The European car market is competitive and crowded with many brands. Japanese brands arrived many years ago and had reasonable success but it seemed to plateau. Now there are challenges regarding the accelerated move to electric cars, something Japanese brands initially embraced then stalled on. Chinese brands are now entering Europe with electric cars as their forte.
Where does all this leave Japanese brands now and in the near future? Some like Toyota and Nissan have manufacturing facilities there and are committed. Smaller players like Honda and Mitsubishi have manufactured in Europe but no longer.
Of the two, Honda was the bigger player in Europe, but its market share has been falling fairly consistently since 2007. Honda's position in Europe is now marginal and apart from simply retaining a presence it's hard to know why the company would stay in the region. Time will tell where Honda will go from here.
Mitsubishi has been more even but recently having noticeably fallen with few models on offer and leaving some markets entirely. Mitsubishi may leverage some of Renault's vehicles and production facilities to reinvigorate its European operation. Again, we will see.
Please note: The 2023 percentage figures are for the first three months.
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