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 Nissan and Venucia brands, Infiniti will become the third brand of Dongfeng Nissan.
According to the data, Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. was established on June 9, 2003, a large-scale automobile joint venture jointly funded by Dongfeng Motor and Nissan Motor, with a registered capital of 16.7 billion yuan, each holding 50% of the shares, the current chairman Zhu Yanfeng, president Uchida Makoto. Previously, Dongfeng Limited had seven major business divisions, namely Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Car Company, Dongfeng Venucia Motor Company, Dongfeng Infiniti Automobile Co., Ltd., Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., Zhengzhou Nissan Automobile Co., Ltd., Dongfeng Motor Parts (Group) Co., Ltd. and Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. Equipment Company.
On December 28, 2020, Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. announced that in order to further improve the company's operating quality and promote the coordinated development of its businesses, it was decided to integrate Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Car Company and Dongfeng Venucia Motor Company, as well as Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. Equipment Company and Dongfeng Auto Parts (Group) Co., Ltd. After the integration, Dongfeng Limited has only five major business divisions, namely Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, Dongfeng Infiniti Automobile Co., Ltd., Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., Zhengzhou Nissan Automobile Co., Ltd. and Dongfeng Motor Parts (Group) Co., Ltd.
According to the latest announcement issued by Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., Dongfeng Infiniti will be included in Dongfeng Nissan's management system as an independent business headquarters, and together with nissan and Venucia brands, Infiniti will become the third brand of Dongfeng Nissan. This also means that Dongfeng Infiniti will no longer be an independent division of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., but will become the third brand of Dongfeng Nissan, and Dongfeng Nissan will have three brands: Nissan, Venucia and Infiniti.
Dongfeng Infiniti insiders said, "Infiniti's return to the Dongfeng Nissan system is caused by many reasons. On the one hand, the market size in China is not large, and if it continues to operate as an independent joint venture, the cost is too large; secondly, this is also related to Nissan's strategic adjustment in the world.
According to the data, Dongfeng Infiniti is a joint venture brand jointly funded by Infiniti and Dongfeng Motor in 2014, but infiniti has developed particularly slowly after localization. According to the official website of Dongfeng Infiniti, it currently has six products on sale, including Q50L, QX50, Q60, QX60, Q70L and a new generation of QX60, of which Q50L and QX50 have been listed for many years, and the market performance is average. That is to say, the current QX50 and Q50L are still the mainstream models of Dongfeng Infiniti, but it is really difficult to support its future development. According to the data, Infiniti's sales in 2016 increased by 3.4% year-on-year to 41,600 units, and from 2017 to 2019, the sales volume fell for 48,400 units, 47,200 units and 42,300 units, respectively, and in 2020, the impact of the epidemic fell to 25,700 units, a year-on-year decline of 26.66%. According to the data of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the sales volume of Infiniti QX50 in the first three quarters of 2021 was 6785 vehicles and the Q50L was 1978 vehicles, which means that dongfeng Infiniti's cumulative sales in the first three quarters were 8763 vehicles, with an average monthly sales of less than 1000 vehicles.
Infiniti missed the opportunity for development after domestic production, and only launched two domestic models in six years since entering China, and its brand influence, product competitiveness and brand service are far from the same as the level of luxury brands, and even hover on the edge of the luxury market. At the end of 2021, Dongfeng Infiniti's third domestic model QX60 officially opened pre-sale, the official pre-sale price range of 45-66 million yuan, is Dongfeng Infiniti's first medium and large SUV, the power system using 2.0T + 9AT combination, the maximum power of 252 horsepower. However, netizens do not recognize the pricing of new cars, 450,000-66 million yuan can buy bBA or second-tier head brands of good models, and Infiniti, as a luxury brand under Nissan, is obviously less and less sought after by the market.
Of course, what kind of development Dongfeng Infiniti will usher in after becoming a sub-brand of Dongfeng Nissan is also what we are looking forward to. Earlier, Gao Zhenghao, executive deputy general manager of Dongfeng Infiniti Automobile Co., Ltd., said that the Chinese market is one of the most important development areas for Infiniti, and Infiniti needs to continuously strengthen its internal strength, promote the introduction speed of new products, and continuously enrich the product matrix.
Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. said that Infiniti will make full use of Dongfeng Nissan's full value chain advantages, explore new mobility business models, contribute to Infiniti's electrification, autonomous driving, mobile Internet and shared mobility services, and further explore opportunities in the luxury car market.
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