With the official incorporation of Dongfeng Infiniti into dongfeng Nissan management system, Nissan has finally formed a complete product architecture system from high to low.
On January 5, Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. (DFL) announced that Dongfeng Infiniti (DFI) was officially incorporated into dongfeng Nissan's management system as an independent business unit, and together with nissan and Venucia brands, Infiniti became dongfeng Nissan's third brand to be incorporated.
At this point, Dongfeng Nissan's brand matrix layout has been completed, forming three major brand matrices from low-end brands (Venucia) to high-end brands (Infiniti), and infiniti's addition will help Dongfeng Nissan achieve the coordinated development of the three brands.
Prior to this, there were rumors that dongfeng Infiniti's four sales regions would be abolished, and Dongfeng Infiniti would remove its Beijing office in 2022 and move its headquarters to Guangzhou. Today, Infiniti is incorporated into dongfeng Nissan headquarters, more or because Infiniti's own market sales and competitiveness in China are getting weaker and weaker.
The "luxury" that is gradually stalling
Infiniti brand was founded in 1987, in 2006 as an import brand into the Chinese market; In 2014, Dongfeng Motor Company and Nissan Motor co-established Dongfeng Infiniti according to a 50:50 share ratio, at that time, Honda Acuras and Toyota Lexus had not yet achieved localization, and the birth of Dongfeng Infiniti was of far-reaching significance to the Japanese product brand.
Since the localization in 2014, Infiniti's market sales have ushered in a highlight moment. Sales data show that in 2014, Infiniti sold more than 30,000 vehicles in China, an increase of 75.6% year-on-year, and in 2015, sales in the Chinese market exceeded 40,000 units, an increase of 33.8% year-on-year, becoming the only luxury brand with a growth rate of more than 30%. In 2016, sales increased by 3% compared to 2015 to 41,500 units, and Dongfeng Infiniti sold 48,000 units in 2017.
With the gradual increase in localization and sales, Dongfeng Infiniti will set its sales target in China to reach 100,000 vehicles in 2018, while Infiniti's localization product layout has not seen progress for a long time.
Even if it enters 2021, Infiniti's product layout in the Chinese market is only 3 models, one of which is a medium-sized Infiniti Q50L; Two SUV models, the Infiniti QX50 and QX60.
In this market product layout, Infiniti's sales in 2018 were 44,000 vehicles, not only failed to achieve the sales target, but also fell by nearly 10% year-on-year compared with 2017, since then, Infiniti has begun to decline year by year, sales in 2019 fell to 35,000 vehicles, 2020 sales were 25,000 vehicles, in 2021 according to the sales data released by the Association of Passenger Vehicles, from January to November, Dongfeng Infiniti's total sales were only 7,691 vehicles, the lowest level of decline in domestic production so far. It is expected to sell less than 10,000 vehicles for the whole year.
In the luxury car market where Infiniti's sales are gradually declining, regardless of the market size of the three major luxury brands with annual sales of 700,000-800,000, even compared with the market sales of second-tier luxury brands, the gap is gradually expanding.
Sales data show that in 2021, Cadillac's cumulative sales of 233,000 vehicles, Volvo brand annual cumulative sales of more than 171,000 vehicles, the same Japanese luxury brand Lexus, in 2021, its annual sales of more than 219,000 vehicles. Perhaps, among the three major Japanese luxury brands, the only one that can make Infiniti free of psychological pressure is the Acura brand, according to the December sales data released by the Association of Automobiles, the cumulative sales of Acura in 2021 will be 5762 vehicles. It is not difficult to see that in the highly competitive luxury car market, Infiniti and Acura brands are gradually being marginalized.
Product marketing "twists and turns"
Sluggish sales have always been closely related to the brand image, especially for luxury brands such as Infiniti.
It has been 7 years since it was domestically produced in 2014. In 7 years, Infiniti has almost no new models launched, and its sales in China have regressed to the level of the domestic production, and I have to think about whether it is a product layout problem or a brand problem.
In terms of product layout, Infiniti has a full range of models such as coupes, cars, off-road vehicles and SUVs, but the domestic market has only 3 models so far. Product update layout is slow, overall sales are sluggish, revenue and dealers have brought greater market pressure to Infiniti.
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.
In addition, Dongfeng Infiniti's quality problems have also caused many questions. In 2021, many car owners complained about the frequent transmission failures and power interruptions of Infiniti's QX60 models. Faced with quality issues, infiniti 4S stores asked to sign so-called "confidentiality agreements", which were eventually criticized by name.
After the incident was exposed, Infiniti China had to decide: extend the warranty period of the imported QX60 gearbox to "8 years or 200,000 kilometers" (from the date of purchase of the new car, whichever comes first). At the same time, if the owner repairs or replaces the transmission at the brand's authorized dealer during the above extended warranty period, the relevant fee will be refunded after verification.
In addition to the storm of quality problems, Dongfeng Infiniti's brand marketing case has brought many impacts to it.
In December 2021, Dongfeng Infiniti launched its third domestic model QX60, and Gao Zhenghao, executive deputy general manager of Dongfeng Infiniti Automobile Co., Ltd., said: "The new Infiniti QX60 will allow users to feel the luxury and comfort comparable to executive-level cars. We are even more looking forward to the launch of this new model in China. ”
Just after the release of the new car, Infiniti was on the hot search because of the problem of brand spokespersons, which found that Infiniti's spokesperson incident was far more than this case, and it was found that Infiniti's brand image was also being marginalized.
Product sales have not been recognized by the market, the brand image has also been repeatedly stormed, in this regard, the secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Association Cui Dongshu believes, "Chinese consumers still prefer German luxury cars, Japanese luxury cars have not established their own unique brand image in China, 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. Acura and Infiniti have both been successful in the United States, but do not have their own product highlights in China such as technology. "
Or forced by the dual pressure of the market and brand, Dongfeng Infiniti is now returning to Dongfeng Nissan. Dongfeng Limited said that after returning to Dongfeng Nissan, Infiniti will make full use of the advantages of Dongfeng Nissan's entire value chain in research and development, manufacturing and management, as well as seamless connections from planning to execution, 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.
Joint venture "slimming" to relieve stress
Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. was established on June 9, 2003, at the beginning of its establishment, Dongfeng motor has seven major business divisions, namely Dongfeng Nissan, Dongfeng Venucia, Dongfeng Infiniti, Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., Zhengzhou Nissan, Dongfeng Motor Parts (Group) Co., Ltd. and Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. Equipment Company.
At the end of 2020, Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dongfeng Limited") began to implement organizational structure adjustments, integrating the 7 business units under the company into 5, and Integrating Dongfeng Venucia and Dongfeng Nissan; Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. Equipment Co., Ltd. and Dongfeng Motor Parts (Group) Co., Ltd. were integrated, and other business units remained unchanged.
During April 2021, Dongfeng Infiniti officially announced that in order to reduce the complexity of communication between management and various regions and improve the efficiency of enterprise operations, the four major business units of the eastern, western, southern and northern districts will be adjusted in organizational structure.
After this adjustment, the news of the merger of Dongfeng Infiniti and Dongfeng Nissan began to circulate on the Internet. In December last year, it was reported that "Infiniti China headquarters will be moved from Beijing to Guangzhou in January 2022, and the relevant relocation plan is being formulated."
At the beginning of the new year in 2022, Infiniti, which has passed the year, has once again made structural adjustments and is fully taken over by Dongfeng Nissan, which also confirms the previous rumors.
For the previous integration of Venucia and Nissan, Dongfeng Limited has announced that the major reform issues based on strategic considerations of the shareholders of both sides are a move to further expand internal resource coordination and improve decision-making efficiency. Its insiders said that in fact, it is a strategic contraction, and the main operating pressure comes from Venucia. Today, the integration of Infiniti and Nissan, part of its operating pressure may come from Infiniti.
In terms of personnel structure, dongfeng Infiniti's senior management changes have also brought many impacts to it, including 3 general managers in 4 years, from Dai Lei at the helm in 2014 to 2016, there is indeed good market feedback, in 2016, Lu Yi and Infiniti's executive deputy general manager Lei Xin partnered, 2 years for Dongfeng Infiniti brought 10% growth. In 2019, Dongfeng Nissan Maolimin took over as general manager, and Gao Zhenghao of Dongfeng Motor Group succeeded Lei Xin as the executive deputy general manager of Dongfeng Infiniti. The partnership between the two sides, from the perspective of market sales performance, did not bring life to Infiniti.
As one Dongfeng Infiniti insider put it: "Infiniti's return to the Dongfeng Nissan system is due to many reasons. On the one hand, the market size in China is not large, and if it continues to operate in the form of an independent joint venture, the cost is too large; Second, this is also related to Nissan's strategic adjustment in the world. ”
Some insiders believe that at present, Infiniti relies on its own brand to get the opportunity to turn over, and returning to Dongfeng Nissan is a better solution as its high-end brand.
Now, after the return to Dongfeng Nissan, Dongfeng Nissan will support Infiniti in terms of resources and channels, and in the face of the current domestic automobile market with independent brands upwards, joint venture brands exploring, and new forces of car companies, whether Infiniti can usher in opportunities in the fields of electrification, automatic driving, mobile Internet and shared travel is still unknown, but the market pressure it faces must be not small.