Will Nissan explore land become a lifesaver for Dongfeng Nissan?

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In the context of today's new energy vehicles, the listing of a new fuel car often does not get the attention of the outside world. But in fact, for most consumers, their first choice is still fuel vehicles, and there are still many consumer supporters of fuel vehicles, and the market share is still more than 5%.

It can not be ignored that in the face of various attacks on new energy vehicles, traditional fuel vehicles have also begun to fight back, such as the new energy vehicles at the beginning of this year to play "electricity is lower than oil", fuel vehicles quickly followed up and shouted "electricity is stronger than oil";

Recently, Dongfeng Nissan launched a new fuel model to the market - Tanlu, with a price of 239,800-301,800 yuan. At present, the official has given a preferential policy of 3,000 deposits to 20,000 yuan, which is equivalent to a discount of 17,000 yuan, making the terminal price of the newly listed as low as 212,800-274,800 yuan.

As a global model that has gone through five generations and accumulated 2 million users, the fifth-generation Tanlu was first introduced to the Chinese market by Dongfeng Nissan. Tanlu is positioned as a joint venture medium and large SUV, and according to previous practice, the price of this model will exceed 300,000 yuan. However, under the impact of the new energy wave, Dongfeng Nissan had to abandon the previous pricing system and try to break through the encirclement of new energy vehicles with a low-price strategy.

So, can the newly launched Nissan Tanlu impress Chinese consumers with its price advantage?

Can you beat it?

Question M7

、

Ideal L8

？

Nissan Tanlu is in the mid-size and mid-to-large SUV market, which was previously dominated by Toyota Highlander and Volkswagen Tourang. But this time is different from the past, since the ideal 4 years ago with the extended range electrification route to get involved in this market, the current head model has been occupied by a number of new energy SUVs.

According to the sales data in February this year, two of the top three models in the medium and large SUV market are new energy models, namely the M7 and the ideal L7, and the BMW X5 ranks third with the highest ranking of fuel models.

Among the top 10 best-selling models, only 3 medium and large fuel SUVs made the list, in addition to the BMW X5 mentioned above, there are also Volkswagen Touron and Volkswagen Range Cruise, but only ranked 5th and 8th. It can be seen that the mainstream of today's medium and large SUV market is new energy.

But on the other hand, the mid- and large-sized SUV market is currently the fastest-growing SUV market. According to the data, the growth rate of the medium and large SUV market in 2023 will reach 129%, nearly 10 times that of the entire SUV market. This means that although the mainstream of the market has become new energy vehicles, thanks to factors such as the continuous expansion of the entire market plate and the slowdown of new energy vehicles, medium and large fuel SUVs are also expected to receive growth dividends. Nissan's first entry into the Chinese market is also expected to be a potential beneficiary.

Tanlu's advantage lies in the fact that on the premise of further strengthening the joint venture SUV product strength, the price has been rolled to the extreme. You must know that 212,800 yuan, in the era when fuel vehicles were king, you can only buy an entry-level joint venture SUV, but now you can use the same price to achieve leapfrog consumption. This is extremely attractive to users who regard fuel vehicles as rigid needs.

Compared with the M7 and the ideal L8 at the head, the body size of the Nissan Tanlu is ahead of the latter two, and the wheelbase is in between. This shows that the interior space of the Tanlu is comparable to that of the M7 and L8, which emphasize domestic attributes. In addition, with the blessing of the seats called "large sofas", it is believed that Nissan's interior space and ride comfort can be ranked among the first echelon.

In terms of power, since the M7 and L8 are both electric drives supported by range extenders, they are significantly ahead of the Exploration in power and torque. However, as a long-established traditional manufacturer, Nissan's strength lies in the tuning of the engine. Nissan's 380VC-TURBO variable compression ratio turbocharged engine and ZF 9AT transmission power combination mean that Nissan can not only use it at home, but also explore outdoors. It is reported that as an all-terrain SUV, Tanlu supports driving modes such as automatic, economy, sport, sand, mud/rut, and snow mode. From the perspective of the expansion of the travel radius, the exploration is better than the M7 and L8.

However, in terms of intelligence, Nissan, like other joint venture models, is a bit "not fashionable". Like other Nissan models, Tanlu is also equipped with Nissan's Nissan Connect in-car system, although it also has a voice wake-up function and a commonly used in-car app, but the degree of intelligence is far less than that of domestic new power brands. In terms of intelligent driving, Tanlu is equipped with Nissan's own ProPILOT assisted driving system, but the degree of automation is still L2, which is not as good as the L2+ high-end intelligent driving that the new forces are involuting.

It can be seen that compared with M7 and L8, Tanlu's advantage lies in the continuation of the upgrade ideas of traditional fuel vehicles, including power, space and comfort configurations. However, the shortcomings of intelligence have made Tanlu lose the consumers who value the configuration of science and technology, and these consumers are becoming the mainstream of the market.

Can it be a lifesaver for Dongfeng Nissan?

However, there are still many people who pay for traditional fuel vehicles with unsatisfactory intelligent performance. According to the data released by Dongfeng Nissan, on the eve of the listing, the pre-sale orders of Tanlu have exceeded 5,000 vehicles, which has exceeded Dongfeng Nissan's expectations.

Some users said that the car ordered at the end of February will not be picked up until the end of April, and some users said that the official is currently increasing production capacity. Some users also said that after comparing the 6-seat new energy of the same level, they decisively chose to explore the land. The reason is that during the test drive, his family reported that the new energy vehicle was motion sick, which made him finally choose to explore the land. As for the evaluation of Tanlu, this user said that he was generally satisfied, especially the sound insulation was very quiet.

According to Dongfeng Nissan's "Report on the First Batch of Owners of Tanlu" based on user big data and visit research, most of the users of Tanlu are post-80s males, most of them are married with children, and their occupations are mainly enterprise managers, government and public institution employees, and self-employed people.

The distinguishing feature of these users is that their careers and lives are relatively stable, and they feel more "reliable". When buying a car, they are more concerned about the safety, comfort and reliability of the vehicle, as well as the large space needs of the extended family members.

It can be seen that the "reliable" image created by Japanese cars in terms of fuel economy and durability, coupled with the outstanding cost performance compared with previous models, may be the main reason why Nissan's land exploration performance exceeded expectations.

And Dongfeng Nissan is also in urgent need of exploring the land "this life-saving straw".

As the fastest joint venture brand to reach the milestone of 15 million units in cumulative sales, Dongfeng Nissan has had a hard time in recent years. According to the data, Dongfeng Nissan's sales in 2023 decreased by 21.53% year-on-year to 723,000 units. This is the fourth consecutive year since 2020 that Dongfeng Nissan has recorded a year-on-year decline. In 2019, Dongfeng Nissan's annual sales were as high as 1.17 million units, but in just four years, they have plummeted by nearly 40%.

The external reason for the decline in sales of Dongfeng Nissan is the collective weakening of the joint venture brand, while the internal reason is the failure of a number of new products to be launched, resulting in the decline of Dongfeng Nissan being particularly abrupt among the joint venture brands. In particular, the X-Trail model, which was previously profitable and profitable, completely lost its aura as the head SUV in the market due to the three-cylinder engine incident, and its sales performance plummeted, and it has not yet come out of the loss.

Therefore, for Dongfeng Nissan, there is an urgent need for a leading SUV model to regain its former confidence. Nissan Tanlu, which performed more than expected in the early stage of listing, is showing the long-lost market attractiveness of Dongfeng Nissan. But whether it can help Dongfeng Nissan stop the decline and turn to the growth track still needs to "let the bullets fly for a while".

(This article was first published on the Titanium Media App, author|Wang Ruihao, editor|Zhang Min)