Wang Lihong's marriage incident caused an uproar in the two sides of the strait and three places. Among the parties who were affected and the gun was lying down, Infiniti was definitely the most injured. The Wang Lihong incident may become the last straw that crushed Infiniti.
1. The shortest endorsement ever?
No one thought that the biggest melon at the end of the year came from the high-quality idol Wang Lihong. On December 15, Wang Lihong announced his divorce; on December 17, Li Lianglei issued a document accusing her husband Wang Lihong of cheating in marriage, transferring property, and cold violence. On December 20, Wang Lihong issued a formal apology. Netizens are eating melons, fans are suffering from idol collapses, and Infiniti is suffering from the disaster of innocence. On December 16, Infiniti officially announced that Wang Lihong had become a spokesperson, and just 35 hours later, the end of cooperation was announced in the early morning of December 18. This was jokingly called "the first day to throw endorsement" by netizens, and may be the shortest endorsement in the history of the automobile brand.
2. The last straw?
In this incident, Infiniti's action can not be described as unhappy, but watching his spokesperson collapse within a day, he can only urgently terminate the contract and cut, and he can never escape the fate of the most tragic brand owners. Infiniti in terms of obvious and endorsement, Wang Lihong is not the only one who overturned the car this time. Ten years ago, in 2011, Gao Xiaosong drunkenly drove an Infiniti SUV, causing a traffic accident in which four cars rear-ended. Later, Gao Xiaosong was sentenced to 184 days in prison. In 2013, Wu Xiubo became the spokesman for Infiniti, but Wu Xiubo was banned for scandals such as personal derailment.
This time, it was Wang Lihong's turn again, and Infiniti stepped on the thunder one after another, and his fate was uncertain. The Wang Lihong incident may become the last straw that crushed Infiniti. Infiniti, which has been very marginalized in the luxury car market, faces both delisting and relegation. The possibility of delisting is not very large, but the possibility of downgrading is very high. Recently, the long-circulated rumors have once again appeared that Infiniti China headquarters will be moved back to Guangzhou from Beijing, and dongfeng Nissan headquarters will be responsible for the operation of infiniti brands in China. This means that Infiniti was demoted after the "southward migration" and became a subordinate agency of Dongfeng Nissan headquarters.
3. Is Infiniti at stake?
In fact, Infiniti is already in jeopardy, and the status quo is very depressed. In 2006, Infiniti entered China in the form of imports, and in 2014, it was localized and ready to do a big job. Sales in China reached 48,000 units in 2017 and have since plummeted. Units were down 8.3% to 44,000 units in 2018, down 20% to 35,000 units in 2019, and down 25% to 26,000 units in 2020. In the first 10 months of this year, Dongfeng Infiniti sold only 6433 vehicles, down 65.3% year-on-year. It is reported that Infiniti began to sharply reduce prices to clean up inventory, and some dealers chose to withdraw from the network.
Infiniti's sales woes in China are related to its slow and turtle-speed product launch schedule. Since localization in 2014, Infiniti has only two domestic models, Q50L and QX50, to support overall sales. Until the Guangzhou Auto Show in November this year, Infiniti's third domestic car, QX60, was late in coming, but it was hit by the Wang Lihong incident, which can be described as "death before the master". Competitors such as Cadillac have laid out at least 6 cars, three sedans and SUVs. The introduction of new models is too slow, and there are too few models on sale, which has long become the main reason for the benign development of Infiniti.
On the other hand, frequent quality problems have also become a lingering haze for Infiniti. At this year's CCTV 315 evening party, infiniti QX60 was thunderstruck due to CVT transmission failure, and consumers complained about frequent power interruptions, steering, brake failures and other problems during driving. Infiniti also asked the owner to sign an agreement privately or refuse to repair it. In the past few years, the M274 engine mounted on the Q50L model may be defective, and there have been many serious problems such as fault lights, jitter, flameout, and even broken cylinder block and timing chain failure. Infiniti's official attitude towards this is also very negative, which makes the owner chill.