"Changers, the law." With the help of Dongfeng Nissan's strong system and marketing capabilities, Infiniti may be able to find a glimmer of life.
Recently, Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. released the news that Dongfeng Infiniti will be included in the management system of Dongfeng Nissan as an independent business headquarters.
Rumors settled, Dongfeng Infiniti lowered its posture and was "absorbed" by Dongfeng Nissan.
At this point, Dongfeng Nissan's brand matrix has been laid out, filling the gap in the luxury market, and has both high-end (Infiniti), mid-range (Nissan), and independent (Venucia), which is expected to achieve the coordinated development of the three brands.
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 Dongfeng Co., Ltd., Infiniti will use Dongfeng Nissan's full value chain to explore new mobility business models in R&D, manufacturing and management, from planning to execution, to provide all-round support for Infiniti in electrification, autonomous driving, mobile Internet and shared mobility services, while further expanding Infiniti's possibilities in the field of luxury models. Infiniti's transformation has been implemented since January 1 this year.
#起大早赶晚集, the sales volume is sluggish and the product strength is insufficient
In 2006, Infiniti entered the Chinese market in the form of imported cars; in 2014, Dongfeng Motor and Nissan Motor established a joint venture company at a 50:50 share ratio, Dongfeng Infiniti, which opened the domestic road ahead of Japanese car competitors such as Lexus and Acura.
At the beginning of the realization of localization, Dongfeng Infiniti set a target of 100,000 vehicles sold in China in 2018, with more than half of its Chinese models accounting for more than half.
Unfortunately, since the peak moment when Dongfeng Infiniti's sales reached 48,000 units in 2017, sales have declined year after year. Sales from 2018 to 2020 were 44,000 units, 35,000 units, and 25,000 units, respectively. According to the data of the Association, in the first three quarters of this year, Infiniti QX50 sold 6785 vehicles in China and 1978 Q50L, with full sales of less than 10,000 vehicles.
While infiniti brands are in a slump in sales in China, China's luxury car market is strengthening year by year. According to data from the China Automobile Association, in the first 11 months of this year, the domestic luxury automobile market sold 3.112 million units, an increase of 19.5% year-on-year, outperforming the market. Cadillac, which is part of the second-tier luxury brand camp with Infiniti, has sold 187,000 vehicles from January to October this year. Lincoln's sales grew rapidly after localization, with more than 82,000 units sold in the first 11 months of this year.
Slow model replacement is one of the important reasons for the sluggish performance of Dongfeng Infiniti, which currently has only three domestic models in the Chinese market. It is understood that Dongfeng Infiniti only listed two domestic models of Q50L and QX50 in November 2014 and March 2015, and then no new models were launched for up to 6 years, and the Q50L has only been remodeled once so far. Until the end of 2021, the Guangzhou Auto Show released a new generation of QX60, this product that Infiniti had high hopes for was made worse by the spokesperson Thunderstorm, which made infiniti, which was not rich, and the image interpreted what is "house leaks and overnight rain".
At the same time, second-tier luxury brands such as Cadillac and Volvo have accelerated their product layout in the Chinese market, and the sales of Lexus, which insist on import sales, have also increased year by year. Taking Cadillac, a competitor of the second-tier luxury camp, as an example, it has laid out three models of CT4, CT5 and CT6 in the sedan market, and XT4, XT5 and XT6 in the SUV market.
Sales were sluggish, and Dongfeng Infiniti's senior management also fell into a vicious circle of frequent coach changes, and three general managers were replaced in four consecutive years: in April 2016, general manager Dai Lei left to build a car and was taken over by Lu Yi from BMW; however, less than 3 years later, Lu Yi also announced his departure in 2018; in March of the following year, Mao Limin from Dongfeng Nissan took over the position of general manager, and has not been able to save its decline.
Some insiders have analyzed that the fall of Dongfeng Infiniti is related to its lack of new products, resulting in insufficient market coverage. Moreover, in recent years, the competition in the domestic market has become increasingly fierce, and the adjustment of Dongfeng Infiniti's market strategy is not timely, and it does not understand what consumers want, and the product lacks competitiveness.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Association, believes that "Chinese consumers still prefer German luxury cars, and Japanese luxury cars have not established their own unique brand image in China, and the performance is relatively average." Only Lexus has gained a certain consumer group recognition by virtue of hybrid and other technologies, and it is a unique technology brand with its own highlights. Both Acura and Infiniti have been successful in the U.S., but don't have their own product highlights in China, such as technology. ”
For example, as the key to Dongfeng Infiniti's breakthrough, Infiniti QX60 gave a pre-sale price of 450,000-660,000 yuan, and after the pre-sale price was announced, there were netizen comments: Too expensive! With today's Infiniti brand power and product strength, it is completely unable to support this price.
Unable to keep up with the rhythm of market updates, Dongfeng Infiniti, which "got up early", not only did not eat the dividends of the rapid growth of China's luxury car market, but gradually fell behind in the competition.
The increasingly difficult situation in the Chinese market is only a microcosm of Infiniti's sluggish global market. In fact, since 2016, Infiniti's global sales have declined for five consecutive years: global sales in 2018 were 230,000 units, down 5.2% year-on-year; global sales fell to 118,000 units in 2019, down 21% year-on-year; and by 2020, its main sales in the US market were less than 80,000 units, down more than 32% year-on-year.
#"Tired Bird Returns", can Infiniti take off again?
In fact, as early as July 2021, there were rumors of Dongfeng Infiniti's return to Dongfeng Nissan. In December last year, it was also reported that Infiniti's China headquarters would be moved from Beijing to Guangzhou early this year, and that Infiniti would be responsible for Infiniti's operations in China as dongfeng Nissan's headquarters.
"Judging from previous rumors, Dongfeng Limited and Infiniti have made a number of preparations for the adjustment before the official announcement." Yan Jinghui, a member of the expert committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, once told the media that especially in December last year, Dongfeng Nissan first participated in the joint exhibition with the Venucia brand, releasing a clear signal.
In fact, in 2012, before Infiniti's localization, Dongfeng had discussed with Nissan whether Infiniti could be included in dongfeng Nissan's management as a high-end brand, similar to the business model of FAW-Volkswagen and Audi.
However, after the establishment of Dongfeng Infiniti, it became a joint venture company parallel to Dongfeng Nissan. Nissan believes that the move is to give Infiniti greater independence in development.
However, with the shrinking of Infiniti's global market, the development of independent brands is a high-cost investment for nissan and Infiniti.
Industry insiders believe that Infiniti cannot give up the Chinese market, but it is difficult to rely on its own brand, and returning to Dongfeng Nissan as its high-end brand is the best solution at present. On the one hand, Dongfeng Infiniti can share dongfeng Nissan technology production line to reduce costs and develop, and launch more competitively priced products. On the other hand, with the help of Dongfeng Nissan's marketing network, Dongfeng Infiniti helped Dongfeng Infiniti increase sales.
Dongfeng Limited also mentioned in the announcement that after the Infiniti brand is included in the Management System of Dongfeng Nissan, it will make full use of Dongfeng Nissan's strong R&D, manufacturing and management experience to contribute to Infiniti's electrification, automatic driving, mobile Internet and shared mobility services, while further tapping the opportunities in the luxury car market.
At the same time, a new round of product introduction by Infiniti, which is led by the new QX60 and others in 2022, will further meet the needs of Chinese consumers for luxury brands. Nissan's electrification technology, including e-POWER, will also be applied to Venucia and Infiniti brand models.
It can be seen that Infiniti will still be positioned as a luxury brand, while taking the electrification and intelligent route.
However, what the future holds for Infiniti is uncertain. In the eyes of industry insiders, compared with independent and Ashkenazi brands, the electrification transformation strategy of Japanese brands in the Chinese market is generally conservative. It wasn't until December last year that Nissan announced a clearer plan for electrification transformation and investment.
In contrast, head luxury has begun to turn around. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi have all launched domestic pure electric models; second-tier luxury such as Volvo, Lexus also provide electrified models to choose from; China's independent luxury brands such as New Hongqi will exceed 300,000 vehicles in 2021. In addition, the "new forces" of car manufacturing have achieved sound in electrification, and the sales volume of "Wei Xiaoli" in 2021 will exceed 90,000 vehicles.
How to survive in the current highly competitive luxury market, how to build a brand recognized by consumers. For Infiniti, which lacks luxury and high-end brand experience in the Chinese market, it is a challenge that it has to face.
#大协同作战能成功吗
Judging from the limited Dongfeng, it is in a period of reform and adjustment. In December 2020, Dongfeng Limited integrated its seven major business units into five major business units. Among them, venucia brand bid farewell to 3 years of independent operation and became the second brand under Dongfeng Nissan. Dongfeng equipment is integrated into Dongfeng Parts.
Coupled with the merger of Infiniti into Dongfeng Nissan, Dongfeng Limited will become four major business units, namely Dongfeng Nissan, Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., Zhengzhou Nissan, and Dongfeng Parts.
In this regard, The fifth president of Dongfeng Limited, Yamazaki Shohei, once said in an interview with the media: "When the industry is cold, building a large coordination system is more conducive to forming a fist to attack and form a legion operation." ”
It can be seen that some joint venture brands have also adopted a similar layout: SAIC-GM has Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, FAW-Volkswagen Audi, Volkswagen, Jetta, SAIC Volkswagen Audi, Volkswagen, Skoda.
However, integration is only the first step, and more importantly, it is coordinated within the group. As Yamazaki Shohei said, when the industry is cold, group combat is more conducive to group heating, but when the industry is cold and internal resources are insufficient, the group strategy shrinks, and it is likely to sacrifice weak brands (or stage strategic sacrifices), such as SAIC Volkswagen's Skoda, FAW Group's Besturn. Gac Acura, which also joined the joint venture camp, as a failed model of Japanese luxury brands, has been tossing and turning in China for more than ten years, and has so far fallen into a chicken feather.
Moreover, Dongfeng Nissan is also unable to take care of itself at present. The direct consequence of the strong three-cylinder Qijun, ignoring the voice of consumer opposition, is the sharp decline in sales of Qijun, and the official data of Dongfeng Nissan has not mentioned the sales of the new Qijun for several consecutive months. The encounter of The New Qijun is another major strategic mistake of Dongfeng Nissan in the range of 150,000-250,000 mid-to-250,000 high-end models after the replacement of the mid-level car Altima.
In 2021, Dongfeng Nissan's total sales 1134889 units, down 6.35% year-on-year. As the sales force, Xuanyi Group sold 50,492 vehicles in December, down 19.34% year-on-year. In this case, how many resources can Dongfeng Nissan give to Dongfeng Infiniti?
For Dongfeng Nissan, Dongfeng Limited, and even Dongfeng Company, which have no luxury car experience, how to coordinate internal resources, how to enhance brand power, and whether they are determined to rebuild the Infiniti brand are all a big challenge.
In general, in the post-joint venture era, Japanese and Korean systems have not developed smoothly in recent years for various reasons, coupled with the rise of independent brands and new forces, facing greater pressure.
At the same time, with the development of intelligent electrification, it is not so much "software-defined cars" as "user-defined cars", and Chinese brands have a much higher understanding of user needs than joint venture brands, and user-oriented enterprises are popular. This also makes users more and more receptive to Chinese brands.
At the 2021 Chongqing AutoMotive Forum in June last year, the top management of several major independent brand car companies predicted the market share of independent brands in 2030 - Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery Automobile, believes that the share of independent brands will exceed 50%, Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD Automobile, believes that it will reach about 60%, and Wang Jun, president of Changan Automobile, believes that it will reach 70%.
The increase in the market share of independent brands is bound to squeeze the living space of joint ventures. Under the internal and external troubles, it is doubtful whether the great changes in the organizational structure of Dongfeng Nissan can free up and shelter Dongfeng Infiniti. After all, the opposite of "leaning back against a big tree to cool off" is "there is no grass under the big tree."