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2022 may not be a particularly good year for Japanese luxury brands.

In April, Honda's luxury brand Acura announced that it would no longer produce and sell existing GAC Acura brand products from 2023, and the joint venture GAC Acura resources would be integrated into GAC Honda to speed up the electrification process. It is understood that since entering China in 2006, Acura's annual sales have peaked at 16300 vehicles.

In July, Toyota's luxury brand Lexus had an accident when the door of a million-dollar Lexus LM could not be unlocked properly after a collision, resulting in two injuries and one death. At the same time, Lexus's performance in the Chinese market also froze in 2022, with annual sales of 184000 units, down 16.06% from the same period last year, the first decline in sales since Lexus entered China.

Compared with the above two Japanese luxury brands, Nissan's luxury brand Infiniti is not so bleak that it is delisted, but life is also very difficult. According to the number of new car compulsory insurance purchases, Dongfeng Infiniti sold 4237 vehicles in 2022, down 51.28% from a year earlier.

In November 1985, Nissan established the Horizon working Group to study opportunities in the North American luxury car market, headquartered in Yokohama, Japan. In July 1987, "Infiniti" was chosen as the name of the new department, transliterated as "Infinity". LOGO is made up of an ellipse and two lines, symbolizing an endless road to the distant horizon, symbolizing Infiniti's forward and limitless spirit. Since then, Infiniti spent two years building distribution points across the United States, becoming one of the car brands with the highest customer satisfaction in a short period of time.

Like Acura and Lexus, Infiniti is born for the North American market and competes directly with traditional luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi. In November 1994, Infiniti sold more than 200000 vehicles in the United States. In December 1999, Infiniti sold more than 500000 vehicles. In January 2005, Infiniti's cumulative sales in the United States exceeded 1 million vehicles.

After the success of the North American market, Infiniti began to expand globally. In April 2005, Nissan announced its Nissan value-added Plan, and the Chinese market was listed as the key market of Infiniti. In November 2006, Infiniti officially landed on Chinese mainland. The previously introduced pure imported models such as FX37, QX56, G37 and so on have brought good reputation to Infiniti users. 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, China, to achieve the independence and internationalization of the brand. The independent operation of the business unit has achieved immediate results. In 2010, Infiniti sold more than 10,000 vehicles in China for the first time, reaching 11513 vehicles. In 2011, Infiniti sales in the Chinese market reached a phased peak, with 19075 vehicles sold for the whole year. In May 2013, Infiniti invited Dai Lei, a former senior vice president of marketing for BMW brilliance, to be Infiniti's head of China, which sold 17108 vehicles that year.

In September 2014, Dongfeng Infiniti Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dongfeng Infiniti") was formally established. Dongfeng Motor Company and Nissan Motor Company were established according to the ratio of 50:50 shares, which is an independent wholly-owned subsidiary of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. The first general manager of Dongfeng Infiniti is Dr. Dr. Daniel Kirchert, general manager of Infiniti China, and the executive deputy general manager is Lei Xin, former vice minister of strategic planning of Dongfeng Motor Company. With the formal establishment of Dongfeng Infiniti Automobile Co., Ltd., it is announced that Infiniti has officially entered the domestic stage, and Infiniti domestic models are produced in Xiangyang factory.

In November 2014, Infiniti's first domestic model, the Q50L, was officially launched, with a 2.0T engine and a price range of 27.98-429800 yuan. Infiniti QX50 officially went public in March 2015, with a price range of 34.98-449800 yuan. During this period, Dai Lei led a radical marketing strategy, and large-scale marketing increased brand awareness, while Infiniti's also greatly increased the number of channels. This aggressive strategy has had a significant effect on sales in the short term, so Infiniti achieved rapid growth from 2014 to 2016. According to the data, Infiniti sold 30000 vehicles in China in 2014, 40200 and 41600 in 2015-2016, respectively, peaking since entering China in 2017, with annual sales of 48400.

Like other brands, 2018 was a turning point for Infiniti. Infiniti's sales in China fell to 44400 in 2018 and 35000, 25000 and 8696 from 2019 to 2021, respectively. After entering 2022, Infiniti, which was included in Dongfeng Nissan, showed a decline, and the new domestic model QX60 was not recognized by the market. Coupled with the impact of the epidemic and spare parts supply, Infiniti's annual sales were only 6391.

For the decline in sales, the industry generally blames Infiniti's lack of attention to Chinese market investment, the lack of iteration of old products and the slow introduction of new products. Infiniti pressed the pause button after launching the Q50L and QX50 models, and did not launch its third domestic model, the QX60, until 2022. During this 8-year gap, Infiniti unswervingly practices the thrifty way of "new three years, old three years, sewing and mending another three years". Q50L and QX50 add configuration to keep updated, that is, not iterative upgrades, to the end, even welcome laser LOGO lights and wireless charging are promoted as selling points.

Infiniti is more active in personnel changes than product iterations. In 2015, Dai Lei, the first general manager of Dongfeng Infiniti, left to start a business, and Wu Jiabi, former head of BMW China and general manager of BMW Group's China Import Office, took over. A year later, Lu Yi, former vice president of BMW China and president of the joint marketing and after-sales service organization of Chery Jaguar Land Rover and Chery Jaguar Land Rover, joined, but quickly left after the expiration of his three-year contract. In 2019, Mao limin, who successively worked as senior executives at Valeo, Johnson controls, Bosch Group and Dongfeng Nissan, was promoted to general manager of Dongfeng Infiniti, but after years of working in a supplier company, he had neither consumer market experience nor knowledge of luxury brand operation. After taking office, he quickly came up with the strategy of "low price for volume", which led to the rapid collapse of Dongfeng Infiniti sales.

In January 2022, Dongfeng Infiniti was downgraded and incorporated into the management system of Dongfeng Nissan as an independent business headquarters, becoming the third brand of Dongfeng Nissan, at the same level as Nissan and Qichen. In May 2022, Xin Yu, General Manager of Dongfeng Nissan Automobile sales Co., Ltd. was appointed Chief Minister of Infiniti Enterprise headquarters, Wang Baojun served as Deputy General Minister, and Mao limin served as Vice President of Special projects of Nissan (China) Investment Co., Ltd and General Manager of Infiniti China Management Committee. According to statistics, Infiniti has changed a total of 5 managers over the past eight years, but it has never found a conductor who can accurately comb the brand demands and accurately grasp the context of the brand.

Although Infiniti is having a hard time in China, it has no plans to withdraw from China. On Dongfeng Nissan 2022 FAMILY DAY, Wang Baojun, deputy director general of Infiniti Enterprise headquarters, said, "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." In addition, Infiniti also said: "whether in the past or in the future, Infiniti will always be rooted in China and deeply cultivate China."

At present, 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.

Now that Acura has announced its withdrawal, Infiniti and Lexus need to put more effort into making themselves stronger in the face of the increasingly important Chinese market in the global auto industry. After all, no one wants to be the next "eulogize" in China's new energy luxury car battlefield in the future.

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