Passat and Camry have withdrawn from the local market, and are they trying to survive in the wave of electrification?

Who would have thought that the Passat and Camry would be discontinued in the local market?

Recently, Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schaefer confirmed that the next-generation Pasata will only be sold as a station wagon in the European market, and the sedan version will be discontinued; Toyota has notified Japanese sellers and others that it will stop producing the "Camry" by the end of 2023 (

Camry) Japanese model, and has successively stopped selling this car in Japan.

At the same time, Toyota has made it clear that it will no longer use the Camry name for any form of change and development.

This move also means that Camry's 43-year sales history in Japan is about to come to an end.

Both Passat and Camry are very well-known mid-size cars around the world. Their market reputation and reliability have been tested for decades. They are the enlightenment models for many car fans. Their withdrawal from the local market is indeed unexpected.

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Tracing the history of Passat, the first generation model was born in 1973, code-named B1.

Passat has gone through 8 generations of models and is very popular in European, North American and Asian markets. It is one of Volkswagen's best-selling mid-size sedans, with cumulative sales exceeding 30 million units.

In 1984, the second-generation Passat model code-named B2 was introduced into domestic production and became the famous Shanghai Volkswagen Santana.

The Passat currently on sale is code-named B8 and was officially launched in 2014.

In the domestic market, they are SAIC-Volkswagen’s Passat and FAW-Volkswagen’s Magotan.

The SAIC-Volkswagen Passat prototype is the American Passat, and the FAW-Volkswagen Magotan is the authentic German Passat.

The Camry can be traced back to 1982 and has a history of more than 40 years, with cumulative sales of more than 21 million units worldwide.

The current model was launched in 2018, and its market performance is very stable, with global sales of approximately 600,000 vehicles in 2022.

The Camry is very popular in the U.S. market and China. The U.S. market contributed 13 million units, and the cumulative sales of Camry in the Chinese market exceeded 2 million units.

Classic models have been withdrawn one after another. As early as 2020, there was news that Volkswagen would discontinue the Passat. Then in 2022, Volkswagen announced that it would discontinue the Passat in the United States. Now Volkswagen has finally made up its mind to discontinue the Passat simultaneously in Europe.

It should be noted that Volkswagen has discontinued the sedan model in Europe, while the Passat travel version, Arteon and Arteon hunting version are still in production.

In the Chinese market, consumers don’t have to worry that Passat will also stop production.

In 2022, Passat's two localized models in China, the Magotan and Passat, have annual sales of 152,400 and 163,500 respectively. They are also the leading players in the joint venture B-class car segment. In 2022, the mid-size sedan

Ranking third and fourth in the sales rankings, Passat and Magotan became annual champions respectively in the four years from 2016 to 2019.

The Chinese market is so strong that Volkswagen has no reason to stop production in China.

At present, the domestic B9 (Maotan) project has been officially approved and the production line is being upgraded simultaneously. It will be officially unveiled at the end of this year or early next year at the earliest.

Magotan and Passat have therefore become China’s “specially supplied cars”.

Due to well-known reasons, the Volkswagen Group has very strict control over vehicle models. This has resulted in the Magotan and Passat falling behind in the competition in the Chinese market in recent years and being surpassed by the Camry and Accord. After becoming "special offers" this time, they will

It is conducive to further localization, which is a good thing for Chinese consumers.

Camry's sales in Japan's domestic market are not optimistic.

Based on 2021 statistics, the sales volume of Camry is 8,933 units, which is significantly different from the 191,000 units of Yaris.

Unlike the Volkswagen Passat, the Camry is only discontinued in China and will still be sold in more than 100 foreign markets including China and the United States.

In 2022, Camry sold more than 295,000 units in the United States, making it the sedan champion in the U.S. market. In the Chinese market, Camry sold 242,200 units in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 11.3%, and was also the sales champion.

According to data from Toyota Motor Group, over the past 40 years since its establishment, Camry has sold more than 21 million units in the global market and 1.3 million units in Japan.

Previously, the Crown, another classic sedan owned by Toyota, was discontinued, but was later resurrected as a brand, launching sedans, SUVs and crossovers to continue development.

But for Camry, Toyota has made it clear that it will no longer use the Camry name for any form of change and development.

Electrification is the fundamental reason. Regarding the discontinuation of production and sale of these two classic models in the local market, the superficial reasons are all based on market-level considerations.