When X-Trail, the main sales model of the SUV, faces major challenges in China, how will Nissan defuse the looming crisis?
A few days ago, the State Intellectual Property Office announced Nissan's medium and large SUV - Pathfinder in the domestic patent declaration map, according to the dealer's relevant news, the model may be introduced and put into production by Dongfeng Nissan this year, and is expected to be listed before the end of the year.
Pathfinder, which means pioneer and trailblazer in English, is a seven-seater SUV sold by Nissan in the North American market, born in 1987 and has gone through five generations overseas. The latest generation of Pathfinder and Infiniti QX60 come from the same platform and use a 2+2+3 seat layout.
The front face of the new car adopts the same split headlights as the new Qi jun, and the wider and more square V-Motion family grille and The Pathfinder's wide sense of size present a more harmonious visual effect.
The lines on the side of the body adopt the thick C-pillar design commonly used in American SUVs with the same color as the body, separated from the second and third rows of windows, and the D-pillar and the upper roof adopt a suspension design.
The Pathfinder rear is designed with simple cross-section taillights, the Nissan logo has the letter "PATHFINDER" logo underneath, and the license plate frame is placed on the rear bumper.
The new Pathfinder model in the North American market is 5022mm long, 1979mm wide, 1801mm high, and 2901mm wheelbase, which is a medium-sized SUV with a standard body shape, and the domestic version of the model size is expected to have only some details differences.
In terms of interior, Pathfinder also has a strong American design style, with a wide center console and central passage, retaining a lot of storage space, including cup holders, mobile phone storage slots with wireless charging functions, large central armrest boxes, and hollow storage compartments under the electronic gear handles.
In terms of configuration, the North American version of Pathfinder is equipped with a 12.3-inch full LCD instrument cluster, and an 8-inch central control screen with CarPlay phone mapping (optional 9 inches). The front seats are equipped with heating and ventilation functions, and the rear independent seats provide heating functions, but the rear seats and most American cars use manual adjustment, which may be a potential upgrade point for subsequent localization.
In addition, the new car is equipped with three-zone air conditioning, rear manual sun blinds, front and rear Type-C interfaces, and on-board power supply.
In terms of intelligent driving configuration, Pathfinder offers the Nissan Safey Shield 360 active safety configuration package, including a series of configurations such as 360° panoramic imagery and active braking, and the high-end version is equipped with ProPilot full-speed domain adaptive cruise and lane centering functions.
In terms of luggage space, Pathfinder can be adjusted between 470-2234L, which is at a decent level in the same level, its minimum luggage space is relatively ideal, and the loading capacity is not weak in the multi-person riding scene, but the maximum loading limit is slightly inferior to highlander, Tuon and other models.
The Pathfinder North American model uses a VQ35 3.5L V6 self-priming engine matching the power combination of the ZF 9AT gearbox. The overseas version of the model provides two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive configuration options, four-wheel drive adopts multi-piece clutch type central differential locking mode, which can provide intelligent switching of multiple driving modes.
Due to the same platform as the Infiniti QX60, Pathfinder also uses the chassis form of front McPherson/rear multi-link, and according to sources, the domestic version of Pathfinder will also use the same 2.0T VC-Turbo engine, with a maximum power of 252 horsepower and a peak torque of 376 Nm.
The North American version of Pathfinder starts at $31,980 (about 203,400 yuan), and its four-wheel drive high-endum version sells for $44,910 (about 285,600 yuan) in North America.
Considering that the entry-level version is generally low in the North American market, the domestic pathfinder is expected to have a certain configuration and price increase. Judging from the pricing of most of the competitors, pathfinder's future main sales model will be an all-wheel drive version, with a price of less than 350,000.
In 2021, since the launch of the new generation of Qijun, the average monthly sales volume has fallen below 5,000, which is completely inconsistent with the sales expectations of the main SUV models of the joint venture brand, and has also greatly affected the overall performance of Dongfeng Nissan.
In addition to the reasons of New Qijun itself, the overall automobile consumption environment in the domestic market is also changing, and the trend of increasing and exchanging consumption is becoming more and more significant. Therefore, Dongfeng Nissan hopes to use a model such as Pathfinder to undertake this part of the user demand in order to transform the sales decline brought by The New Qijun.
At present, there are many worthy opponents in this market, in addition to the first movers such as GAC Toyota Highlander and SAIC Volkswagen Tuon, there are also Chinese brand products including Ideal ONE and Lynk & Co 09, as well as Options such as Ford Explorer, Buick Encore Banner, FAW-Volkswagen Territory and imported Hyundai Paristi.
It can be said that the challenges faced by Nissan Pathfinder are also not small, and we are looking forward to the official debut of the new car in China!
The author of this article is a kick car gang Wen Feng