share in recent years. Hiroca has established an office in Japan to target the design centers of Japanese OEMs. The company has expanded its business beyond processing, aiming to scale its global projects.
General manager Huang recently visited several Detroit-based car companies. He found that the US has fallen behind China for over five years in new technology and optoelectronic packaging innovation and application. Hiroca plans to cooperate with multiple US automakers on cutting-edge technologies.
Japan-based automakers seem to be expanding their EV production in Thailand while lagging in China. Honda has begun to manufacture e:N1, a battery electric SUV, in Thailand and plans to launch the EV in the first quarter of 2024. The move made the company the first Japanese automaker to build passenger EVs in Thailand.
EV models like the Nissan Leaf and Toyota bZ4x are also available in Thailand. According to Nikkei, Japanese carmakers account for almost 80% of the market share in Thailand, seeing significant growth in EV sales.
Article translated by Peng Chen
