From the end of last year to the present, there has been a lot of discussion about Infiniti. First of all, the pre-price of the new model Q60L was too high to cause a sigh, and secondly, the collapse of the brand endorsement Renren set up led to a second "disaster", and the most unfortunate thing is that on January 5 this year, Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. announced that Dongfeng Infiniti would be included in Dongfeng Nissan's management system as an independent business headquarters. This means that Infiniti will "downgrade" its internal "downgrade" from an independent operating brand to Dongfeng Nissan's brand in China, alongside Nissan and Venucia. Putting Infiniti into the "cold palace", why did Dongfeng make this decision?
In the past 10 years since entering the Chinese market, Infiniti's sales in China have not been able to break through the 50,000 mark, compared with Lexus, Cadillac and other brands, Infiniti is obviously lagging behind. In the seven years since domestic production, Infiniti has only two models on sale, Q50L and QX50, until December 2021, QX60 "thousands of calls began to come out". The price range of 39-61W is also to make the QX60 target BMW X5, Cadillac XT6, Weilai ES8, etc., but there is a "previous crime" of Q50L and QX50 terminal price reduction, imagine that QX60 will also have a big price reduction in order to obtain sales. Dismal sales plunged Nissan's global operating profit by 45 percent in 2018, its lowest level in nearly 10 years, and Nissan's net loss in 2019 was 671 billion yen (the biggest loss in nearly 20 years). At the same time as the sales volume does not go up, Infiniti itself has many complaints, and the reputation of quality control makes consumers hopeless.
Combined with Nissan's China strategy, China, as its most important market, was affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic and raw material shortages, and Nissan's cumulative sales in China from January to November 2021 were 1.2448 million units, down 3.1% year-on-year. Keeping the money-making models and reducing the unpopular models, the Infiniti, which cannot make money and has a bad reputation, has become the direct reason for Dongfeng's operation of it.
The second layer of angle is Dongfeng Motor's own consideration. First, Dongfeng Motor's strategy in 2021 made a mistake and the new generation of X-Trail's replacement of a three-cylinder engine did not attract Chinese consumers. In order to compromise the market, Dongfeng Nissan re-listed the old X-Trail. Under the shrinking sales of Qijun, Xuanyi seemed to be lonely. On the other hand, in terms of market planning, Dongfeng Motor is gradually laying out the new energy market, but this trick has a greater effect on its own brands. For example, Dongfeng Fengshen developed Haoji based on the new platform. With Infiniti as its brand, it also wants to develop two powered vehicles through a platform, one is a pure electric drive and the other is an extended range drive. By 2025, the Infiniti brand will only sell electric vehicles.
In the third layer, the entire Japanese camp, Dongfeng's models are not having a good time in China, which is a conclusion relative to Toyota. Toyota's luxury brand Lexus sold 760012 units worldwide, including 227,000 units in the Chinese market, the highest in history. In contrast, Nissan's Infiniti and Honda's Acura have sold poorly on a global scale, especially in the Chinese market.
For Infiniti, it is easier to accumulate after the decline in the brand image of luxury cars, and it is difficult to recover in the short term unless new models or new sales strategies are vigorously launched.
Before the Infiniti model in the input cost is too high, the rear-drive + V6 engine and Nissan's people-friendly image has little to do with it, even if the current Q50L uses a domestic engine, Infiniti is still not economical. If you want to create a high-end image, but you haven't helped Nissan to share the cost, if Infiniti doesn't sell up, Nissan will not be able to stick to it. Infiniti is now the same as Other Civilian Models of Nissan, Such as Venucia, known as "Nissan Plus", but its brand positioning is very vague, so that consumers can't tell the motivation to buy.
Second-tier luxury brands, such as Volvo, are known for their Nordic style and safety performance, which is its motivation for purchase; Lexus, with high retention rate, quiet and comfortable, and low cost of use, these characteristics can impress consumers; even if it is like the British Style Jaguar, it also has its gentlemanly side, and large discounts are also favored by consumers, including other new car-making forces, which can make consumers have a clear motivation to buy. Therefore, luxury brands, the most important brand, Infiniti have not been implemented, that brand is not OK, consumers buy luxury original intention can not be reflected.
After being taken in by Dongfeng, I believe that infiniti will be transformed, and how the market will perform in the future still needs to be tested by consumers.