Major Discount on Toyota Corolla, Priced from RM 51,674

The Corolla indeed has a price cutting, but it's in the Chinese market. Recently, the Chinese automobile market has been bustling, with two trends particularly noteworthy: On the one hand, the order quantity of BYD is growing explosively. On the other hand, Japanese automobile brands, in response to the decline in market share, have launched an unprecedented "price war".

In contrast to the surging orders of BYD, Japanese brands in China are having a harder time. In response to the decline in market share and sales, some Japanese brands have started to adopt a strategy of striving for volume by lowering prices, even not missing out on traditional shopping carnivals like "618" to launch an unprecedented "price war".

Then FAW Toyota followed suit, announcing a limited-time comprehensive discount of 19,426 RM for its Corolla Cross, with a starting price of 64,625 RM. The Corolla has a limited-time comprehensive discount of 27,844 RM, with a starting price dropping to 51,674 RM, which is equal to the price of BYD QIN PLUS DM-i Honor Edition. Even in the official promotional poster wrote: "Super BYD", intending to convey to consumers through this means that these two discounted models "surpass BYD".

GAC Honda is even more intense. With its ZR-V undergoing a temporary price cut of 60,000 RM, bringing the starting price to under 100,000 RM, it only needs 99,800 RM.

Actually, for many years, Japanese joint-venture brands like GAC Toyota, FAW Toyota and GAC Honda have always been “sneakily” lowering their prices in the Chinese market without making their price drops public. This is to maintain their brand image and preserve their premium pricing power, ensuring that they develop a perception of high quality and high value among consumers.

However, today, in order to enhance their competitive strength in the market, they have to sacrifice their brand image and premium pricing as a cost to adopt a strategy of trading price for volume. This strategy may result in a short-term increase in sales, but in the long run, frequent price drops can damage the brand image and premium pricing power. Consumers may perceive that the brand's value has decreased, resulting in a preference for other brands when making purchase decisions.

In reality, this is also an act of desperation by these Japanese joint-venture brands. Without lowering their prices, they cannot enhance their competitive strength in the market, and their sales volumes will continue to decline. Toyota Corolla, which once had a stable monthly sales volume of 20,000 units in the Chinese market, now sells less than 10,000 units. Levin has had less than 10,000 units in sales for 11 consecutive months, and Honda Civic's latest May sales volume is only 5,131 units. As for Toyota Camry, which has been the best-selling sedan in the D-Segment for three consecutive years, has had less than 10,000 units in sales for four consecutive months after its latest model change.

On a larger scale, in 2020, Japanese brands accounted for 24.1% of the Chinese car market, almost a quarter of the market. By 2023, this had slipped to 17%; and by the first quarter of 2024, the market share was only 12.2%, which is a significant decline. In stark contrast, Chinese local brands rode the momentum, their market share leaping from 38.4% in 2020 to 64% in May 2024.

Seal 06 DM-i Interior

The rise of Chinese brands is mainly due to breakthroughs in new energy technology, vehicle design, intelligent cockpit and autonomous driving technologies. Coupled with the support of local government policies, their market shares have rapidly grown. In contrast, Japanese brands are relatively behind in the development of new energy vehicles, which further exacerbates their market share decline.

Secondly, the concept of buying cars among Chinese consumers has transformed, which previously emphasized quality, brand, reliability, fuel economy, and retention value of foreign brands; However, as Chinese brands continue to improve product quality and strengthen after-sales service, narrowing the gap with foreign brands and even surpassing them in some areas, they have therefore won the trust and recognition of consumers.