Editor-in-Chief | Zhong Kun
Author | Fu Yu
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Reports from car hoist circles
Don't overestimate short-term achievements, and don't underestimate long-term development.
Born in 1989, the Japanese automobile brand Infiniti has occupied its own place in the global market since its birth, and it has the reputation of "one of the Japanese troikas in North America" in the US market. In the Chinese market, after entering China in 2007, after experiencing a period of highlights, it began the road of headwinds. However, at the beginning of 2022, Infiniti once again ushered in another turning point in the Chinese market, merging into Dongfeng Nissan as its third brand.
The status quo is unfavorable
Infiniti stepped into new opportunities
As soon as the news was released on January 5, it caused a lot of public speculation about Infiniti and Dongfeng Nissan, some people believe that this is a signal that Dongfeng Nissan is shrinking the group's business, and some people think that it is a helpless move for Infiniti to continue to operate. In the midst of all the controversy, it is actually the common saying that the public is justified, and no one is absolutely wrong, but no one is absolutely correct. Admittedly, in the context of successive declines in sales in recent years, the pressure on Infiniti to continue to operate independently in China is too great, and the long-term unprofitability has also made Nissan headquarters start to think about how to go next.
Despite the difficult situation today, Infiniti actually has a period of highlight moments in the Chinese market. Under the marketing action we are all familiar with in 2014, Infiniti also created good sales that year. With an annual sales volume of about 40,000 vehicles, although it is still some distance from brands such as BBA, in that era, Infiniti was already the fastest growing luxury brand in the Chinese market.
Just when everyone thinks that this is the starting point of the Infiniti Jedi Counterattack, and it is about to start on the right track, it is not known that this is actually its most dazzling moment. Later, with the successive changes in the brand's top management, as well as the earth-shaking changes in the automotive market in the past two years, the policy swing brought about by the frequent changes in the brand's dominant person made Infiniti miss the excellent opportunity to vigorously develop in the Chinese market in those years, and only then did it push itself step by step to the current situation.
In fact, before merging into Dongfeng Nissan, for Infiniti, which has performed poorly one after another, there have been speculations on the Internet about how to continue next, or it has withdrawn from the Chinese market, like another Japanese brand; or it continues to rely on price reduction measures that hit a fracture.
But it is clear that Nissan has a new plan for Infiniti, and in many high-level changes, it has also predicted its fate of eventually incorporating Dongfeng Nissan to a certain extent, and this drama has actually been premeditated. After Dai Lei left Infiniti, Lu Yi, who took over the baton, also left two years later, and finally, in March 2019, Mao Limin, who had been the director of the after-sales service department of Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Car Company's marketing and sales headquarters, took over as Infiniti's general manager. The takeover of dongfeng Nissan is also an important signal to release Infiniti's return to Dongfeng Nissan. More than two years after taking over, Infiniti finally stepped through the door of Dongfeng Nissan in 2022.
Structural optimization, resource integration
Dongfeng Nissan layout is rich
For the merger of Infiniti and Dongfeng Nissan, the most said thing on the Internet is that Dongfeng Nissan is implementing a strategic contraction in China, but the fact may not be so simple. The wave of the new four modernizations sweeping the global auto market is a foregone conclusion, of which the Chinese market is at the forefront of the world's major sales markets. According to the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in November, many experts predict that the penetration rate of the retail market of new energy vehicles will reach 15% throughout the year, which is a significant increase compared with 5% in 2022. For the new power car companies, the changes in the market are the time to rise with the wind, but for the traditional car companies, it is the last moment of change.
In 2021, Dongfeng Nissan continued to open the prelude to the "revolution" while maintaining the advantages of the original fuel vehicles. Not only was the first model of e-POWER launched for the first time at the Guangzhou Auto Show, but on the last two days of 2021, the delivery ceremony of dongfeng Nissan's first car and the first batch of owners was fully launched in Guangzhou in the form of live broadcast. The new e-POWER China's first car is neatly arranged, with the body lined up in an "E" formation, waiting for the user's review. This online conference not only invited CCTV host Ren Luyu, Dongfeng Nissan was also a number of executives in person, including vice president Gao Guolin, sales general manager Xin Yu, sales deputy general manager Zhang Jihui and other "high-level tiantuan" appeared together, for this conference, but also for this car to give enough noodles.
The delivery of this car is also the most direct embodiment of Dongfeng Nissan's accelerated electric drive layout in this year, handing the car into the hands of users, which is not only the end of the product for the car company, but also the beginning of the e-POWER technology that is about to be tested. In addition, at the end of November, Nissan also released its 2030 vision, over 100 billion yuan of investment, the goal of "the same price of oil and electricity" requires Nissan to mobilize global resources, which also needs the Chinese market to jointly achieve the goal, of course, including Infiniti, an important brand of Nissan.
For Infiniti, after merging into Dongfeng Nissan, in the future product development, sales channels, after-sales service, manufacturing and management and other links, backed by Dongfeng Nissan's strong network, the brand will explore a new form of business. After the product matrix is enriched and the complex and repetitive research and development costs are omitted, Infiniti's technical strength will be more abundant, but the operating costs will be reduced, and more energy and resources can be freed up for reform and innovation.
This includes both infiniti brand continues to deepen the layout of the Chinese auto market, such as accelerating the localization of models, etc. After the new QX60 becomes the brand's third domestic car, under the strong production capacity of Dongfeng Nissan, Infiniti's domestic models may be more abundant, and after the cost performance is improved, the brand will also face a wider range of consumer groups. In addition, under the wave of the new four modernizations, this luxury brand that has been in the army for 30 years is about to make new changes in electrification and intelligence.
After the merger of Infiniti, dongfeng Nissan's product structure has been optimized, whether it represents high-end Infiniti, or represents the more mainstream Nissan, or the pioneer young tendency of Venucia, Dongfeng Nissan's products at all levels, the foundation is deeper.
Write at the end:
Rather than saying that this is the tightening of Dongfeng Nissan's strategy, it is actually a resource integration and structural optimization. For Infiniti, the highlights of 2014 were too short to remember today, but for reasons that followed kept it going. But at the beginning of 2022, Infiniti, which has been in the trough for a long time, has ushered in a new opportunity, and this long-planned merger has made Dongfeng Nissan's structure more optimized and also allowed Infiniti to have a stronger backer. In the long-term development, Dongfeng Nissan, which has completed the first step of the electric drive layout and has a more comprehensive product structure, will certainly be able to bring Infiniti to another highlight moment.
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