AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/06 Report--

According to figures released by Nissan China on Aug. 5, Dongfeng Nissan (including Nissan / Qichen / Infiniti) sold 86474 vehicles in July, including 76006 under the Nissan brand, 10009 under the Qichen brand and 459 under the Infiniti brand. In addition, the cumulative sales of Dongfeng Nissan (including Nissan / Qichen / Infiniti) from January to July in 2022 was 535280, including 476026 for Nissan, 54694 for Qichen and 4569 for Infiniti.

On Dongfeng Nissan 2022 FAMILY DAY, Wang Baojun, deputy chief executive of Infiniti Business headquarters of Dongfeng Nissan passenger car company of Dongfeng Automobile Co., Ltd., said with resounding voice, "Infiniti will not only continue to dig deep into the Chinese market, but also go all out with the support of Dongfang to consolidate the position of Infiniti brand in China's luxury car market." A few days ago, Infiniti reiterated this position: "No matter in the past or in the future, Infiniti will always be rooted in China and plough China deeply."

As one of the luxury car brands, Infiniti entered the Chinese market before it was too late. In November 2006, Infiniti was introduced into the Chinese market from the North American market. The previous introduction of pure imported models such as FX37, QX56, G37 and so on has brought good user reputation to Infiniti. After the success of the North American market, Infiniti began to expand globally, including the Chinese market.

In November 2006, Nissan luxury brand Infiniti officially launched Chinese mainland. At that time, Xuan Dao, managing director of Nissan (China) Investment Co., Ltd., said, "with the rapid development of China's economy, China's automobile industry is growing steadily, and the car market is becoming more and more mature and diversified, and the luxury car market is no exception. We believe that with its rich product range, Infiniti can stand out in the increasingly fierce competition. "

In July 2010, Infiniti set up its business headquarters in China in order to comply with the continuous growth of China's luxury car market. In May 2012, Infiniti moved its global headquarters to Hong Kong, announcing that China has become Infiniti's second largest market in the world after North America. In August 2014, with the formal establishment of Dongfeng Infiniti Automobile Co., Ltd. and entered the domestic stage, Infiniti domestic models were produced in Xiangyang factory. At present, Dongfeng Infiniti has three models on sale, the first domestic model, Q50L, was launched in November 2014, and the second domestic model, QX50, was launched in March 2015.

Soon, the domestically made Infiniti began to achieve rapid growth, with sales of 25467 vehicles in 2015, an increase of 2.61% to 26131 in 2016, 6.26% to 27766 in 2017, 3.97% to 28868 in 2018, and 21.36% to 35035 in 2019, a record high since Dongfeng Infiniti was founded.

However, with the introduction of new models by first-tier luxury brands BBA and second-tier luxury brands such as Cadillac, Volvo and Lexus, Dongfeng Infiniti, which has been slow to update its product matrix, has also begun to enter the brand downward phase. Data show that Dongfeng Infiniti sales fell 26.66% to 25695 vehicles in 2020, 66.15% to 8697 in 2021, and 28.28% to 2962 in the first half of 2022. Infiniti, a luxury brand, has hovered in the marginal market.

Since Dongfeng Infiniti was founded, it only relies on Q50L and QX50 models to compete in the market, both quantity and quality are difficult to adapt to the current pace of the times.

Dongfeng Infiniti will be brought into the management system of Dongfeng Nissan as an independent business headquarters, and Dongfeng Infiniti will become the third brand of Dongfeng Nissan together with Nissan and Qichen brands. This also means that Dongfeng Infiniti will no longer be the independent division of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., but will become the third brand under Dongfeng Nissan. As a result, Dongfeng Nissan will have three brands: Nissan, Qichen and Infiniti.

It is not difficult to understand that Dongfeng Infiniti has been downgraded. Previously, Dongfeng Infiniti existed as an independent division of Dongfeng Limited, equal to Dongfeng Nissan, similar to Toyota-Lexus, with close relationship but independent operation, but now Infiniti is to Dongfeng Nissan. It is like the crown brand of FAW Toyota, with its own independent logo, but it is no longer an independent division.

On February 28th, 2022, a new generation of QX60 officially went on sale, with a price range of 39.98-619800 yuan. It is understood that QX60 is Dongfeng Infiniti's first medium-and large-scale SUV, and it is also the third domestic model after Q50L and QX50. However, because of the high price, it is not favored by the market when the new car is pre-sold. Data show that retail sales of QX60, Q50L and QX50 were 448, 857 and 2113 respectively in the first half of the year.

Even so, Infiniti hopes to introduce more products and re-become the mainstream luxury car brand in China. It is understood that Infiniti QX55 will be launched this year, the new car positioning medium-sized SUV, the future will compete with Audi Q5L Sportback, BMW X4, Mercedes-Benz GLC sedan SUV and other models.

In terms of appearance, QX55 can be regarded as the coupe version of QX50, positioned between QX50 and QX60, its nose still uses the classic trapezoidal forward air grille and grid, but its size is further enlarged, and the front enclosure with black decoration also shows a more dynamic style, while the headlamp group uses a narrow shape, the internal LED daytime driving lights are "C-shaped", the shape is very exquisite. In the rear part, the new car taillight adopts a modular LED taillight group, which echoes with the headlamp group. at the same time, the new car uses chrome plating decoration to outline the bilateral exhaust layout, and the rear bumper adopts a multi-layer design.

In terms of interior decoration, the performance of Infiniti QX55 is obviously unsatisfactory, which basically continues the design style of QX50. The center console adopts the design of upper and lower double screens, a mechanical pointer dashboard and a three-spoke multi-function steering wheel equipped with shift pads. The new car is equipped with 16-speaker BOSE sound system, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, head-up display and traffic sign recognition, skylight, front seat heating and other equipment. On the power side, the new car will be equipped with a VC-TURBO 2.0T engine and variable compression ratio technology, with a maximum power of 200kw and a peak torque of 380N ·m, matched by a CVT continuously variable transmission.

With the high-end of independent brands, the life of more and more traditional luxury brands in the Chinese market is becoming more and more difficult, if they can not keep up with the rapid changes of the Chinese market, especially with the changes of China's new energy vehicle market, the marginal enterprises of traditional luxury brands will face the fate of not being able to bear it. On April 8th, Guangzhou Automobile Honda and Guangzhou Automobile Acura announced in a notice on their website that Guangzhou Automobile Honda will no longer produce and sell existing products of Guangzhou Automobile Acura brand from 2023, and relevant channels of Guangzhou Automobile Honda will continue to provide honorable services to Guangzhou Automobile Acura owners and always protect the rights and interests of car owners. This also means that GAC Acura will be officially delisted from 2023.

Admittedly, GAC's delisting is only an isolated case in the stock-competitive Chinese market, but it will not be the last.

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