In February, Toyota's total domestic sales were 128,500 units, an increase of 9.5% year-on-year, Honda sold 106,100 new cars, an increase of 30.1% year-on-year, nissan although also recorded a year-on-year increase of 2.5%, but sales of only 77,500 units, whether it is the increase or total sales, Nissan is much worse than the two fields.
Time to pull back to 2018, the rapid growth of decades of rapid growth in the car market slowed down, but the performance of the Japanese top three is still conspicuous, Toyota's annual sales reached 1.3 million vehicles, an increase of 14.7% year-on-year, Honda's total sales of about 1.4 million vehicles, a slight decrease of -1.4% year-on-year, Nissan's total sales of 1.3 million vehicles, an increase of 2.8% year-on-year, the performance of the three car companies is almost at the same level, Toyota's double-digit growth and Nissan can sit on an equal footing, Nissan's strength can be seen. However, four years later, Nissan has become the first one to fall behind, is the competitor too strong or is there a problem within Nissan?
First, there is no dual-model strategy
Volkswagen, which understands Chinese consumers best, has taken the lead in launching a two-model strategy in China, such as Bora and Langyi, Maiten and Passat, Tanyue and Tiguan L, and different designs and slightly different configurations allow consumers to have more choices, which has made Volkswagen achieve unprecedented success.
This has toyota and Honda's samples, like the Corolla, RAV4, Highlander, Binzhi, CR-V and other classic models in the country have launched sister models, although the sales are not as good as the "original", but with the brand appeal of the two fields, it is not difficult to sell tens of thousands of units per month, which not only makes the sales of the two car companies soar, but also greatly saves the research and development costs of new models, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
On the other hand, Nissan, although there are two factories in Zhengzhou Nissan and Dongfeng Nissan, but the two have a clear division of labor, the main focus on family cars is only Dongfeng Nissan, facing Toyota, Honda and Volkswagen are one-on-two, it is inevitable that they will fall behind.
Second, the model is too single, and Xuanyi dependence is serious
In the field of cars, Nissan has Bluebird, Qida, Xuanyi and Tianlai, and the SUV field has Jinke, Qashqa, Qijun, Loulan and Tuda, and the model layout is perfect enough, but the number of models in the 9 models (with stable monthly sales of more than 5,000 units) is only Xuanyi, Qiaoke and Tianlai, and the three cars account for almost 80% of Dongfeng Nissan's total sales every month.
Taking February as an example, Dongfeng Nissan's total sales volume was 55,795 vehicles, of which Xuanyi contributed 28,000 units, occupying half of the country, Qashqai sold 9,700 units, and Tianlai's sales sold 10,268 units, so that the sales of the three cars accounted for 86%, compared with Volkswagen, Toyota and Honda, Nissan's fault tolerance rate is too low, and the sales of the three models fluctuate slightly, and the impact on the total sales is very obvious.
Third, force the three-cylinder machine to self-defuse martial arts
In fact, more than half a year ago, Nissan also had a fairly competitive model, it is X-Trail, how stable is the sales of the old X-Trail? Since 2016, as competitors, Honda CR-V and Toyota Rongfang RAV sales in April have had a lot of ups and downs, and there have been a trough period of less than 2,000 units, only Qijun is "stable as an old dog", and the lowest sales volume in February 2019 also sold 7848 vehicles, and it is also jokingly called the top ten "nail households" in the SUV sales list by car friends.
It is such a popular and seated model, but it was destroyed by Dongfeng Nissan's own hands, the new X-Trail abandoned the two self-priming power on the old model, the whole series was equipped with a 1.5T three-cylinder engine, the power parameters performed brightly, helpless not to be welcomed by consumers, Nissan in order to cover up embarrassment, simply no longer announced the sales of The New X-Jun. Once again, The New Qijun proves one thing: no three-cylinder engine can succeed in China.
Fourth, the technology is old
Remember the slogan "Tech Nissan" years ago? Now Nissan is not related to the word technology, it does not have a hybrid technology, no AT transmission, the whole series is CVT, the main sales model Xuanyi, Qashqai and Tianlai also use the same self-priming engine for 10,000 years, although the quality is stable and the fuel consumption is low, but the power is really not enough, the only 2.0T variable compression ratio engine can take the shot, but also only in the tianlai can be seen, compared with other joint venture brands, Nissan does not have any advantages in technology.
Fifth, quality problems occur frequently
In recent years, the reputation of Japanese cars has declined sharply, Toyota 2.5L hybrid engine oil emulsion, Honda 1.5T production oil, Nissan also has a large number of complaints about CVT gearbox.
Nissan's CVT gearbox problems are mainly concentrated in abnormal wear, jitter, dampness and abnormal sound, the reason is that the CVT gearbox will produce abnormal wear in the daily use process, resulting in the gap between the parts in the gearbox will increase, resulting in the transmission setback, abnormal sound, wear generated debris will also block the plunger inside the valve body, affecting the oil pressure supply, but aggravating the progress of wear.
In response to this problem, there are two voices on the market, one is that Nissan's CVT gearbox has cut corners, and the other is that there are defects in the design, but Nissan has not given any reply so far, and the only thing that car owners can do is change the oil on time and reduce violent driving. It can be said that the collapse of the CVT gearbox reputation, Nissan is at least half responsible!
In general, Nissan is inevitable, compared to Toyota and Honda, it does not have excellent technical support, too single model layout also makes it bear the ability to bear risks is extremely poor, the façade model Xuanyi although perennial stable position in the first position of car sales, but everyone knows that behind this classic Xuanyi contribution is quite a lot, and now Nissan is facing not only the attack of the joint venture brand, but also to deal with the strong rise of domestic brands, BYD Song PLUS The advent of models such as dm-i and Chery Tiggo 8 Kunpeng edition has led a large number of consumers to abandon the joint venture brand.
There's not much time left for Nissan, will it be the next Ford or Hyundai?