Are Japanese Brands Striving for Technological Self-Improvement?

As domestic brands achieve "overtaking on corners" with new energy vehicles, joint venture brands can no longer tolerate the situation.

In the past few years, most joint venture automakers' common market strategy was to use low-price tactics to cope with the rise of domestic new energy vehicles. Especially in the first quarter, the traditional off-season for the auto market, terminal discounts were even greater.

This year is different. Dianchetong noticed that many joint venture brands have recently held large-scale press conferences related to new energy technologies, such as Dongfeng Nissan and GAC Honda, attempting to directly compete with domestic brands using new energy technologies.

Screenshot: Weibo

It's not new for Japanese joint venture brands to engage in new energy technologies, but in the domestic market, it seems that only the tactic of "trading volume for price" has worked.

From a long-term perspective, selling at low prices will only reduce a brand's profits, eventually leading to a series of problems such as reduced R&D funding and decreased brand influence. Only by making timely efforts in the technology roadmap can one escape from this vicious cycle. As the latest masterpieces of the "Japanese Big Three" in the field of new energy, what is the level of technology reached by Dongfeng Nissan N7, GAC Honda P7, and GAC Toyota Bozhi 3X?

No longer blindly following the trend, are Japanese brands striving for technological self-improvement?

In the past, the "Japanese Big Three" mainly promoted "oil-to-electricity" products in the domestic new energy market. Market performance has proven that such a conservative development strategy has not been recognized by the market. In the new energy market, where they do not have much say, consumers are unlikely to be willing to pay for a simple car logo.

At the recently held Dongfeng Nissan Technology Conference and GAC Honda P7 Technology Experience Day, the officials were bolder in their promotion, daring to use various leading data to prove their strength. In general, in addition to ensuring the advantages of the powertrain, these leading data also transfer the brand's technology in the field of fuel vehicles to electric vehicles.

Source: GAC Honda official

Taking the recently concluded GAC Honda P7 Technology Experience Day as an example, Honda's handling ability has always been well-regarded, and the selling point of "handling" became the main keyword of this press conference. Honda's unique FCD function allows drivers to constantly perceive the status of the braking system; a low-center-of-gravity lightweight chassis ensures that "every drive is a unity of man and machine," and it also incorporates the championship tuning experience from F1 races. The officials even claimed that "it's easy to make electric cars, but it's difficult to make electric cars with driving fun."

Nissan's biggest selling point is the "big sofa," so the entire Dongfeng Nissan Technology Conference basically revolves around comfort, such as the AI Zero-Pressure Cloud Blanket Seat with a built-in "electronic skin" sensor system, all-domain intelligent anti-motion sickness technology covering 17 anti-motion sickness countermeasures, and a new intelligent chassis system that provides comfort in all scenarios. The officials spent a lot of time during this conference focusing on interpreting these configurations.

Source: Dongfeng Nissan official

As for the hard power of pure electric vehicles, it seems that relatively less time is spent on it. Dianchetong wants to say that taking handling, comfort, or any other single point as the main feature of a technology conference is particularly rare among domestic brands. After all, consumers' needs for pure electric vehicles definitely involve more than one or two aspects. Performance, charging experience, handling, range, comfort, practicality, etc., are all indispensable focuses.

Judging from the GAC Toyota press conference at the Guangzhou Auto Show, Toyota Bozhi 3X also continues the "high cost-performance" characteristic of the Toyota brand. For example, a pure electric SUV in the 150,000-yuan price range is equipped with high-level intelligent driving and a solar roof that can increase driving range, which is unprecedented among models of the same level in the domestic market.

Faced with domestic brands emphasizing data, joint venture brands have not completely followed the trend of competing on data but hope to gain a foothold in the domestic new energy market by integrating brand characteristics into new products.

A set of impressive product data can help latecomers seize market share, as it is the capital to attract consumers. But perhaps for joint venture brands, doing well on their own is more important.

Source: GAC Toyota official

Dongfeng Nissan, GAC Toyota, and GAC Honda have been in the domestic market for over 20 years. Years of market accumulation have given them high brand awareness and user trust. Brand characteristics such as "handling," "comfort," and "high cost-performance" have long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Continuing this selling point on the latest electric vehicles will undoubtedly attract users with high brand loyalty.

Moreover, the fundamental reason why these characteristics can be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people is that the brands have sufficient and profound technical expertise in these areas. Continuing their technological advantages on pure electric vehicles can consolidate the brand image in the minds of consumers and also form a competitive advantage through differentiation.

But as Dianchetong just said, there are many factors for consumers to consider when buying an electric vehicle. If a single point is overemphasized, it may lead consumers to have a one-sided perception. Currently, none of these new cars have been fully launched. To cope with fierce market competition, competitiveness in other areas must be demonstrated. If they dare to benchmark against benchmark-level products, it will surely have a better communication effect.

It is understood that GAC Honda P7 has an acceleration capability of 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds; Dongfeng Nissan has released the world's first 14-in-1 electric drive, and the Nissan N7 can achieve a 400km range in just 7 minutes of charging and a maximum motor speed of 25,100rpm. In terms of hard power, there is indeed an opportunity to benchmark against benchmark-level competitors, but specific parameters will only be known when the new cars are launched.

Besides hard power, this year, brands such as Changan, BYD, and Lantu have begun to increase their investment in the field of intelligent driving, aiming to achieve "popularization of intelligent driving." It is said that "intelligence is the second half of the automotive industry," and the importance of intelligent configuration is gradually increasing. So, will joint venture brands have an advantage in the field of intelligent driving?

Holding onto the legs of intelligent driving suppliers, are joint venture automakers giving up self-research?

Whether it's Dongfeng Nissan N7, GAC Honda P7, which have already disclosed their technologies, or the upcoming GAC Toyota Bozhi 3X, all place intelligent driving in a very important position.

Dongfeng Nissan emphasizes in-depth cooperation with Momenta in China to create an end-to-end full-scenario NOA, which can achieve a level of "drivable nationwide, good drivability nationwide," and even its high-speed NOA can still brake stably at speeds of up to 130km/h.

GAC Honda P7 is equipped with two parallel solutions: Honda SENSING 360+ and Huawei Intelligent Driving. The former is Honda's own intelligent driving system that supports high-speed piloting, while the latter is not the latest Huawei Kunlun Intelligent Driving ADS 3.0 but Huawei ADS 2.0. Although it is not the latest Huawei intelligent driving technology, it can still achieve high-speed and urban piloting assistance functions.

Screenshot: GAC Honda live broadcast

Like Dongfeng Nissan N7, GAC Toyota Bozhi 3X can achieve end-to-end full-scenario NOA, and its intelligent driving system is also in cooperation with Momenta. Its biggest selling point is the integration of a 126-line LiDAR, and a high-level intelligent driving experience comparable to luxury brands can be enjoyed at a price range of just 150,000 yuan.

In comparison, there are some differences in the technical solutions of the three models. The Huawei ADS 2.0 carried by GAC Honda P7 is still in the stage of manually written rules, while Dongfeng Nissan N7 and GAC Toyota Bozhi 3X both adopt the latest technical concept of end-to-end, but there is also a difference between these two models in whether they are equipped with LiDAR.

Looking at the domestic intelligent driving market, under the technical trend of AI large models and end-to-end, companies such as XPeng and Huawei have made the system's decision-making more efficient in high-level intelligent driving. However, Dianchetong noticed that the intelligent driving solutions of new force brands are basically developed independently internally, while the thinking of the above three joint venture brands in the field of intelligent driving is to "integrate suppliers," giving most of the say in the field of intelligent driving to Momenta and Huawei.

Screenshot: Weibo @Dongfeng Nissan

Companies such as XPeng, Huawei, and Li Auto can better grasp the technology upgrade nodes through self-research and avoid being throttled by partners. From the perspective of sustainable development, if a company really wants to reduce the price of smart cars, the potential for cost reduction through self-research is definitely greater than that of integrating suppliers.

For now, traditional joint venture brands are indeed generally lagging behind new force brands in the field of intelligence. However, these three Japanese joint venture pure electric vehicles have not been officially launched yet, and the intelligent driving experience should not be simply compared based on sensor hardware and system logic but should be directly tested on the road.

For consumers who value the intelligent driving experience, compared to the number of hardware and official promises, they will pay more attention to the actual experience when selecting a car. The market does not pay too much attention to whether it is self-researched or integrated by suppliers but more to the influence of the technology.

The premise of good intelligent driving is that it must be recognized by more consumers to enter the first tier of intelligent driving. If joint venture brands want to occupy a place in the field of intelligent driving or want to successfully implement some new ideas, they will eventually have to return to the path of self-research.

Written at the end

Over the past three years, the total sales volume in the Chinese market has steadily increased with year-on-year growth rates of 2.1%, 7.5%, and 4.5%, respectively. However, the sales of Japanese joint venture brands have indeed declined significantly. The main reason is that domestic new energy vehicles have seized a considerable share of the mainstream passenger car market, which Japanese joint venture brands used to be proud of.

In March 2025, joint venture brands finally announced their official efforts in new energy, hoping to curb the downward trend in the Chinese market. However, domestic brands now have a sufficient number of followers in the field of new energy, and it will take time for the market to digest the promises made by joint venture brands.

Facing the world's largest new energy market, joint venture brands need to abandon the strategy of "brand premium" as soon as possible and show sufficient sincerity to survive. After all, in the field of new energy, domestic brands have far more trump cards than joint venture brands.

(Cover image source: GAC Honda official)

Source: Leitech