Mitsubishi Motors is currently in a difficult situation
On September 1, 2004, the Yokohama Summary Court held the first public trial on Mitsubishi Motors' concealment of vehicle design defects. In court, the defendant, Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks and Buses, former chairman of the board of directors, Usami Takashi, argued this way.
The courtroom was packed. At 10 a.m., three defendants, including Usami Taka, Hanawa Ryoo, and Koshikawa Tadashi, walked into the courtroom together with Mitsubishi Motors' attorneys and stood side by side in the dock with their heads lowered. Although they all wore crisp suits without exception, the bright clothes could not hide the fatigue on their faces.
Perhaps they can't figure it out. As a once-all-powerful mid-level and senior figure in Mitsubishi Motors, one of Japan's five largest automobile companies, he is now in jail and criticized by thousands of people. At the same time as their fortunes changed dramatically, Mitsubishi Motors, the company they had worked for for decades, also became the target of public criticism for concealing quality problems. Its performance plummeted, and the downward trend still shows no sign of being stopped. So far, its sales have been only about half of the same period last year for nine consecutive months.
In the battle between social responsibility and corporate interests, Mitsubishi Motors made a wrong choice and was despised by the world. Now it has almost become a street rat that everyone shouts about. Its business is normal. On the verge of bankruptcy. As a result, Mitsubishi, a Japanese car brand that has created countless glorious myths, has slumped and almost withered because of the shadow of deceiving the world.
For Mitsubishi Motors, what has happened in the past six months or so is like a nightmare TV series, and the beginning of the whole story has to be traced back to two accidents in 2002.
The beginning of the "nightmare"
January 10, 2002, Yokohama, Japan. Housewife Okamoto Shiho was walking along a certain road with her two children. To them, the day seemed like it should be as ordinary as any other day. However, a heavy truck completely changed their fate. As the truck rumbled toward them, something unexpected happened. The left front wheel of the moving truck suddenly came off, and the tire, which weighed about 140 kilograms, hit the mother and son at high speed with strong inertia. The three people were unable to dodge, resulting in a serious traffic accident in which the 29-year-old mother died on the spot and her two children were injured.
How could a perfectly good tire suddenly fall off the axle? In response to this strange-sounding traffic accident, Japanese domestic media have asked this question. After investigation, the heavy-duty truck was produced by Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Company, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. At the time of the incident, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Company was still affiliated with the truck division of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. It was separated from the company in 2003 and established as an independent branch.
Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism requires Mitsubishi Motors to immediately investigate the matter and submit an investigation report.
On the fourth day after the accident, that is, January 14, 2002, former Mitsubishi Motors managing director Hanawa Ryoo and others explained to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism: The accident was caused by "poor maintenance and... The truck was overloaded." The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism instructed Mitsubishi Motors to recall the cars.
In order to avoid car recalls, the then vice president Usami, at the suggestion of the company's truck department, organized an internal meeting to discuss countermeasures. After four rounds of negotiation, they decided to raise the replacement standard of wheel shell wear from 0.5 microns to 0.8 microns to reduce the replacement rate of parts and avoid car recalls. According to reports, if replaced according to previous standards, the replacement rate is estimated to be about 40%.
There are reports that before submitting the report, Usami gave instructions to his subordinates: avoid car recalls and make false explanations to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. In the end, Mitsubishi Motors lied in its report to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism: "As long as the wheel casings are replaced with wheels with a wear rate of 0.8 microns or more, this type of accident can be ensured from happening again."
This incident finally It was calm for the time being. However, not long after the incident, another traffic accident once again pushed Mitsubishi Motors to the media and the public.
October 16, 2002, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. A heavy truck driving on Sanyo Expressway lost control due to the sudden detachment of the drive shaft, and instantly and violently crashed into the building of the Sanyo Expressway toll office, killing the 39-year-old Kagoshima truck driver. Unfortunately, people discovered that the truck responsible for the accident was a product of Mitsubishi Motors, and Mitsubishi Motors' explanation for this is still: "poor maintenance" and "not prone to recurrence."
The causes of the two traffic accidents sound strange. Is this just a random coincidence? After investigating its background, it was found that the same car had been involved in many similar accidents in the past. Thinking that Mitsubishi Motors concealed Pajero's quality problems in 2000, people will inevitably become suspicious. As a result, the sensitive media became active and pushed Mitsubishi Motors to the public again. People are always paying attention to various developments in the investigation of the accident.
Afterwards, police from Kanagawa and Yamaguchi searched Mitsubishi Motors but found no clues. However, fires at Mitsubishi Motors or traffic accidents caused by quality problems such as clutches are still frequently reported in the newspapers. The media and public opinion have become more and more suspicious of Mitsubishi Motors, and their opinions have become more and more sharp.
More than a year later, in March this year, Mitsubishi Motors finally had to submit a car recall report to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. In the report, Mitsubishi Motors overturned its original explanation, saying that "design may also be an important factor" and admitted that insufficient strength of the wheel housing that connects the axle and wheel was the cause of many accidents. As soon as this news came out, the entire public opinion circle was in an uproar.
Allies turn against each other
Just as the problem of concealing defects began to be exposed, Mitsubishi Motors' annual report for fiscal year 2003 once again lit up a red light for the company's operations. The report for the fiscal year ended in March this year showed that Mitsubishi Motors had a net loss of 215 billion yen (about 1.9 billion U.S. dollars), which was much worse than the 70 billion yen loss expected in February. Mitsubishi Motors became the only Japanese car company to lose money that year.
The main reason for this serious loss is its new car purchase loan program called "Easy Loan Car Purchase" implemented in the US market. In order to promote the sales of complete vehicles and attract American car buyers, Mitsubishi Motors promoted "zero down payment" and "zero-interest loans" in the United States. As a result, many loans could not be recovered on time and became bad debts. Mitsubishi Motors' American financial branch faced loan arrears. Problem, operations fell into a loss-making state.
It is understood that although Mitsubishi Motors' sales in China and other places increased in fiscal 2003, due to long-term weak sales in the North American market, Mitsubishi Motors' overall performance was greatly affected, and global sales This was a decrease of 3.3% from the previous year to 1,525,100 vehicles. Sales in North America decreased by 20.0% from the previous year to 273,000 units.
A dark cloud hangs over Mitsubishi Motors. In order to get out of trouble as soon as possible, Mitsubishi Motors formulated a revival plan and reached out to its largest shareholder Dai Ke for help. At that time, Dyke owned 37 shares of Mitsubishi Motors.
Dai-K initially expressed his willingness to implement a series of plans to save Mitsubishi Motors and was prepared to invest an additional 500 billion yen in Mitsubishi Motors in two phases. The first batch of additional investment funds was allocated by Dai Ke and Mitsubishi Group in 2004, with a total amount of approximately 320-370 billion yen. Dai-Ke will bear 200-250 billion yen of this amount. Mitsubishi Group will pay approximately 120 billion yen in additional capital. In the second phase within a few years, Dai-Ke will also separately invest an additional 150 billion yen based on Mitsubishi Motors' revival.
After the reorganization, Dai-Ke's shareholding ratio in Mitsubishi Motors will reach more than 50%. At that time, a Mitsubishi insider revealed to the media that Dai-Ke would gradually complete the overall acquisition of Mitsubishi Motors and expected the entire acquisition to be completed before 2006. Dai-K president Jurgen Schrempp also said at the shareholders' meeting: Dai-K invested in reorganizing Mitsubishi Motors in order to "let Mitsubishi Motors establish a solid financial foundation."
However, late at night on April 22, after convening a meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Dai Ke suddenly and unilaterally announced: "Not participating in Mitsubishi Motors' capital increase" and "stopping financial support"! There are even rumors that Dai-Ke will dispose of all his shares in Mitsubishi Motors at a discount.
The news came so suddenly, without any warning in advance, which almost caused everyone at Mitsubishi Motors to be in chaos. Dai-Ke's ruthless divestment will undoubtedly make the fate of Mitsubishi Motors, which has already suffered a double blow from huge losses and scandals of concealing defects, even more uncertain.
In fact, Dai Ke made this dilemma after going through pain. Because whether it is increasing capital or withdrawing capital, Dai-K has to pay a certain price: either the billions of capital expenses invested in the previous cooperation are written off, and the original global development plan formulated has problems; or it is a big gamble. , injecting huge amounts of money into the weak Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and taking huge risks. In order to turn Mitsubishi Motors into a healthy and profitable company through a long-term plan, Dyke may end up getting very little in return after paying huge financial capital upfront.
Therefore, there has always been a lot of controversy among the shareholders and investment institutions of Dyke Company. Many people believe that "Mitsubishi Motors has a lot of debt" and Dai-K should act cautiously in this regard. "Toyota and Nissan cars can sell well in North America, Asia and other places, but Mitsubishi is not doing well." Someone accused them.
“We did not get a solution that was acceptable to Dai Ke.” Dai Ke later explained the reason for divestment.
But it is said that what really made Dai Ke make the decision to divest was a trip to Japan by Dai Ke CEO Schrempp. Previously, Schrempp was more in favor of supporting Mitsubishi Motors and has been working hard for its future. Just a few days before the supervisory board meeting, Schrempp went to Japan to lobby Mitsubishi Bank and other Japanese bank consortiums, hoping that they could suspend most of Mitsubishi Motors' 6 billion euros of debt and provide it with much-needed capital. However, they all flatly rejected Schrempp's request. This ultimately prompted Schrempp to change his original mind and resolve not to rescue Mitsubishi Motors and to let it fend for itself.
Since Dai-Ke’s supervisory board announced that it would cease further financial support for Mitsubishi Motors, Dai-Ke’s stock rose by 6% in two days.
Countless facts in the following months have proven that the decision made by Dai-Ke Company is a wise one. Perhaps Dai-Ke Company itself will be secretly glad for this now. Because it was discovered that the scale of Mitsubishi Motors' hidden defects was far beyond people's imagination, and its negative impact spread across the country and became more and more intense.
In May, Mitsubishi Fuso announced that it would recall 168,000 Mitsubishi heavy-duty trucks with clutch design defects for free repairs. In mid-June, Mitsubishi Fuso announced that it would once again recall 450,000 trucks with design defects. The cars recalled this time involve 43 types of car design faults. The faults appeared in 93 traffic accidents between 1992 and March this year.
Mitsubishi Fuso believes that the cause of the accident may be that the truck's clutch housing was cracked and damaged, causing the drive shaft to fall off and the brake pipeline to be damaged, causing the brake system to malfunction. This was also the main reason for the Yamaguchi accident in October 2002.
However, Mitsubishi Fuso has been aware of this defect since 1996 and speculated that it may cause accidents. However, it has not taken any measures to recall the cars. Instead, it has always complained to consumers and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Conceal it. They just resorted to covert repairs during regular vehicle inspections to avoid large-scale recalls of trucks with clutch design defects.
On June 2, Mitsubishi Motors also publicly admitted that 19 types of passenger cars had concealed defects and "secret repairs", and prosecuted 29 people at Mitsubishi Fuso Corporation who were involved in concealing defects. Punishment was imposed.
As the withheld information now begins to leak out, the country across Japan is shocked and at the same time showing great anger. A senior executive of Japan's prosecutorial agency once told Japanese media: "We have never seen such a bad company! Let Mitsubishi Motors know this."
"
Dai Ke is also very angry. Because as a partner, Dai Ke has no idea about this. "Why don't you tell us such an important thing? "Dai Ke asked. They believed that Mitsubishi Motors' move "violated the rules of the game", and on the grounds that the value of Mitsubishi Fuso's assets had depreciated, they sent a letter to Mitsubishi Motors' executives, stating that "compensation requirements are being studied." It is said that once If Dai Ke really asks for huge compensation, it will definitely kill Mitsubishi Motors.
“Japanese cars are synonymous with high performance and high quality. With this in mind, we reached out to Mitsubishi Motors for cooperation. However, this was a huge mistake. Only a few manufacturers have really good quality.” This is what a person related to Dai-Ke said.
Since the divestment incident, the scale and impact of car recalls have gradually expanded, making Dai-Ke and Dai-Ke, who were once allies, gradually expand. The relationship between Mitsubishi Motors has further deteriorated, and cooperation has gradually developed into confrontation.
Cangran Self-Rescue
Dai-Ke's announcement of divestment means that Mitsubishi Motors, which has already been in turmoil, is facing huge funds. The gap needs to be filled as soon as possible. People have different opinions on Mitsubishi Motors' confusing future.
In order to save face, Mitsubishi Group will never let Mitsubishi Motors go bankrupt. Automobile bankruptcy. Another analyst at Deutsche Securities estimated that Mitsubishi Group would first inject a small amount of cash to give banks some leeway on Mitsubishi Motors' debt, and then get creditors to agree to a debt-for-equity deal, as well as the securities industry. Experts believe that the Mitsubishi Group will propose expedient measures to enable Mitsubishi Motors to survive for one to two years.
On April 23, the day after Dai-Ke announced the divestment, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Corporation, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, etc. The heads of the Mitsubishi Group's subsidiaries held an emergency meeting and finally decided that the Mitsubishi Group would fund and support Mitsubishi Motors and start formulating its self-rescue plan.
"We will continue to make our greatest efforts to revive Mitsubishi Motors' business. ", Mitsubishi Group said in a statement. On April 30, Yoichiro Okazaki was appointed as the new chairman and president of Mitsubishi Motors.
On May 21, Mitsubishi Motors couldn't wait to announce 450 billion yen self-rescue plan. The plan was announced 10 days earlier than the original plan. It is said that the new president Yoichiro Okazaki emphasized "speed" and "change" and released the plan content before the staff prepared a press release.
Before the launch of this plan, Mitsubishi Motors' stock was suspended for a time and fell sharply after the opening. Even the stocks of other companies in the Mitsubishi Group were also sold off.
"As a company. Automakers, this plan is our last chance to save ourselves. "President Okazaki said at the press conference.
The center of the plan is a financial assistance package of up to 450 billion yen (approximately US$4.1 billion). Its main contents are:
Of the 450 billion yen in financial assistance, 270 billion yen will come from Mitsubishi Group companies, 10 billion from Mitsubishi Motors' strategic partner Taiwan China Automotive Industry Co., Ltd., and 170 billion yen from the market .
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Corporation and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, the three major institutional shareholders of Mitsubishi Motors, and other institutions and companies will jointly purchase 140 billion yen of preferred shares of Mitsubishi Motors.
Mitsubishi Bank Trust and Investment Corporation and Tokyo-Mitsubishi Financial Group will resolve 130 billion yen of debt for Mitsubishi Motors through debt-for-equity swaps.
Regarding market fund raising, Tokyo One. Phoenix Capital, a private fund closely related to the Mitsubishi Group, will buy 70 billion yen of Mitsubishi Motors common shares. JPMorgan Chase Bank will buy 100 billion yen of Mitsubishi Motors preferred shares at the expected sale price. At about 100 yen per share, Mitsubishi's capital increase will reach 700 million. This will make Yingming Securities the largest shareholder of Mitsubishi Motors, owning approximately 40% of Mitsubishi Motors shares. It may drop from the original 37 to around 22-23.
Mitsubishi Motors said it will use 130 billion yen of raised funds to reduce debt and 320 billion yen for the company's operations. It aims to return to profitability in the next fiscal year, April 2005-March 2006. It is planned to achieve an operating profit of 120 billion yen on the basis of sales reaching 2.49 trillion yen in the 2006-2007 fiscal year, so that the company's regular profit will reach 100 billion yen and the net profit will reach 70 billion yen.
In addition to raising funds, Mitsubishi will also streamline the company's internal structure. This is also a core content of Mitsubishi Motors' self-rescue plan.
According to information released by Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi Motors will lay off 30 senior officials by the end of March 2005, from the current 51 to 37; it will close its Australian branches in the 2005-2006 fiscal year. The engine branch will reduce the production capacity of its Australian assembly plant by more than half, retaining only an annual production capacity of 30,000 vehicles. The Australian government will give Mitsubishi Motors 50 million Australian dollars to help its restructuring; before the 2006-2007 fiscal year, Mitsubishi Motors will reduce global production by 17% and reduce raw material costs by 15%; before March 2007, it will cut 30% of non-production departments worldwide. employees, reducing its number from 26,400 to 18,800; before the 2006-2007 fiscal year, it will close its factory in Okazaki, Japan, and reduce the number of domestic automobile branches to 2; by 2010, it will reduce the current number of The number of production platforms was reduced from 15 to 6; by 2006-2007, the production capacity utilization rate was increased from 70 to 95.
In addition, Mitsubishi Motors will completely overturn the new car development plan of the Dai-Ke era and launch the Mitsubishi Motors DNA strategy. Over the next four years, 44 new models will be launched. Among them, 7 new cars were launched in the North American market, 10 in Europe, 11 in China, and 16 in Japan. It will first launch 10 new cars before 2006.
Mitsubishi Motors' DNA strategy means that Mitsubishi Motors will get rid of the original product development system under the leadership of Dai Ke and return to the "SUV" represented by Pajero and the "SUV" represented by LANCER EVOLUTION. SPORTY's "DNA", focusing on developing Mitsubishi brand product series that can create new value.
At the same time, Mitsubishi Motors will also significantly increase its business in China and adjust its strategy in the US market.
“The U.S. market is a top priority.” President Okazaki said this when announcing the restructuring plan. Because a quarter of Mitsubishi Motors' global revenue comes from the North American market.
Mitsubishi Motors stated that it will resume its exclusive financial company business in the United States, find new strategic alliance partners in the United States, adjust and optimize the production capacity of U.S. factories, reorganize its sales network in the United States, and reduce batch promotion operations. The company plans to reduce the proportion of volume sales to total sales in fiscal year 2004 from 40% in the previous fiscal year to 20%, and to reach about 12-15% in fiscal year 2006.
Michael Tooze, vice president of sales for Mitsubishi Motors North America, believes that volume sales affect the increase in residual values ??of used cars and dealer profits. Although reducing volume sales will affect Mitsubishi Motors' production and sales in the short term, if Mitsubishi wants to revive, it must reduce volume sales. "The challenge now is how to increase retail sales," Tooze said.
In early June, Mitsubishi Motors had a major change of executive directors. On June 29, at the company's annual shareholders' meeting, a comprehensively updated management team was established. Mitsubishi Motors' new president Yoichiro Okazaki announced at the conference that the scale of the rescue plan has been increased from 450 billion yen to 546 billion yen (approximately US$5 billion). Most of the new funding will come from JPMorgan Chase, which may invest another 50 billion yen in addition to the 100 billion yen it has already committed to buying preferred shares. In addition, Yingming Securities plans to purchase up to 100 billion yen of common shares at a price of 100 yen per share. Nippon Oil, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Group, will purchase 1 billion yen of preferred shares that the company will issue in July.
Tetsuro Aikawa, the new head of Mitsubishi Motors' product development department and executive director, also said that in the past, under the leadership of Dai Ke, the Japanese market was at best only 20% of Mitsubishi Motors' global sales, but in the future, Mitsubishi Motors Development will focus on the Japanese domestic market.
In order to achieve the goal of launching 10 new cars in 2006, Mitsubishi Motors will simplify car design and reduce the number of configurations of each model to 1. This will not only reduce vehicle inventory, but also reduce parts storage and Logistics funds can also reduce procurement costs and improve detection accuracy.
In response to the current strong concerns among consumers about Mitsubishi Motors, Aikawa said that quality testing will be further strengthened in the future. Every vehicle developed by Mitsubishi Motors in the future must significantly increase its driving test from trial production to launch, extending the driving test from tens of thousands of kilometers in the past to 1 million kilometers.
"Although the test time will be 1 to 2 months longer than before, we are prepared to use the digitization of design and other means to improve the development efficiency of the car to absorb the delay caused by the extended test time." Aikawa said , "Through these steps, the probability of quality problems during the trial production stage and mass production process will be reduced." Aikawa also said that in the future, developers will be required to communicate with sales companies regularly and listen carefully to the opinions of users.
In order to re-establish Mitsubishi Motors' brand image and win back the trust of consumers, President Okazaki also said that he has made adjustments to various departments in the company to clarify their respective responsibilities. "Mitsubishi was an organization that didn't know where its responsibilities lay," he said. In order to speed up decision-making and clarify related responsibilities, Mitsubishi Motors reduced the original 230 departments to 131, and launched the slogan of "customers first, safety first, quality first".
President Okazaki said: "The new system focuses on law-abiding management, and more than half of the effort has been devoted to CSR (corporate social responsibility) in the reconstruction plan. The CSR Promotion Headquarters has customer response, quality management, Publicity and IR (Investment Relations) and other functions, and a corporate ethics committee composed of people outside the company oversees this work. ”
China: Life-saving straw?
In Mitsubishi Motors' self-rescue plan, we can see that Mitsubishi Motors will significantly increase its business in China. Mitsubishi Motors' high hopes for the Chinese market are evident.
The reason why Mitsubishi Motors attaches so much importance to the Chinese market is inseparable from its performance in the Chinese market in 2003. While the domestic markets of North America and Japan were in downturn at the same time, Mitsubishi Motors' sales in the Chinese market were showing rapid growth momentum with the explosive growth of the Chinese auto market.
According to information provided by Mitsubishi Motors, the company's car sales (including local Chinese brands) in the Chinese market (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan) in 2003 increased by 206.1% compared with the previous year, reaching 140,000 5235 vehicles. In addition to the increase in sales of existing models, the expansion of series products such as the "Lingshuai" sedan and the "Pajero" SUV produced by Southeast Motor is another reason for the increase in sales.
From the perspective of main vehicle models, the SUV "Pajero" sold 29,536 units (an increase of 89.1 over the previous year); the small car "Horse Horse" sold 20,339 units (an increase of 184.9 over the previous year) ; "Delica" was 30,392 units (an increase of 2.6 over the previous year); "Fulica" was 19,644 units (an increase of 10.2 over the previous year). The number of Lingshuai and Pajero sports cars sold in 2003 was 32,647 and 5,804 respectively. Since December 2002, 5,622 "Pajero" vehicles have been exported and sold to China as complete vehicles.
In 2003, Beijing Jeep began to make a profit after years of losses, with sales increasing by 158% year-on-year and sales revenue increasing by 200%. Industry insiders believe that the Pajero and Outlander launched by Mitsubishi Motors, as Beijing Jeep's main models, played a key role in Beijing Jeep's turnaround.
In addition to good sales performance, extensive cooperation with Chinese manufacturers also gives Mitsubishi Motors reason to be confident in the Chinese market.
In China, Mitsubishi Motors may be the international automaker with the most cooperation projects.
Hafei Horse Racing, Dongan Engine, Shenyang Mitsubishi Engine, Beijing Jeep, Hunan Changfeng, Southeast Motors and Fengxing Motors are all closely related to Mitsubishi Motors. However, most companies and Mitsubishi Motors are limited to technical cooperation. Only Beijing Jeep Company can actually use the Mitsubishi trademark on its products.
When Mitsubishi Motors became disgraced in Japan due to concealing defects, it started its new journey ambitiously in China. At the Beijing International Auto Show in June this year, Mitsubishi Motors launched its development plan in China in a high-profile manner:
1. Strengthen partnerships in China, build a production and sales network for the Mitsubishi Motors brand, and pursue the Chinese market Business development strives to achieve profitability.
2. Launch 11 new cars within 3 years to strengthen the product lineup. This year it plans to launch four models in the Chinese market.
3. Build the engine and gearbox joint venture projects in China into a parts supply base in Asia.
Through the work of the above three centers, Mitsubishi Motors plans to achieve the sales target of 220,000 units of the Mitsubishi brand alone and 310,000 units including other brands produced in China this year. And strive to establish 500 Mitsubishi brand stores in 2008.
In order to achieve this goal, Mitsubishi Motors decided to change the past method of technology transfer cooperation and prepare to establish a joint venture in China for localized production. According to Japanese media reports, this cooperation partner has been identified as Changfeng Motors. The report stated that the two parties will sign a letter of intent for cooperation as soon as September this year, and then submit it to the relevant Chinese authorities for approval. If everything goes well, the new company is planned to be established by the end of 2005. The first car of the new factory will be the SUV Pajero, and the annual output is expected to be 40,000 to 50,000 units.
In addition to Changfeng Motors, Mitsubishi Motors has also formulated new plans for several other vehicle partners such as Southeast, Hafei, and Beijing Jeep to rapidly expand the influence of the Mitsubishi Motors brand in China. There is no doubt that China's business has become one of the pillars of Mitsubishi Motors' restructuring plan.
As the first step in China after the implementation of the restructuring plan, Mitsubishi Motors announced that it will first launch the high-end MPV model GRANDIS in China in October this year. It is understood that GRANDIS was first launched in Japan in May last year and was just launched in the European market in April this year.
At the same time, Mitsubishi Motors has also begun to systematically reduce its imported car business in China. Currently, Mitsubishi Motors has reorganized its sales office in China. The four sales companies originally operating the imported car business in Dalian, Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou were cancelled, and the imported car sales rights were outsourced to Mitsubishi Corporation (Shanghai) Company, a subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Group. In addition, Mitsubishi Motors' two offices in Shenyang and Yongzhou, Hunan were cancelled, and the Beijing office managed its business in China.
However, Mitsubishi Motors' road in China has not been smooth sailing. Due to China's economic "soft landing", monetary tightening has brought instability to the economy, which has also directly affected Mitsubishi Motors' sales performance in China. China's entire automobile market has encountered a "cold wave", which has forced Mitsubishi to consider postponing its plans for new investments in China. It is reported that Mitsubishi Motors originally planned to invest 35 billion yen in China in fiscal year 2005.
Although Mitsubishi Motors' performance in China in the second quarter of this year was relatively satisfactory, sales increased by 27% compared with last year. But industry insiders believe that Mitsubishi Motors has missed the best opportunity to invest in China. Because all major automobile giants have now set up camp in China, competition in China's vehicle market has become increasingly fierce. Moreover, the Mitsubishi Motors brand has no advantage in China compared with international giants.
More importantly, some people have also begun to question the integrity of Mitsubishi Motors. Because to this day, Mitsubishi Motors has not mentioned a word about its scandal of concealing defects in Japan in front of Chinese consumers. In particular, there is news that Mitsubishi Motors' GRANDIS, which was first launched in China, was also recalled in Japan in February this year. Because 6,171 GRANDIS produced from April 2003 to January 2004 had transmission problems.
However, Mitsubishi Motors' promotion of GRANDIS is full of praise.
What people hear and see more often is Mitsubishi Motors praising GRANDIS for how user-friendly its design is, how superior its performance is, and how stylish and elegant its appearance is. Regarding the recall of GRANDIS in Japan, Mitsubishi Motors once again chose to remain silent in front of Chinese consumers. Mitsubishi Motors' old habit of concealing negative news does not seem to have been eradicated. The same is true in China.
As ordinary Chinese consumers, people may not have forgotten the "Lu Hui Incident" that occurred in December 2000. A Mitsubishi Jeep had a brake failure due to a sudden burst of the rear brake oil pipe, and Lu Hui was hit. Became first-degree disabled. People may not forget that in 2000, in a conference room of the State Administration of Machinery, Mitsubishi Motors solemnly apologized to Chinese consumers for concealing defects that year. However, many years later, the same incident happened again at Mitsubishi Motors. Even when the scandal was making waves in Japan, Mitsubishi Motors was still prepared to hide the news from Chinese consumers until "paper The day when I can’t contain the fire”.
So someone asked: Do Chinese automobile companies really need joint venture partners like Mitsubishi Motors?
So some media warned Mitsubishi Motors: If Mitsubishi Motors really wants to use the Chinese market as a "life-saving grass" and sincerely cooperate with Chinese partners, then I hope Mitsubishi Motors will not just talk about its own ambitions. ideas and product advantages, you also need to have some courage to dare to report your shortcomings and problems.
The "nightmare" continues
After the scandal of concealing defects and being abandoned by Dai Ke, the weak Mitsubishi Motors became alienated. Mitsubishi Motors' "bad luck" did not end there.
On May 6, Kanagawa Prefecture police arrested Mitsubishi Motors’ then vice president Usami, Hanawa and five others. The police suspect that they concealed the amount of wear and tear on the previous wheel casings that were damaged and broken, and submitted a false report to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism that had no technical basis, and were suspected of violating the Vehicle Act.
In addition, two criminal suspects, Murakami (former market quality director) and Miki (former market quality department team leader), although they foresaw that an accident might happen, ignored it and did not take any measures, they are suspected of being involved in the accident. He was also arrested by the police for causing injury or death to others due to negligence in his work. On May 27, the Yokohama Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit against Usami and five other people for violating the Road Transport Vehicle Act. On the day of the arrest, Mitsubishi Motors' stock price fell by 5.1 to close at 259 yen. Since then, Mitsubishi Motors' stock has been on a downward trend and has updated its lowest value numerous times. By the time this reporter went to press, Mitsubishi Motors' stock price had fallen to 115 yen, a decrease of 50%. above.
On June 10, police in Kanagawa and Yamaguchi arrested former Mitsubishi Motors president Katsuhiko Kawazue and former vice president on suspicion of concealing a defective vehicle clutch that caused a death in the Yamaguchi accident. Yokokawa Bunichi and 6 others. Staff members have been arrested by the police due to product quality issues and may be held criminally responsible, which is unheard of in Japan.
At the same time, in order to protect the rights and interests of users, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism also imposed severe sanctions on Mitsubishi Motors, and successively promulgated the "Measures for Handling Improper Conduct of Mitsubishi Motors' Heavy-Duty Trucks", " Measures to Stop Designated Procurement", "Implementing Strict Car Model Review" and other documents. It not only ordered the company to recall all problematic models within a specified time for free repairs, but also required the police to closely cooperate and conduct strict inspections of various types of cars produced by Mitsubishi on the streets.
In addition,