AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)02/06 Report--

On February 6th, Nissan China released its monthly sales report for Nissan Automobile in China. Data show that Nissan sold 47521 passenger vehicles and light commercial vehicles in China in January 2023, down 64.4 percent from the same period last year. Among them, Nissan sold a total of 45623 passenger vehicles (including Nissan, Qichen and Infiniti), down 59.02% from the same period last year, and 1898 light commercial vehicles (Zhengzhou Nissan)

The 2022 Spring Festival holiday is in February, while the 2023 Spring Festival holiday is in January, so it is expected that Nissan's sales in China have plummeted, mainly affected by the Spring Festival holiday. Honda China also released its latest monthly sales a few days ago. Data show that Honda's China terminal car sales in January 2023 were 64193, down 56.22% from a year earlier. Among them, Guangzhou Auto Honda sold 40284 vehicles, down 49.63% from the same period last year, while Dongfeng Honda sold 23909 vehicles, 64.14% year on year.

Not only traditional fuel vehicles, new energy vehicle brands also collectively "stalled" in the market performance in January, only ideal cars and BYD cars (including BYD / Tencent) achieved year-on-year growth, including Lai Motor, AION, AITO, smart, ZEEKR, Nezha Automobile, Xiaopeng Automobile, Zero car and other basic sales declined significantly compared with the previous month.

It is important to note that according to data released by Nissan China, Nissan sold 175021 passenger cars in the first two months of 2022, down 8.0% from a year earlier, compared with 45623 in January 2023. This means that it needs to sell more than 129400 new cars in February to achieve year-on-year growth, which is undoubtedly an unlikely goal. Of course, compared with 2022, March-June 2023 may be the best growth period for Nissan in China, when overall sales performance was depressed due to the containment of the epidemic and the supply of spare parts.

In 2018, Nissan reached a sales peak in China, with annual sales of 1.564 million vehicles, up 2.9% from a year earlier, surpassing Toyota China and Nissan China. Of this total, Dongfeng Nissan passenger cars (including Nissan / Qichen) sold 1.3011 million vehicles, up 2.8 per cent from the same period last year.

Since 2019, Nissan's sales in China began to decline, with cumulative sales of 1.5469 million vehicles for the whole year, 1.4567 million in 2020, 1.3815 million in 2021 and 1.045 million in 2022, which also reached the level of millions, but down 22.1% from the same period last year. Dongfeng Nissan (including the Nissan / Qichen / Infiniti brand) accumulated sales of 897900 vehicles, down 20.9% from the same period last year. This is the fourth year in a row that Nissan's sales in China have fallen.

At present, Dongfeng Nissan passenger cars mainly operate three major brands: Nissan, Infiniti and Qichen, among which the Nissan brand accounts for the majority of Nissan's sales in China. Models on sale include Xuanyi, Teana, Qijun, Xiaoke, Bluebird, Tuda, Jinke, Loulan and other models, but the main selling models are only Xuanyi, Teana and Xiaoke. All of these three models declined in varying degrees in 2022, of which Xuanyi fell 18.0% year on year. Xiaoke fell 6.5% from the same period last year, while Teana missed the top five sales of B-class cars under the joint venture brand.

Prior to this, Qijun was also the main sales model of Dongfeng Nissan. According to the CAC data, Qijun's annual sales from 2017 to 2020 were 182000, 204000, 212000 and 169000 vehicles respectively, accounting for 14.4%, 15.6%, 16.4% and 13.9% of Dongfeng Nissan's annual sales respectively. Although the sales volume of Qijun is not as good as that of CR-V and RAV4, it can basically be maintained at more than 10,000 vehicles, which can be regarded as a regular result. However, since the replacement, the monthly sales of Qijun with three-cylinder engines have plummeted from 11581 to 1180. At present, the sales of Xinqi Jun has become a mystery. Nissan China no longer announces the sales of Xinqi Jun. although Qijun Glory, produced by Zhengzhou Nissan, uses the old four-cylinder engine, its monthly sales can only be maintained at the level of 2000.

For Nissan, the current situation in the Chinese market is very worrying. Unlike Honda and Toyota, the latter has two joint ventures in the Chinese market. Although there are many uncertainties in the current market performance, the two joint ventures have a lot of best-selling models, such as Toyota's Carola, Leiling, RAV4 Rongfang, Camry, Asian Dragon, Honda's Accord, CR-V, Civic, Haoying, colorful Zhi, XR-V, etc., while Nissan has only three models left: Xuanyi, Haoke and Teana. As long as there is something wrong with one of the models, it will have a big impact on Nissan.

In 2022, Dongfeng Nissan mainly launched two models, one is the medium-term revamped Teana, and the other is the pure electric SUV ARIYA Aliya, but these two models have not received considerable market performance. As a medium-sized car, Teana (146012) competes with Camry (242225) and Accord (220771), but its sales fall far behind the latter two in 2022. It was even overtaken by Passat (163532), Maiteng (152427) and BMW 3-Series (150,403), falling out of the top five of midsize cars. As for Ariya, it is Dongfeng Nissan's first pure electric SUV with a market guidance price of 27.28-342800 yuan. As a medium-sized pure electric SUV priced at nearly 300000 yuan, its price and competitiveness are very limited, with sales of only 1205 vehicles in its three months on the market.

It is understood that Dongfeng Nissan will be launched in the second quarter of the third generation of Xiaoke, the new car is based on the Nissan CMF-C platform, the power is replaced with a new 1.3T four-cylinder engine, the maximum power is 116kW, matched by a CVT gearbox. Data show that Xiaoke officially appeared on the market in March 2008, equipped with 2.0L engine, maximum power 102kW, maximum torque 198N m. In October 2015, the second generation of Xiaoke officially went on sale, with a price range of 13.98-189800 yuan, offering 1.2T and 2.0L power, matched by a six-speed manual and CVT gearbox. In 2022, Xiaoke's annual sales of 150621 vehicles, down 6.5% from the same period last year.

Nowadays, with the rapid rise of independent brands and the tuyere of new energy vehicles, the advantages of joint venture brands are becoming less and less obvious. Industry insiders say that the replacement of new energy vehicles to fuel vehicles will accelerate next year. For joint venture brands with fuel vehicles as the main sales force, stimulating policies such as halving purchase tax this year have already overdrawn part of the demand. In addition, once a price war occurs in new energy vehicles next year, it will spill over into the fuel vehicle market, further depressing the profitability of the main joint venture brands in the market.

For Nissan and other Japanese brands, it is very important to stabilize the original basic set of fuel vehicles and at the same time launch new energy products that can support sales growth as soon as possible, but Japanese brands have long been betting on gas-electric hybrid and hydrogen fuel technology. there is a lack of technical reserves in the direction of pure electric, so it is difficult to narrow the gap in the short term.

At present, Chinese independent brands have become the dominant players of new energy vehicles, and consumers' expectations of new energy vehicle products are also affected by the marketing of these brands. even some consumers have formed a backward perception of joint venture brands in the field of new energy vehicles. Once this concept is formed, it will have a far-reaching impact on the brand.

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