Classified into Dongfeng Nissan Can Infiniti borrow "Dongfeng"

After the global headquarters is moved back to Japan from Hong Kong, China, Infiniti will "move" again. Recently, it is reported that early next year Infiniti China headquarters will be moved back to Guangzhou from Beijing, and will continue to be responsible for the operation of the Infiniti brand in China as the headquarters of Dongfeng Nissan. This means that Infiniti after the "southward migration" will become a subsidiary of Dongfeng Nissan headquarters. Industry insiders believe that the adjustment of the organizational structure is not unrelated to Infiniti's downturn in China, but whether Infiniti can turn around in China after being classified as Dongfeng Nissan has become the focus of attention.

Rumors of "southward migration" have resurfaced

Currently, Infiniti China is headquartered in Chaoyang District, Beijing, at the same address as Nissan China Headquarters.

According to people familiar with the matter, the work of moving back to Guangzhou will begin early next year, and relevant relocation plans are being formulated. At the same time, the "southward relocation" of Infiniti's China headquarters also involves organizational adjustments. At that time, Infiniti China will become a subsidiary of Dongfeng Nissan headquarters and continue to be responsible for the operation of the entire Infiniti brand in China.

In fact, this is not the first time that Infiniti's Chinese headquarters has "gone south" and merged into Dongfeng Nissan. In April this year, it was reported that Infiniti was undergoing organizational restructuring in China, in which the existing four sales region divisions would be abolished, and the four regions would be split into more than 10 small regions to implement more refined management of the market. At the same time as the organizational adjustment, Infiniti China headquarters will also move to Guangzhou to "converge" with Dongfeng Nissan Corporation. At that time, a person familiar with the matter revealed that a new building had been built next to the Headquarters Building of Dongfeng Nissan, which was a new office space for Infiniti China and Dongfeng Venucia, and Infiniti China would probably be downgraded to Dongfeng Nissan's business unit.

However, in response to the news, Infiniti said that in the future, Dongfeng Infiniti will work with employees to face industry challenges together. In order to better coordinate with Dongfeng Nissan, individual departments will go to Guangzhou to work, but the headquarters is still in Beijing, and there are no merger plans at present.

Although Dongfeng Infiniti did not recognize the relocation of the headquarters and the merger of Dongfeng Nissan, news about the relocation continued to come out. It is reported that at the end of July this year, Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dongfeng Limited") met with the senior management of Dongfeng Nissan to discuss related relocation matters. "Integrated into Dongfeng Nissan, similar to the Venucia brand. After moving to Guangzhou, Dongfeng Infiniti may no longer be directly managed by Dongfeng Limited and become the headquarters of Dongfeng Nissan. According to a person familiar with the matter in the report, the Headquarters of Dongfeng Infiniti will be moved back to prevent the turmoil caused by the relocation of Dongfeng Peugeot before. In response to the adjustment of the organizational structure, the Beijing Business Daily reporter contacted Infiniti, but as of press time has not received a reply.

Reduced to a luxury camp "supporting role"

Behind the resurgence of rumors is Infiniti's downturn in China.

In 2006, Infiniti entered the Chinese market as an import. In 2014, Dongfeng Motor Company and Nissan Motor Company jointly established Dongfeng Infiniti on a 50:50 share ratio. It is understood that at the beginning of localization, Infiniti had set a target of 100,000 vehicles sold in China in 2028, and its Chinese-made models accounted for more than half. According to the data, Dongfeng Infiniti sold 48,000 vehicles in 2017, an increase of 15.4% year-on-year. Since then, Dongfeng Infiniti's sales have gradually declined, with sales of 35,000 vehicles in 2019 and 26,000 vehicles in 2020, and in the past 7 years of localization, Dongfeng Infiniti's sales have not exceeded the 50,000-vehicle mark. In the first 10 months of this year, Dongfeng Infiniti sold only 6433 vehicles, a year-on-year decline of 65.3%.

While Infiniti, a high-end brand of Nissan, has fallen into sluggish sales in China, China's luxury car market has been strengthening year by year. According to the data, in the first 11 months of this year, the domestic luxury car market sales were 3.112 million units, an increase of 19.5% year-on-year, outperforming the market. Among them, Cadillac, which belongs to the second-tier luxury brand camp with Infiniti, sold 187,000 vehicles in the first 10 months of this year, an increase of 4.68% year-on-year.

With the decline in Dongfeng Infiniti's sales, dealers began to sharply reduce prices to clean up inventory, and some dealers chose to withdraw from the network. It is reported that Dongfeng Infiniti has a large number of dealers withdrawing from the network, and the number of dealers is currently less than 100. Beijing Business Daily reporter visited the car market and found that Infiniti dealers have long appeared in the situation of "price for volume". A Dongfeng Infiniti 4S store sales staff said that the current Q50L, QX50 two models of discounts are more than 50,000 yuan, of which QX50 some models up to 100,000 yuan discount.

Infiniti's shrinking sales in China are not unrelated to the slow pace of product advancement. Since its domestic production in 2014, Infiniti has only had two domestic models, Q50L and QX50, to support overall sales. It wasn't until this year's Guangzhou Auto Show that Infiniti released the new QX60. Competitor Cadillac has already laid out three cars, CT4, CT5, CT6 and XT4, XT5, XT6 three SUVs. The slow introduction of new models has become one of the reasons restricting the development of Dongfeng Infiniti.

While China's development is in a downturn, Infiniti's global market performance is not optimistic. According to the data, Infiniti's global sales in 2018 were 230,000 vehicles, down 5.2% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Infiniti sold 149,000 units in the United States, the world's largest single market, in 2018, down 2.7 percent year-over-year, and sales fell 218,000 units in 2019, down 21 percent year-over-year. As sales declined, Infiniti's management team began to adjust. In May 2019, Christian Monière, who had been Infiniti's president for only four months, announced his resignation. In the Chinese market, in December 2018, Lu Yi, general manager of Dongfeng Infiniti Automobile Co., Ltd. and general manager of Infiniti China, left his post, and he has held this position for less than 3 years.

A global adjustment is imminent

In fact, not only Infiniti, but also the parent company Nissan Automobile is also facing the dilemma of double decline in revenue and profit. In 2020, Nissan Motor's net income was 7.86 trillion yen (about 465.3 billion yuan), operating profit was -150.7 billion yen, and net income was -448.7 billion yen.

Faced with a sluggish global market, Nissan and Infiniti began to adjust their knives. First, Infiniti announced that it will withdraw from the Western European market and focus on the development of the Chinese and American markets. At the same time, Nissan and Renault plan to terminate products and businesses that have no hope of profitability. On April 14, Renault announced that it will withdraw from its passenger car business in the Chinese market. Last year, Infiniti said it would move its global headquarters from Hong Kong, China, back to Yokohama, Japan.

It is worth noting that after Nissan decided to withdraw from the European market, it was reported that Infiniti also plans to withdraw from the luxury brand competition and create "Nissan-plus". Infiniti CHIEF Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta said that in the face of the current decline in Sales in infiniti's market, Infiniti will launch a new brand strategy or "Nissan-plus". Yan Jinghui, a member of the expert committee of the China Circulation Association, said that this move means that Infiniti, which has been independent for many years, will return to Nissan and lower its posture to promote recovery, and this time Infiniti is responsible for dongfeng Nissan headquarters.

In fact, before Infiniti's localization, the industry generally believed that Infiniti domestic production would operate in a similar model to FAW-Volkswagen Audi, that is, Dongfeng Nissan set up an exclusive business unit for Infiniti. However, after the establishment of Dongfeng Infiniti, it became a joint venture company parallel to Dongfeng Nissan. At the time, Nissan believed that the move was to give Infiniti greater independence.

However, as Infiniti's global market shrinks, the development of independent brands means continued high costs for Nissan and Infiniti. Industry insiders believe that Infiniti, which has been working in the Chinese market for many years, cannot give up its layout in China, but it is difficult to rely on its own brand, and it is difficult to return to Dongfeng Nissan as its high-end brand, on the one hand, it can enhance the overall brand power of Dongfeng Nissan, on the other hand, it can share the technical production line to reduce costs and development.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time that Dongfeng Nissan's organizational structure has been adjusted, the once "single flying" Offa Venucia has returned to Dongfeng Nissan last year, if Infiniti China is downgraded and merged into Dongfeng Nissan in the future, Dongfeng Nissan or will form a big brand strategy of Infiniti, Nissan and Venucia. Beijing Business Daily reporter Liu Yang liu xiaomeng