On January 5, Dongfeng Limited released the news that Dongfeng Infiniti as an independent business headquarters has been incorporated into Dongfeng Nissan's management system, and together with Nissan and Venucia brands, Infiniti will become dongfeng Nissan's third brand.
This slightly abrupt news is another major strategic adjustment by Infiniti in the years since it entered China. This is also in order to face China's new market competition environment, Dongfeng Limited further integrate resources, with the help of Dongfeng Nissan's advantages in research and development, manufacturing, management, empower Infiniti to meet the future luxury car market competition.
Dongfeng Limited also said that Infiniti will make full use of the advantages of Dongfeng Nissan's full value chain in research and development, manufacturing and management, from planning to execution seamless connection, explore new travel business models, contribute to Infiniti in electrification, autonomous driving, mobile Internet and shared travel services, and further explore opportunities in the luxury car market.
Joint venture "Seven Year Itch"
In September 2014, Dongfeng Motor and Nissan Motor established Dongfeng Infiniti under the 50:50 joint venture model, which is an independent wholly-owned subsidiary of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. and independently operates the Infiniti brand under the principle of "one strategy, one brand, one team and one channel". Among them, in terms of production and research and development, it mainly makes full use of dongfeng Nissan's existing resources; in terms of sales channels, it expands on the basis of the original Infiniti China import car dealer network to form a unified dealer network covering imported cars and domestic cars.
At that time, at the beginning of the rapid development of China's luxury car market, the market grew rapidly, and Dongfeng Infiniti was ambitious, hiring Dai Lei, the former head of BMW China, as general manager, planning to achieve annual sales of 100,000 vehicles in 2018, to build Infiniti into a mainstream luxury car brand that is truly rooted in China and loved by Chinese consumers.
However, contrary to expectations, in the face of fierce competition in the market, Dongfeng Infiniti's career in China is not smooth, facing the "seven-year itch", product introduction and update can not meet the market demand. Before the release of the new QX60 at the end of last year, Dongfeng Infiniti only introduced two models, the Q50L sedan and the QX50 SUV.
This is reflected at the market level, that is, the sales volume is high and low. In 2014, Infiniti's sales in China once exceeded 30,000 vehicles, showing great potential for development. At that time, the sales of Volvo and Cadillac, the second camp of luxury cars, were only 70,000 to 80,000.
Today, even Lincoln, which did not have any presence in China at that time, has accumulated sales of 66,000 vehicles in the first three quarters of 2021. Cadillac, Volvo and Lexus are already moving toward the goal of 200,000.
The key to breaking the game is integration
Got up early in the morning and rushed to a late set.
Missing out on the most rapidly growing period of China's luxury car market means facing more brutal competition. So, where is Infiniti's future?
As we all know, the Chinese market is facing a new round of changes, and intelligent and connected new energy vehicles are becoming the focus of more attention of users. In the market, other luxury brands have launched a future-oriented layout, and the first camp composed of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi has begun to accelerate. Taking Mercedes-Benz as an example, three pure electric models will be launched in the Chinese market in 2021. Even in the second camp, Brands such as Cadillac and Volvo are electrifying ALL IN.
In other words, infiniti needs to accelerate on the new electrified and intelligent track to achieve breakthroughs in the future, which requires the integration of resources from all parties and the re-storage of strength.
In fact, the limited integration of Dongfeng has given the answer, it seems that Infiniti is helpless to shrink in the face of the market downturn, but in fact, Infiniti is seeking a better way to break the game: to make full use of the advantages of Dongfeng Nissan's entire value chain in research and development, manufacturing and management, from planning to execution seamless connection, explore new travel business models, and seek breakthroughs in electrification, automatic driving, mobile Internet and shared travel services.
Dongfeng Limited said that after the integration and synergy, Dongfeng Nissan, which has three major brands of Nissan, Venucia and Infiniti, can focus on the high-quality development of the passenger car business, optimize the organizational and cost structure, improve decision-making and operational efficiency, strengthen corporate governance, and provide Chinese consumers with diversified products and technologies.
According to the plan, in 2022, a new round of product introduction by Infiniti, led by the new QX60 and so on, will further meet the needs of Chinese consumers for luxury brands. Perhaps, squatting is also to jump higher.
[Reporter] Guo Xiaoge
【Author】 Guo Xiaoge
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client