On June 28, Toyota Motor was reported to be considering allowing employees to work a four-day week to attract more talent. If a deal is reached with unions, the policy could be implemented as early as this year. It is reported that the welfare benefits of Toyota employees have always been relatively generous. In March this year, Toyota fully accepted the union's demands for salary and bonus increases for the fourth consecutive year. Depending on the position, Toyota employees' monthly salary will increase by up to 28,440 yen (approximately RMB 1,284), and bonuses will increase from the equivalent of 6.7 months' salary in the previous year to the equivalent of 7.6 months' salary.

Recently, Yang Zhonghua, deputy director of the sales department of Dongfeng Honda, angrily criticized Chinese new energy brands at the Dongfeng Honda Hunting Light launch conference, saying that they have no bottom line and are irresponsible. Refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas are all luxurious in places where women can be seen, and cheap substitutes are used in places where women can't be seen, and the proportions and materials are reduced. Yang Zhonghua said that some new energy brands cut through the trouble quickly, shortened the development cycle, lowered quality standards, and rushed to launch assembled vehicles on the market, passing on hidden dangers to users and harvesting leeks. He also pointed out that some new energy brands started from scratch, playing with capital operations, traffic and concepts. They do not understand that only originality is down-to-earth. Yang Zhonghua said that Dongfeng Honda does not pretend to be pretentious or pretentious. It firmly believes that it starts from the needs of users and is truly committed to electrification transformation through hunting light breakthrough technology, driving down prices, and using its own technical barriers to help users break price barriers.

On June 28, GAC Toyota held the GAC Toyota Technology Open Day. At the open day meeting, GAC Toyota directly expressed its support to domestic new energy vehicle companies and released a message: "Making the fuel tank bigger is the trick, and making the battery smaller is the trick." Technology" PPT. At the same time, data on fuel tank capacity, battery capacity and fuel consumption of several well-known domestic car companies' hybrid models were also announced. The PPT shows that the Great Wall Hi4-T has a battery capacity of 37.1kWh and a fuel tank capacity of 70L; BYD’s fifth-generation DM-i has a battery capacity of 15.8kWh, a fuel tank capacity of 65L, and a fuel consumption of 3.98L per 100 kilometers. For comparison, GAC Toyota also announced the data of Toyota's fifth-generation hybrid. The battery capacity is only 1.8kWh, the fuel tank capacity is 43L, and the WLTC fuel consumption is 4.07L/100km. In this regard, GAC Toyota also asked three consecutive questions on the PPT: Is it to refresh a certain record? Is it simply a matter of enlarging the fuel tank and battery? Is it simply about low fuel consumption and long battery life?

Recently, Tesla China has initiated the process of recalling previously laid-off employees, and requires employees who are rehired to return "3" of the "N+3" layoff compensation, and have their seniority recalculated. According to relevant data, in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, Tesla has laid off more than 14% of its employees in the past six months, and its global employees have been reduced to About 121,000 people. However, there are reports that some employees who received the news are not very interested in this re-employment, and some of the laid-off employees have already joined other domestic new energy brands.

Recently at the Summer Davos Forum, CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun gave a speech and said that in the environment of new energy roll prices, value is the most important. In addition, when responding to being called "Juan King", Zeng Yuqun said: "There is no such thing as "Juan King", and I don't know what the word "Juan" means. (This word) is used a lot, probably their idea is to The price is set relatively low, which is called "volume" and price competition. He stressed, "In fact, the last thing we at CATL do is compete on price. As we just mentioned, we have invested so much. We are not talking about price competition, but value competition."

Recently, GAC Group held its 2023 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. A shareholder asked: "The competition in the automobile industry this year has been more intense than expected. How is GAC preparing to respond? Especially in terms of marketing, I think there is still a lot of room for improvement." In this regard, GAC Chairman Zeng Qinghong said that in terms of marketing, GAC has indeed failed to keep up with the market in terms of sales innovation, sales methods and tools. Zeng Qinghong said that now it is about bosses and traffic, so now we have to change the traditional sales method. Now you can see ourselves playing on some self-media platforms.

On June 25, the European Commission ruled after a preliminary investigation that technology giant Apple’s online application store AppStore failed to comply with the relevant provisions of the EU’s Digital Markets Act because they prevented application developers from freely directing consumers to Other channels for offers and content. If Apple fails to rectify its online app store rules within the stipulated time, it will face a fine of up to 10% of its total global turnover. It is reported that Apple’s total revenue in fiscal year 2023 will reach US$383.3 billion. If calculated based on a 10% fine, this means that the company will receive a fine of close to US$40 billion (approximately 290 billion yuan).

According to news on June 25, BYD Executive Vice President He Zhiqi posted on his personal social media: "Recently, some media have suggested that BYD's press conferences always focus on technology, and they can also talk about other things, at least to increase traffic." He Zhiqi said that a press conference only lasted about an hour. BYD did not even explain the technology clearly to consumers, so there was no time to talk about anything else. If the press conference can be held for one day, BYD is still willing to talk about technology. He Zhiqi also said that BYD will not teach others how to build cars, how to brand, or how to tell stories. New energy vehicles are still a new thing for BYD itself. They are crossing the river by feeling the stones and are in an unchartered land, studying industry problems.

On June 21, Avita Vice President Li Pengcheng posted an article on his personal social media to express his views on the recent status of the automotive industry. He said that the automobile industry is becoming more and more crazy, and it is easy to accuse others of cheating and flipping the table. Sometimes it is quite innocent to think about the table. Each family talks about publishing a reporting platform for being violated and offering rewards to catch monsters, which at least explains a few phenomena: First, this kind of thing is very common in the entire industry, and backstabbing is everywhere; Second, each family is deeply affected by this, hates it deeply, and is involved in it; Third, each company is proving its innocence. The industry seems to be a victim and there is no perpetrator.

Recently, a large number of car bloggers suddenly released a set of road test spy photos of "Xiaomi's first SUV". Judging from the spy photos, this new car uses a clamshell-style front hood and is also equipped with a A lidar whose shape is basically the same as the pebble-style lidar on Xiaomi SU7. In addition, the new car's detailed design such as the side camera, yellow calipers and five-spoke wheels have made many bloggers say that it is similar to the Ferrari Purosangue (priced at nearly 5 million). According to previous reports, Xiaomi’s SUV model, internally codenamed MX11, is expected to be officially launched in 2025.

On June 19, Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD's brand and public relations department, posted on social media: "We have recently received reminders from many parties that a certain car company is using black public relations methods to belittle, disparage and maliciously slander our brand and products." Based on the above and past situations, BYD will collect valid clues and evidence of black public relations. If verified to be true, the provider of valid clues and evidence will be rewarded with RMB 200,000-5 million, and the personal information of the provider will be kept strictly confidential.

According to reports, Guangqi Honda has recently launched large-scale layoffs in the form of step-by-step notifications, involving multiple lines, mainly voluntary resignations. There is news that employees are lining up to be laid off because the compensation amount is too high. According to people familiar with the situation, the first batch of layoff positions has indeed been taken up. Initially, the company planned to lay off 900 positions, and employees would leave voluntarily. As a result, more than 1,000 positions have been laid off, and 2,300 people have left so far. "Later I found that registration was extremely popular, so I opened it immediately." According to laid-off employees, employees with about ten years of service can receive cumulative compensation ranging from 200,000 to 400,000. The compensation standard of the above plan may be more generous than the N+3 provided by Tesla in April this year.

According to media reports, Toyota Chairman Akio and nine other board members were re-elected at Toyota's annual shareholder meeting. Despite being re-elected, the approval rate has dropped significantly. According to published data, the approval rate for Akio Toyoda's election as chairman is only 71.93%, a record low. More than a quarter of Toyota Motor shareholders oppose re-election. It is not difficult to see that Toyota Motor shareholders are gradually accumulating dissatisfaction with Akio Toyoda. Against this background, Toyoda Akio's re-election as chairman not only reflects his status and influence within the company, but also shows that Toyota Motor's revenue and net profit have achieved significant growth in 2023, and its performance advantages .

On June 20, at the launch conference of the new generation Haval H6, Great Wall Motors CGO Li Ruifeng said that the market competition in the automobile industry is like playing cards at the table together. If you can't keep up, you can shout "pass", but if someone on the table "out" "Crooks", the Great Wall will issue an early warning and stand up to "knock on the table" or even "turn over the table." He also said that sticking to the bottom line, guarding conscience, and creating the highest quality Chinese automobile business card is what Chinese automobile brands should do together. This move was suspected to be in response to BYD's previous remarks. It is reported that Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD's public relations, also likened competition in the auto market to "playing cards": one should act within one's ability and should not get angry or break the rules because of temporary gains and losses. "Someone has played a card. If you can follow, just follow. If you can't, just pass. Don't get angry or turn over the table, because there is still another round."

On June 18, FAW Toyota issued a document on its official platform saying that it would provide a limited-time comprehensive discount of 43,000 yuan for the Corolla model, with prices starting from 79,800 yuan. According to data released by the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Conference, FAW Toyota ranked 11th in the retail sales rankings of automakers in May. FAW Toyota, which fell out of the top ten, suffered a severe setback in retail sales of its flagship product Corolla. Its retail sales in May were only 7,693 units, a year-on-year decrease of 54.96% from 17,080 units in the same period last year. Although the company has not specified the expiration date of the promotion this time, this promotion may be to increase the sales volume of the model.

According to reports, Guangqi Honda’s recent layoffs involve about 1,700 employees, accounting for about 14% of the company’s total headcount. Compared with other car companies, Guangqi Honda's layoff gift packages are extremely generous, and many older employees with longer working experience are rushing to get layoff spots. Internal employees of Guangqi Honda revealed that Guangqi Honda will provide "N+2+1.8" compensation package to resigned employees. "N+2 is the standard compensation for 1.8 months and may be bonuses. In addition, the layoffs will be concentrated in May. It is expected that It will last until August. According to the latest sales data, Guangqi Honda sold only 31,000 vehicles in May, a year-on-year decline of 41.31%. Last year, Guangqi Honda sold about 640,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decline of 13.5%.

On June 17, according to Taiwan media reports, with production capacity in short supply, TSMC will launch new price increase negotiations in the second half of the year, mainly for 5nm and 3nm, as well as the future 2nm process. It is expected that the decision to increase prices will be the fastest. It will officially take effect in 2025. It is worth noting that this wave of price increases has begun to be transmitted to the downstream of the industrial chain. According to supply chain news, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8Gen4 is built with TSMC N3E, a price increase of 25% compared to the previous generation, which does not rule out subsequent price increases. At the same time, a new round of semiconductor price increases may be about to begin. A report recently released by Morgan Stanley shows that Huahong Semiconductor's wafer factory's current utilization rate has exceeded 100%, and it is expected to increase wafer prices by 10% in the second half of this year.

At the 16th China Automobile Blue Book Forum, Wu Zhoutao, director and permanent deputy general manager of Beijing Hyundai, said that there is indeed excessive competition in the automobile market now. If the industry development is healthy competition, it will be a process of good money driving out bad money. But if It is excessive competition, and the market may be a process in which bad money drives out good money. He pointed out that currently, there are some unreasonable competition behaviors in the automobile market. For example, relying on subsidy policies, squeezing suppliers, passing off inferior products, or even some false propaganda on the marketing side to deceive consumers, relying on trolls and Internet celebrities to attack competitors, and selling patriotic sentiments to kidnap consumers. In fact, these are very harmful to the development of the entire industry, and it is also an unreasonable competitive behavior that we need to stop.

On June 12, the European Commission announced the imposition of temporary countervailing tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China, and the implementation of special tariffs on three Chinese automobile companies subject to sample surveys. Among them, BYD and Geely were levied tariffs of 17.4% and 20% respectively. SAIC Motor will be levied the highest tariff of 38.1%. As "protected" objects by the EU, European automobile companies also immediately issued a statement opposing the EU's decision to impose tariffs. Among them, BMW Group Chairman Zipse commented on the EU's tax increase measures: "The European Commission's imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles is a wrong decision. The imposition of additional tariffs will hinder the development of European car companies and will also harm Europe itself. Benefit." The Mercedes-Benz Group also stated that if the trend of protectionism is allowed to rise, it will have negative consequences for all stakeholders. Mercedes-Benz said it would pay close attention to developments, but was unable to comment further on the ongoing investigation. "In the long run, the imposition of countervailing duties is not conducive to the improvement of the competitiveness of the European automobile industry. We oppose this decision." As Europe's largest automobile group, Volkswagen Group issued a statement saying

PricewaterhouseCoopers, an accounting firm that has been at the forefront of the scandal due to Evergrande's financial fraud, has recently lost its annual audit projects for listed companies. Last year, its largest audit project, the Bank of China, with an audit fee of about 200 million yuan, also lost its largest audit project. Judging from the termination situation, PwC’s lost orders accounted for 20% of its annual A-share audit projects, and the amount of losses accounted for more than 50%. , It is reported that PwC has recently launched a round of "silent layoffs" plan in the UK. This is the second round of layoffs for PWC UK in the past year. At the end of last year, PwC had already carried out about 600 job cuts. The company has not issued an official internal announcement regarding the layoffs, but affected employees have been notified individually. The cuts mainly involve the advisory, risk and operations management services divisions in London and Belfast.

Recently, Guangzhou Automobile Group announced its May production and sales report. Among them, Guangzhou Automobile Group's vehicle sales for the month were 156,500 units, a significant year-on-year decrease of 25.33%. It is worth noting that the sales volume of new energy vehicles was 37,500 units, which also suffered a downward trend, down 25.51% year-on-year. From January to May this year, GAC’s cumulative sales were 699,500 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 24.51%. Among them, the production and sales of GAC Toyota and GAC Honda in May were 32,000 and 31,000 vehicles respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 53.66% and 41.31% respectively. It is worth mentioning that Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, has been publicly opposed to price wars. At this year's Chongqing Automobile Forum, Zeng Qinghong publicly criticized the endless "price war" of auto companies and said that GAC also laid off many employees in the context of involution.

Recently, the sales data of various new car-making forces have been announced last week. Ideal sales have exceeded 10,000 units and have been the sales champion for seven consecutive weeks. Wenjie ranked second with 8,900 units. Ji Krypton jumped to third with 4,200 units. Leap Motors and NIO Automobiles Ranking fourth and fifth with 3,800 and 3,500 vehicles respectively. Xiaomi Motors sold approximately 2,100 vehicles this week, slightly lower than last week's 2,200 vehicles. It is worth noting that Xiaomi Motors' sales have declined for two consecutive weeks since its weekly sales reached 2,700 vehicles at the end of May. In response to this matter, Xiaomi executives responded that "the current number of locked orders is steadily increasing every day. Since the number of delivery centers across the country is currently very limited and the delivery pressure is extremely high, double-shift production has started in June."

According to media reports, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism conducted a surprise inspection of Toyota Motor’s headquarters on the morning of the 4th in response to serious irregularities such as data falsification related to safety. Inspectors will question quality managers and analyze relevant documents to find out what happened. According to Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Toyota's improper conduct so far identified includes: submitting false data in pedestrian protection tests of three models in production; and illegally processing test vehicles in crash tests of four models produced in the past. In addition to Toyota, among the 85 companies requested by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to conduct internal investigations, as of the end of May, four companies, Mazda, Yamaha Engine, Honda, and Suzuki, had reported improper behavior and planned to start from the 5th. Conduct surprise inspections on the remaining four companies.

According to the latest news released by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on June 3, five car companies including Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Suzuki and Yamaha had violations in vehicle performance testing. It is reported that after Daihatsu Motor was exposed to certification violations, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism asked 85 companies in the Japanese automotive industry to self-examine whether similar situations existed. The above-mentioned five car companies discovered the same violations during their internal investigations. After the news came to light, all five car companies held press conferences to apologize for the violations.