The recent heatwave in Europe has caused a stir, with over 150 million people being affected by the heat wave. However, the air conditioning penetration rate in local households is less than 20%, and a craze for air conditioning is unfolding simultaneously in various countries.
It's interesting that in this wave of panic buying, the main players are no longer the once popular Japanese brands, but all Chinese household appliances.
Twenty years ago, people preferred Daikin, Mitsubishi, and Panasonic when buying air conditioners, but now the art style has completely reversed.
The ones being crazily robbed are Midea Gree and Hisense TCL， In German stores, Midea portable air conditioners have been out of stock for three weeks, and the second-hand market prices are even higher than new ones.
The heat in France is even more exaggerated. Someone started a dispute outside the dealership in order to grab a Midea air conditioner, and the related video went viral on social media.
This is not an accidental result of a wave of popularity, the rise of China's white goods industry has been brewing for many years.
By 2025, China's air conditioning exports to the European Union and the United Kingdom will reach 1.39 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of over 20%.
80% to 90% of household air conditioners sold in the European market come from China.
Hisense's sales in Western Europe have increased by over 20%, and the French market has more than doubled directly.
TCL Western Europe grew by over 27% in the second quarter, while Midea's annual overseas revenue reached 195.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%.
Looking at Japanese brands, only Daikin remains dominant in the high-end European market, with Daikin holding a 68% share in the French heat pump air conditioning market.
But this also exposes the problem that Japanese air conditioners are trapped in an increasingly small high-end circle, and the mass market that ordinary people can afford has long been filled with Chinese brands.
This is not just a change in the category of air conditioning.
The production index of Japan's manufacturing industry has continued to decline in recent years, and the shipment of manufactured goods has not yet returned to its peak in 1991.
Sony's televisions, Panasonic's refrigerators, Toshiba's air conditioners were once the quality benchmarks in the hearts of a generation,
Now when searching for air conditioning on European e-commerce platforms, the first few pages are full of Chinese brands, and it takes a long time to flip through them to make a big profit.
Of course, it's not that Japanese manufacturing has completely declined. Daikin's technological foundation is still there, and they can still excel in precision manufacturing and upstream component fields.
But industrial competition can never be limited to niche high-end markets. Once the trend of the mass market takes shape, it is only a matter of time.