Toyota, Nissan, and Honda, the big three Japanese car makers have enjoyed the most favorable business environment in recent years in Korea basically thanks to the low yen, helped by the Abenomics.

Lexus, Infiniti, and other major models imported from Japan regained price competitiveness and got the exchange rate benefit on top of their sales boost.

▶Toyota Korea’s President Yoshida accrued substantiality, and all Lexus dealers turned to profits

Toyota’s business results this year were flat over last year in terms of sales. Both brands of Toyota and Lexus sold 11,690 units until November this year, up just 8 units.

Of course, the new Camry launched in December will boost sales upward, but the total volume has not so much improved.

In spite of the new Camry, Toyota brand’s cumulated sales upto November slipped 12.8% over the same period of the last year, due to the carry-over demand for the new Camry introduced in October and the short supply of the popular model Prius.

On the contrary, Lexus had an explosive popularity of the new ES Hybrid model, and the new flagship SUV NX released in October boosted the sales 18.4% at 5,690 units, compared with the last year.

The ES Hybrid is getting its popularity exceeding 4,000 units in annual sales, and the new NX has a pent-up demand of 1,000 units, outpacing German diesel models.

The flattening performance of Toyota Korea is mostly because of the supply crunch, not marketing or product problems. If those three popular models, ES300h, NX300h, the new Camry have been supplied as much as demanded, the sales must have shot up more than 50%.

The stealthy visit of Ihara Yasmori, Vice President in charge of ‘The Next Toyota’ in early November instructed that “Please discard marketing oriented to quantity in order to get a longer-term competitiveness in Korea. Rather, the agent and dealers should first retain substantiality.”

The new President of Toyota Korea, Yoshida Akihisa, has been endeavoring to restore its substances rather than volume expansion in Korea, and as a result, the four consecutive years of loss since 2010 will turn to profit this year to over 10 billion won.

The Lexus dealers who have been suffering from losses for a long time are restraining from discount sales and so expect a profit of 500 million to 1.5 billion won this year.

By contrast, Toyota dealers will be difficult to escape from losses due to slackened sales and discount marketing, in spite of curtailed operations, such like relocation and scale-down of their outlets in Seoul and Busan.

Toyota Korea has been boasting their brand power by opening the first showroom ‘Connect Two’ at the 2nd Lotte world in Seoul, but they still have a big task of how to turn to profit.

The loss of Toyota brand was blamed for the lower priced Camry than its production cost, by 600 thousand won in Korea.

▶Nissan Korea gained a quantity leap, but lost dealers and customers’ confidence

The most spectacular growth in terms of sales volume was made by Nissan Korea.

Nissan Korea sold 2,615 units of Infiniti, up 166%, while Nissan brands 3,717 units, up 34.2%. Both brands’ total sales number 6,332 units, jumping 1.7 times, compared with last year.

There were some reasons of the slackened business in Korea, but the new Q50, Altima, and the new Juke enjoyed picking up in sales with 2,290 units, 2,300 units, and 927 units, respectively.

Most Nissan models have gained more than expectation. The newly introduced QASHQAI in November, the first diesel SUV by Nissan, is expecting a monthly sales of 150 units.

However, such an ostensible growth could not conceal a lot of internal problems.

Since new President Kikuchi took office last July, several executives and middle managers left Nissan Korea.

In particular, the retail price of Infiniti Q50 was raised without any rationale, which actually dampered its popularity, while the new Qashqai is also in a turmoil with curtailed dealer’s premium.

The dealers of Nissan and Infiniti have expected their first profit this year thanks to the increasing sales of Q50, Altima, and Qashqai, but Q50 has been in downturn since November and Qashqai was delayed in delivery, and so the profit seems not to be materialized.

On the contrary, the accumulated loss went on a gross of 107.3 billion won during the last four years - 28.2 bil. won in 2010, 3.7 bil. won in 2011, 3.19 bil. won in 2012, and 1.02 bil. won in 2014. But they are forecasting 30 billion won in the black this year.

The won-yen exchange advantage and increasing sales have been all the gains of Nissan Korea.

So to speak, Nissan Korea owes such a quantum leap to President Kikuchi’s austere management.

But the complaints of dealers due to continued losses and the sinking confidence of Korean consumers toward Nissan and Infiniti foretell a tough road ahead.

▶Placid Hoda Korea, Korean executives’ achievements are to be seen

While Nissan Korea is the most dynamic brand, Honda Korea may be the most stable one.

After Vice President Ikehata Yoshiaki moved to the Canada subsidiary last April, Honda Korea is in fact under the management of Korean executives and their sales have receded 25.9% to 3,325 units this year.

No new car releases and no aggressive marketing have resulted such a decrease. The new models introduced this year are only model-year-changed Accord and face-lifted CR-V.

So, on a fiercer discount competition, amounting several million to tens of million won, such a kind of achievement was rather self-exalted by dealers.

Honda dealers’ performances will be determined by the year-end introduction of CR-V, as their sales have been slackened this year.

If CR-V will be supplied by more than 100 units by the end of the year, some dealers may be able to scarcely escape from losses.

On the contrary, the only red-inked Honda Korea last year, among Japanese cars, turned to a profit of 7 billion won, and is expecting earnings of over 10 billion won owing to the booming motorcycle business in Korea.

Even though car dealers are in a loss, the favorable foreign exchange rate and two-wheeler’s augments are breezing a warm wind to Honda Korea.

Honda Korea is actually in an unstable situation as dealers are trapped in lasting losses and the Bundang dealer is on an unresolved conflict, while the head office does not offer any long-term vision or supportive measures.