AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)12/06 Report--

According to the latest figures released by Nissan China today, Nissan sold a total of 114073 new vehicles in China (passenger vehicles / light commercial vehicles / vehicle imports) in November 2021, down 27.0% from a year earlier. Among them, 96155 new vehicles were sold in the passenger vehicle sector (Dongfeng Nissan / Qichen), down 29.2% from the same period last year, while 17047 new vehicles were sold in the light commercial vehicle sector (Dongfeng Co., Ltd. / Zhengzhou Nissan), down 7.2% from the same period last year.

For the reasons for the sharp decline in sales, Nissan China attributed to "the COVID-19 epidemic, cross-industry shortage of raw materials and other external factors." Yamazaki Yuhei, vice president of Nissan Motor Co., said: "in the past few months, Nissan's passenger vehicles and light commercial vehicles continue to be affected and challenged by external factors. For the rest of the year, there is still a lot of uncertainty in the Chinese auto market. " Nissan's sales in China had turned negative by the end of November, with cumulative sales of 1247691 vehicles in the first 11 months, down 3.1 per cent from a year earlier, according to the data.

At present, Dongfeng Nissan's products on sale include Xuanyi, Teana, Canda, Bluebird, SUV Qijun, Xiaoke, Jinke, and Loulan, but due to the big decline in November, Dongfeng Nissan announced the sales of only three models, and none of them is optimistic. Specifically, the seventh generation Teana sold 16701 new cars in November, up 22.4% from a year earlier. New and old Xuanyi sold 42573 vehicles in November, down 34.6% from a year earlier. Xiaoke contributed 13458 vehicles to Dongfeng Nissan in November, down 20.0% from a year earlier. In addition to the above models, including Trent, Bluebird, Jinke and other models have not announced the specific sales, especially the novelty Jun with high hopes from Dongfeng Nissan, the sales volume has once again become a mystery.

In fact, it is understandable that Nissan's sales in China fell sharply in November, as Honda, one of the Japanese car companies, also fell in November. It is not difficult to see that the impact of the shortage of parts on the traditional fuel car market is still relatively serious. However, the impact on the supply of spare parts is only superficial, and we have to admit that there are hidden worries about the current development of Nissan in China.

According to the data released by Dongfeng Nissan, at present, only Xuanyi, Teana and Xiaoke are actually supporting the enterprise's sales, while Qijun, who was able to maintain monthly sales of more than 10,000 vehicles, decided to carry the three-cylinder plane in the latest generation of Qijun. At the same time, Lao Qijun launched the market to stop sales, vaguely doomed to Qijun's defeat. In retrospect, it is basically normal for four-cylinder Qijun to sell more than 10,000, and it was once among the top 10 monthly sales of SUV models in the domestic market, with a cumulative sales of 175177 vehicles in 2020, but now Xinqijun's monthly sales are only maintained at the level of 4000, with sales of 4035, 4021 and 4010 respectively from August to October. As one of the four pillars of Nissan, Qijun's current situation is really distressing.

Of course, in order to reverse the situation, after many negotiations, I finally felt that Lao Qijun was revived and reborn by Zhengzhou Nissan. On November 22, Zhengzhou Nissan announced that with the approval and approval of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., Nissan Qijun Glory will be sold and provided maintenance services by Zhengzhou Nissan's first batch of more than 90 dealers. According to the existing news, Nissan Qijun Glory is not much different from Dongfeng Nissan Lao Qijun. The new car will only offer a 2.0L two-wheel drive model with a maximum power 103kw and a maximum torque of 184N ·m, matched with a CVT gearbox. Of course, the resurrection of four cylinders Qijun can restore the market, this is also a long-term verification of the problem.

Under the background of energy saving, emission reduction and "double carbon", the traditional automobile industry is also undergoing great changes, and small emissions may become the trend of the automobile industry in the future, from Buick Yinglang, Ford Fox, etc., to the current Nissan Qijun, we can see that car companies are getting more and more brave on the road of three-cylinder engines. In the era of continuous progress in science and technology, the current performance of three-cylinder engines is indeed better than some four-cylinder engines, but there is still a long way to go to popularize three-cylinder engines.

In addition to the Nissan brand, Infiniti has also made product updates. At the Guangzhou International Auto Show, the new generation of Infiniti QX60 debuted, the new car positioning in the large SUV, will become Infiniti's third domestic model, the new car will be officially launched on December 16th.

Dongfeng Infiniti, a high-end brand owned by Nissan, is a joint venture between Dongfeng and Nissan in 2014. However, after Infiniti realized its localization, it did not develop as fast as expected. for six years, China only launched two models, Q50L and QX50, and under the influence of slow product renewal and frequent product quality, Infiniti has hovered on the edge of the luxury brand market. After a 3.4 per cent year-on-year increase in sales to 41600 vehicles in 2016, Infiniti fell for three consecutive years from 2017 to 2019, to 48400, 47200 and 42300 respectively, and fell to 25700 in 2020, down 26.66 per cent from a year earlier, according to the data. According to FIFA data, Infiniti sold 6785 QX50 vehicles and 1978 Q50L in the first three quarters of 2021, which means Dongfeng Infiniti sold 8763 vehicles in the first three quarters, with an average monthly sales of less than 1000 vehicles.

As a new domestic model, its biggest change is to abandon the CVT gearbox, equipped with a 2.0T VC-Turbo turbocharged engine and a nine-speed manual integrated gearbox. As a reference, the current price of the imported QX60 is 47.98-569800 yuan, which is equipped with a 2.5T gas-electric hybrid system, while the domestic QX60 is equipped with a 2.0T engine, which is expected to start at around 400000 yuan. As the third domestic model, can QX60 save Infiniti's sales?

Of course, Nissan is already feeling the pressure, especially as electrification has become the trend of future car development, forcing Nissan to speed up the layout of this market. On November 29th, Nissan officially released its Vision 2030. According to its plan, Nissan plans to invest 2 trillion yen ($17.6 billion) in electrification over the next five years to accelerate the layout of electric-driven products and technological innovation. In the next five years, Nissan will launch 20 all-electric models and models with Nissan e-POWER technology; by fiscal year 2030, the company will launch 23 electric-driven models, including 15 all-electric models, with Nissan and Infiniti brands accounting for more than 50 per cent. According to the plan, Nissan's electric-driven models in China will account for more than 40 per cent of total vehicle sales by fiscal year 2026, compared with 75 per cent in Europe, 55 per cent in Japan and 40 per cent in the US.

Of course, the ideal is very plump, and the reality is very bony. Nissan has invested hundreds of billions of yuan to speed up the promotion of electric drive product layout and technological innovation, whether it can achieve its ideal goal or not needs to be verified by the market.

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