Venucia is changing from "sharp knife class" to "dragging oil bottle" | Qizhi

"In the past year, Venucia has been Dongfeng Nissan's 'sharp knife class' and 'experimental field'."

In about a year after returning to Nissan, Zhang Jihui, deputy general manager of Dongfeng Nissan Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. and deputy head of the headquarters of The Venucia Business Of Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Car Company, once said such a sentence, which was widely mentioned in the industry.

Has Venucia played a corresponding role in the end? Maybe sales say part of the story. According to the latest data, Venucia sold a total of about 21,000 units in January and February, while in 2021, Venucia sold a total of about 88,000 new vehicles, an increase of 11.6% over last year. Despite the increase, for the return of Venucia, this report card is not qualified.

The basis is that behind the growth of Venucia, on the one hand, the overall recovery of China's automobile market; on the other hand, Nissan's promotion and help, "Venucia is no longer a single player, the two brands in capital, marketing, channels and other dimensions of mutual synergy, mutual promotion, promotion effect maximization, for the national dealers to inject investment confidence." Zhang Maohua, director of the marketing department of Dongfeng Nissan Venucia Business Headquarters, once said so.

From the perspective of sales, Venucia may not have achieved the "sharp knife class", but at least it is a "vanguard". However, from the analysis of venucia's current overall situation, it is very likely that Venucia will become Nissan's "drag oil bottle".

Gradually deviate from the meaning of the "sharp knife company" itself

After Infiniti officially returned to Nissan this year, Nissan officially formed a three-brand pattern in China, that is, Venucia-Nissan-Infiniti. Such a style of play is not uncommon, such as the Jetta-Volkswagen-Audi we are familiar with, playing with such a set of models. To put it bluntly, the low-end, mid-range and high-end markets all have to be the root cause of this layout.

It is a pity that Venucia did not give Dongfeng Nissan the feedback it wanted at the sales level.

So whether Venucia is important to Nissan's entire strategic layout. The answer is naturally yes: first, the low-end market still has a large demand space in China, such as Auchan, Jetta and Jietu brands, which have gained a lot last year; second, the current second, that is, Infiniti's sales are too ugly, leaving Only Nissan to pick up the beams in the home.

Therefore, for this family, The status of Venucia is actually more important. But its importance is not only reflected in sales.

Zhang Jihui once mentioned, "From the perspective of the development of Venucia, it is the forerunner of Dongfeng Nissan's intelligence, electrification and rejuvenation, in the Venucia brand, Dongfeng Nissan does not have too much baggage, does not have too many negative assets, in terms of intelligence, electrification, and rejuvenation, it can use Venucia to do more attempts and efforts." ”

In fact, venucia's strategic significance in intelligence, electrification and rejuvenation is the core factor of its so-called "sharp knife class" and "test field", and it is also the decisive reason why the car has the wisdom to think that Venucia will become a "drag oil bottle".

In terms of the entire sales composition, Venucia's main pillar is Venucia Big V, followed by the D60 series, and then the electric vehicle model. Taking last year's annual sales as an example, Venucia sold a total of about 15,000 electric models last year, accounting for only 17% of the total sales.

More regrettably, it is pointed out that Venucia is currently mainly aimed at the shared travel market in the field of new energy. The D60 EV and T60 EV have little impact on the private consumer market.

Do you want to accelerate the electric vehicle offensive this year? Kaichen shouted yes, but the action was very real.

According to the official description: "Venucia has set the strategic direction of 'electric drive 2022', and the 3 new energy vehicles to be released by Venucia in the next 2 years will be launched." However, Zhang Jihui has publicly shouted this year that Dongfeng Nissan Venucia wants to challenge the higher target of annual sales, first of all, "to sell a good Venucia big V."

Which of the two goals is easier to achieve? There is no doubt that it is the latter. On the one hand, venucia's main battlefield is still the fuel vehicle market, and the main sales volume is also supported by fuel vehicles; on the other hand, Venucia wants to complete the offensive of the new energy vehicle market under the current conditions, and seize market share from BYD, Wuling, Euler and other brands, which can only be said to be a little too difficult for Venucia.

However, from the perspective of the pressure of the entire Nissan on the double integral and the future brand development, Venucia actually needs to take on the heavy responsibility in the field of new energy, and as for what kind of trade-offs to make, Venucia needs to consider it well.

In the end, can it sell a good "big V"?

Can sell a good big V, or can have higher achievements in the fuel vehicle market, for the current Venucia, in fact, even if it is successful. However, whether Venucia can sell a good big V, at present, it still needs to be a question mark.

From the perspective of the entire technology application, Venucia Big V did not eat Nissan's dividends. In terms of power combination, Venucia Big V is equipped with a 1.5T engine derived from Aerospace Mitsubishi and a dry dual-clutch transmission independently developed by SAIC, which is consistent with Venucia Star, which has always been lackluster in sales.

Among them, the former has almost no advantage over the mainstream independent brand engine; while the latter, almost SAIC itself is not very welcome, and due to the reliability and frustration of the dry double clutch itself, the position in the industry is almost the same as the three-cylinder engine, abandoned by a large number of brands. And such a set of power combinations also makes Venucia Star and Venucia Big V become regular customers in the complaint list.

Therefore, in the nearly one year since the launch of Venucia Big V, sales have always fluctuated. The problem of Venucia Big V is actually a problem in venucia's development: the hidden dangers brought by product technology and quality make it difficult for Venucia to maintain the existing situation, and once the product sales decline, there is almost no possibility of turning over.

For a long time in the past, Venucia has come this way. After sales peaked at 140,000 in 2017, Venucia sales declined year by year with a large number of product problems: among them, the data in 2018 was about 134,400 units; the data in 2019 was about 123,000 units. By 2020, only about 78,000 units will be sold.

Some insiders pointed out: "Venucia ran away for three years, and the return is still an assembly plant. In fact, this sentence does not refer to the technical level; at the brand level, Venucia has not been able to give users a clear understanding.

From the perspective of the brand itself, Venucia has a younger positioning, but in the past long period of time, it has not formed an effective emotional link with users. In this regard, Jetway has created a travel card, and Auchan has found a new direction on the track of technology and sports, forming a value resonance with consumers in the new era.

Auto has the wisdom to believe that the lack of technology and the ambiguity of the brand image are the essential reasons why Venucia is difficult to create a blockbuster model. The emergence of the big V alliance is, of course, a good signal, but how to provide incremental value for users, today's big V alliance has not given a more accurate answer.

AutoChi said:

Therefore, Venucia, which is uncertain in the field of new energy and fuel vehicles, is not only facing the problem of "going to the left and going to the right", but also facing up to the brand's rejuvenation strategy.

From the current point of view, Venucia's initiatives in the above three major areas are somewhat too superficial. Auto has the wisdom to believe that "three lines at the same time" is too much of a burden for today's Venucia. The key to Venucia's restart is to deepen the cultivation of electrification, intelligence and rejuvenation, and to complete the breakthrough in the inner volume with a clearer brand identity. In this way, it can become Nissan's "sharp knife class" and "experimental field".

Write | Ouyang

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