Yuri Auto China's investment losses expand; Japanese brands are in trouble in China

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[Reporter Gao Jiahe/Taipei Report] The "involution" price war in China's auto market is swallowing up the living space of Japanese brands. In the first half of 2026, Toyota's sales in China fell by 17.1% to 694,700 vehicles, while Nissan's sales dropped by 15% to 237,000 vehicles. Affected by the slump in sales, Guangzhou Fengshen Motors, which used to be the golden hen of Yuni Motor's "Western Expansion", saw its losses increase nearly 10 times in the first half of this year. This not only shocked the market, but also highlighted the severe challenges and pressures faced by Japanese brands in China.

In the past, Yuri Auto relied heavily on China's reinvestment income. It recognized the profits of Guangzhou Fengshen and other subsidiaries, and once contributed as much as 80% of Yuri Auto's net profit. The most prosperous period of Yuni Auto's westward expansion was probably in 2019. At that time, in the first half of the year alone, the profits of Guangzhou Fengshen Automobile exceeded 3 billion yuan, and the full-year contribution exceeded 6.8 billion yuan.

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But after just 7 years, the pigs and sheep changed color. According to the consolidated financial report for the first half of this year, Guangzhou Fengshen's net loss for the current period was as high as 1.839 billion yuan. Yuri Auto's shareholding ratio (42.69%) must recognize an investment loss of up to 785 million yuan, which is deteriorating at an alarming rate compared with the 81.98 million yuan recognized loss in the same period last year.

If the 23.34 million yuan loss from other Chinese reinvestments such as Fengshen Xiangyang Automobile is added, the investment loss recognized by Yuri Auto in China in the first half of the year exceeded 800 million yuan, which directly led to the overall after-tax net loss in the first half of this year reaching 780 million yuan, further expanding from the 319 million yuan loss in the same period last year.

According to Chinese media reports, Dongfeng Nissan is trying to shift its strategy to "intelligent manufacturing in China" and plans to enter overseas markets starting from the fourth quarter of this year and convert excess production capacity into an export base. However, it still needs to be tested by the real market.

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