Honda Motor Co Ltd (HMC)’s Lowered Forecast Creates Questions for 2013

Nissan has the biggest exposure to China out of the big three Japanese firms. About 25% of the company’s cars are sold in China. in 2012 alone, Nissan reported a 5.3% drop in sales in China to 1.18 million vehicles. Furthermore, in the U.S as well, the new model of its bestselling car Altima is losing its ground to Toyota’s Camry and Honda’s Accord. Nissan sold 302,934 Altimas in the U.S while Camry and Accord’s sales stood at 404,886 and 331,872 units respectively. This is a significant drop from 2011 when Altima was the second best-selling car in the U.S, ahead of Accord and behind Camry – but with sales inflated due to lack of competitive supply.

Unlike Honda, which recorded double digit quarterly growth, Nissan’s overall sales in 2012 increased by just 5.8% to 4.94 million vehicles into one of the best years the auto industry had in recent memory. At these prices, however, I’m not enamored of any of the three automakers.  Honda has product mix issues in India now and is in a knife fight throughout Southeast Asia longer-term. Toyota is too expensive, as it will not be able to replicate 2012’s performance, but the stock is priced as such. Long term, Toyota will vie with Volkswagen for the global market leader position, and I would be interested in it after a correction.

The article Honda’s Lowered Forecast Creates Questions for 2013 originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Peter Pham.

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