AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/07 Report--

On June 7th Nissan China released its latest sales figures for May. Nissan's sales in China (passenger vehicles / light commercial vehicles / vehicle imports) were 68844 in May 2022, down 38 per cent from a year earlier, according to data. Among them, the passenger car sector (Nissan, Qichen and Infiniti brands) sold 55924 vehicles, down 37.4% from the same period last year, while the light commercial vehicle sector (Dongfeng Automobile Co., Ltd. And Zhengzhou Nissan) sold 12920 vehicles, down 40.6% from the same period last year. In addition, from January to May this year, Nissan's cumulative sales in China (passenger vehicles / light commercial vehicles / complete vehicle imports) were 436969, down 26.2% from the same period last year, of which the cumulative sales in the passenger car sector were 356939, down 26.3% from the same period last year.

For the across-the-board decline, Nissan said it was affected by external factors such as a shortage of chips and other parts across the industry, as well as key regional and urban controls caused by COVID-19 's epidemic. In response to the latest sales performance, Shohei Yamazaki, senior vice president of Nissan, chairman of Nissan's China Management Committee and president of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., said: "the continuing shortage of chips and components, supply chain disruptions and key regional and urban controls caused by the intensification of the COVID-19 epidemic have had a sustained impact on Nissan's production and sales in May."

According to the concern of the automotive industry, Dongfeng Nissan passenger car Company, founded on June 16, 2003, is an important passenger car sector of Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd., with three brands: Nissan, Qichen and Infiniti. On the product line, the models currently on sale under Dongfeng Nissan's Nissan brand include Xuanyi electric drive version e-POWER, seventh-generation Teana, 14th-generation Xuanyi, the new generation Qijun, strong guest, Xiaoke, Tuda, Loulan, Xida, etc.; Qichen brand models include Qichen V, Qichen Star, T90, T60, D60, D60 PLUS, E30, D60 EV, T60 EV, etc.; Infiniti brand models include QX60, QX50, Q50L and so on.

According to Nissan's announced models in China, Nissan sold 49875 models in May, of which 8915 were Xiaoke, down 3 per cent from 8654 last month, while Teana, the seventh generation, sold 9042, down 7 per cent from 9722 last month. Xuanyi sold 26592 vehicles in April, up 1.8 per cent from 26122 last month. As for the specific sales of Nissan brand SUV, such as Qijun, Loulan, Jinke, etc., the specific sales have not been officially announced. As we all know, although Dongfeng Nissan has a number of models, the key sales sources mainly rely on three models: Xiaoke, Teana and Xuanyi, but according to the data, only the Xuanyi series has increased compared with last month. Others still have varying degrees of decline, which also means that Nissan China needs to launch more best-selling models if it wants to achieve sales growth.

In addition, Qichen brand sold 5609 models in May, including 2573 Qichen Big V, 2477 Qichen D60 series and 1880 Qichen D60EV, an increase of 140 per cent compared with the same period last year. As for the Infiniti brand, the official sales of its specific models have not been announced, but the Infiniti brand has also undergone some major changes this year. On January 5 this year, Infiniti was officially incorporated into the management system of Dongfeng Nissan, becoming the third brand of Dongfeng Nissan after Nissan and Qichen. On May 5, Infiniti's career headquarters announced that it would adjust personnel changes from May, mainly involving three executives. Among them, "Xin Yu", an executive of Dongfeng Nissan sales company, is also the general minister of Infiniti's career headquarters, and "Wang Baojun" is the deputy general minister of Infiniti's business headquarters. In terms of products, in addition to the current sale of QX60, QX50, Q50L three models, this year Infiniti will launch a new model QX55, while accelerating the electric layout, Infiniti plans to cover most of the models on sale by 2030.

In fact, in addition to the across-the-board decline in Nissan's sales in May, Honda, which is also a Japanese car company, also showed a decline in May sales. Honda China released the latest sales data, showing that Honda's terminal car sales in China in May 2022 were 89083, down 30.8% from the same period last year. Guangzhou Auto Honda dropped 15.6% to 52643, Dongfeng Honda dropped 45.1% to 36440. The main reasons for the decline in sales are also the epidemic and the shortage of spare parts. Of course, in addition to the above two major car companies, a number of Japanese car companies saw a cliff decline in May, according to data released by the Japan Federation of Automobile sales Associations and the National Federation of Mini Automobile Associations. Specifically, in Japan's eight major car companies, with the exception of Mitsubishi Motors, the other car companies showed a year-on-year decline in sales. Of these, Toyota sold 86500 vehicles, down 20.9 percent from the same period last year; Suzuki sold 6741 vehicles, down 10.9 percent; Subaru sold 3480 vehicles, down 27.5 percent; Mazda sold 3332 vehicles, down 49.3 percent from the same period last year; Lexus sold 3103 vehicles, down 30.8 percent from the same period last year; and Dafa sold 1812 vehicles, down 30.1 percent from the same period last year. In fact, the reason behind it is the suspension or reduction of production due to the epidemic and the shortage of spare parts.

However, at present, at the national level, all over the country and many automobile companies have actively launched a variety of car purchase policies to stimulate the automobile industry, and the auto market has also shown some signs of recovery. "recently, governments at all levels and various localities have introduced a series of policies to encourage car consumption, which have helped boost our confidence, and our team has also made a rapid and positive response," Yamazaki said. " He stressed: "We hope that with the improvement of epidemic prevention and control, the introduction of preferential policies, and the gradual recovery of the supply chain, we will complement the company's efforts to promote production, sales and consumers' daily life to return to normal as soon as possible."

On May 13, Nissan released its financial results for fiscal year 2021 (April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022). Data show that in fiscal year 2021, Nissan sold 3.876 million vehicles worldwide, down 4% from the same period last year. The decline was mainly due to the continued spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, chip supply shortages, rising raw material prices and other external factors. However, despite the decline in sales, revenue and profit increased. In fiscal 2021, Nissan achieved a consolidated net income of 8.42 trillion yen, up 7.1% from a year earlier, and an operating profit of 247.3 billion yen, compared with a loss of 150.7 billion yen over the same period. Nissan's net income in fiscal year 2021 was 215.5 billion yen, compared with a loss of 448.7 billion yen in the previous fiscal year. According to Nissan's plan, Nissan plans to invest 2 trillion yen ($17.6 billion) in the next five years to convert more product lines to electric. For example, in the next five years, Nissan will launch 20 all-electric models and models with Nissan e-POWER technology. In addition, Nissan also said it will launch 23 electric vehicles in fiscal year 2030, including 15 electric vehicles. Nissan hopes to account for 50 per cent of global electric-driven models under its Nissan and Infiniti brands by fiscal year 2030 (2030.4.1-2031.3.31). At present, Dongfeng Nissan's new pure electric SUV Ariya has started blind booking on April 27th and is expected to be released within this year.

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