After returning to Dongfeng Nissan at the beginning of this year, Infiniti ushered in its first major personnel adjustment.
On May 5, Infiniti's business headquarters announced that a new round of personnel changes has been carried out since May, mainly involving three senior executives:
Among them, two senior executives of Dongfeng Nissan Sales Company, Xin Yu concurrently served as the head of the Headquarters of infiniti Business Headquarters, and Wang Baojun served as deputy chief of Headquarters of Infiniti Business Headquarters.
(Left: Xin Yu; Right: Wang Baojun)
Mao Limin, former general manager of Dongfeng Infiniti Automobile Co., Ltd. and general manager of Infiniti China, will serve as vice president of special projects of Nissan (China) Investment Co., Ltd. and general manager of Infiniti China Management Committee.
The two marketing executives were transferred to Infiniti's business headquarters because of their years of experience in marketing.
It is understood that Xin Yu is a veteran with great experience in the field of marketing, who joined Dongfeng Nissan in 2018 and served as the general manager of Dongfeng Nissan Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., after more than 20 years of service at SAIC Volkswagen. He has many years of experience in after-sales service system, dealer management, marketing and high-end car marketing.
Like Xin Yu, Wang Baojun has also been deeply involved in the field of marketing for many years. Since joining Dongfeng Nissan in 2003, Wang Baojun has held a number of important positions in the field of automobile sales and management positions in the field of automobile sales and Dongfeng Nissan from the deputy director of the marketing and sales headquarters north area to the sales department of Dongfeng Nissan Automobile Sales Co., Ltd.
The dispatch of Dongfeng Nissan's senior management to Infiniti's business unit is not only Dongfeng Nissan's emphasis on the Infiniti brand, but also an affirmation of its future; at the same time, this move can also effectively enhance Infiniti's synergy within Dongfeng Nissan and promote the reform process.
As Infiniti's business headquarters said in a statement, sending two "powerful cadres" to sit at Infiniti is enough to highlight Dongfeng Nissan's full confidence and high attention to the brand.
With rich experience in operations management, the three executives will join forces to inject new impetus into Infiniti's development. At the same time, relying on Dongfeng Nissan's more mature and powerful system, Infiniti will better stimulate its potential, exert greater energy, and usher in an important turning point in its development strategy in China.
However, for Xin Yu and Wang Baojun, it is difficult to revitalize Infiniti. And the industry believes that this time Xin Yu and Wang Baojun's appointment is more of an adjustment at the executive level, and how to improve in the future will depend on the resource tilt of Dongfeng and Nissan to Infiniti.
Speaking of today's Infiniti, it is not much better than the acura that retired from the network some time ago.
The data shows that since Infiniti's localization in 2014, after its sales peaked at 48,000 units in 2017, the highest sales have not exceeded 50,000 vehicles.
From 2018 to 2020, sales were 44,000 units, 35,000 units, and 25,000 units, respectively. By 2021, the cumulative sales volume for the whole year will only be 8696 vehicles. In March, Infiniti sold only 512 units.
There are many reasons for the failure, such as fewer domestic models, and the product layout in China is only 3 models: Q50L, QX50 and QX60; the pace of product promotion is too slow, resulting in insufficient market coverage and losing the initiative in the market.
For example, frequent personnel transfers, high-level turmoil, changing coaches is more diligent than changing cars, from Dai Lei, Wu Jiabi, Lu Yi, and then to Mao Limin, it can be described as a generation worse than a generation. Netizens jokingly called Infiniti of "Iron Strike" and the general manager of "Flowing Water".
Another example is the product strength, at last year's "3·15 party", Infiniti was exposed due to the CVT transmission shake and stall of the QX60 imported model, causing a huge blow to its brand image.
Therefore, it is not easy for the crumbling Infiniti to "come back to life", but it is certain that Dongfeng Limited, Dongfeng Nissan, and Infiniti have not given up:
At the beginning of this year, Infiniti was incorporated into Dongfeng Nissan's management system as an independent business headquarters, and together with nissan and Venucia brands, it became dongfeng Nissan's third brand. This is the first step for Infiniti to save itself.
This major personnel adjustment is the second step in self-help. At the same time, Infiniti is also actively making transformations. This year, Infiniti's new-generation QX60 models are officially launched in China, and a new QX55 will be launched during the year. In addition, Infiniti actively lays out the high-end new energy market, accelerates the electrification layout, and plans to cover most of the models on sale in 2030.
After Xin Yu and Wang Baojun arrived with new plans, it is still unknown whether Infiniti can launch a new round of product introduction based on the new QX60 and re-become a mainstream luxury car brand in China.