Returning to Dongfeng Nissan into an independent business unit, Infiniti opened the "go to luxury" self-help mode?

After 6 years of domestic production, Infiniti officially returned to the Dongfeng Nissan system. On January 5, Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Dongfeng Limited) announced that Dongfeng Infiniti will be included in Dongfeng Nissan's management system as an independent business headquarters, and together with the company's Nissan and Venucia brands, Infiniti will become the third brand of Dongfeng Nissan.

Dongfeng Nissan insiders revealed to Tencent Automobile that the above adjustment is expected to be completed by the end of April, and the main significance of the integration is at the sales and marketing level, and infiniti channels will remain independent for now.

Infiniti's return to Dongfeng Nissan is caused by two factors: history and reality. In terms of capital relations, Dongfeng Infiniti is a 50:50 joint venture between Dongfeng Motor and Nissan Motor in 2014, and is an independent wholly-owned subsidiary of Dongfeng Co., Ltd. (Dongfeng and Nissan Joint Venture).

It is worth noting that at the beginning of the establishment, the two shareholders reached a consensus that Dongfeng Limited would hand over all research and development, procurement, manufacturing and other aspects of Infiniti's domestic production to Dongfeng Nissan, and product marketing and sales would be responsible for the joint venture company. Therefore, from the perspective of the company's operation, it is natural for Infiniti to return to the Dongfeng Nissan system, more referring to the return of sales and management.

The reality is that Infiniti's global market performance is not satisfactory, and it has to shrink its business to save itself. On April 14 last year, after Renault announced its withdrawal from the passenger car business in the Chinese market, Infiniti said that it would move its global headquarters from Hong Kong to Yokohama, Japan, and announced that it would withdraw from the Western European market and focus on the Chinese and American markets.

In June 2020, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance announced a new medium-term business plan, and Infiniti's new strategy was adjusted to "Nissan-Plus", explaining that Nissan Chief Operating Officer Gupta explained, "Due to the further decline in global sales, Infiniti is seeking a new brand positioning." In terms of products and technologies, we will position Infiniti as Nissan Plus. ”

Industry analysts said that at that time, the global sales decline of the Infiniti brand was serious, which was not enough to support the cost and technology invested by the parent company, and Nissan hoped to obtain a larger market by "downgrading" the Positioning of the Infiniti brand.

In 2019, the year before the "downgrade" was announced, Infiniti sold 189,000 units worldwide, and sales in the largest U.S. market fell 21.1% year-on-year, from 149,280 units in 2018 to 117708 units.

As the world's second largest market, the Performance of the Chinese Market is far from the target sales volume. Infiniti's medium-term strategic goal in China is to achieve annual sales of 100,000 vehicles by 2018, with more than half of its Chinese models accounting for. According to the data, from 2016 to 2021, Dongfeng Infiniti's sales were 17415 vehicles, 20164 vehicles, 19114 vehicles, 10820 vehicles, 8951 vehicles and 7691 vehicles (in the first 11 months), and only two models of domestic products were Q50L and QX50.

According to Infiniti insiders, the Japanese side has discussed the withdrawal of the Infiniti brand from the Chinese market, but the Chinese side believes that Infiniti already has a certain brand awareness, "it is a pity to withdraw."

Industry insiders believe that although Infiniti is domestically produced, the introduction of products and price positioning are gradually separated from the development speed of the Chinese market, which eventually leads to the distance between second-tier luxury brands. The above-mentioned Dongfeng Nissan insiders said that although the management does not have a clear brand development plan at present, the resources and costs after integration will be significantly optimized, and the product price will be appropriately reduced in the long run, which is more in line with market expectations.

According to the announcement, in the future, Infiniti will make full use of the advantages of Dongfeng Limited's full value chain in research and development, manufacturing and management, from planning to execution, to explore new travel business models, contribute to Infiniti's electrification, autonomous driving, mobile Internet and shared travel services, and further explore opportunities in the luxury car market.

After the integration and synergy, Dongfeng Limited, which has three major brands, Nissan, Venucia and Infiniti, will focus on the high-quality development of the passenger car business, optimize the organizational and cost structure, and improve decision-making and operational efficiency. In 2022, the new round of product introduction of Infiniti, which is led by the new QX60, will further meet the needs of Chinese consumers for luxury brands. (Text/Tencent Auto Xie Wan)