In recent years, with the continuous development of independent brands, the living space of joint venture products has been continuously compressed, and Dongfeng Nissan is no exception.
On the surface, in the past 2021, Dongfeng Nissan handed over a sales performance of 1.1349 million vehicles, and the honor of "sales exceeding one million units for 7 consecutive years" was mentioned. However, in fact, since 2018, the market performance of Dongfeng Nissan has begun to enter a downward period, and behind the hot sales volume, it is an indisputable fact that the brand has declined as a whole. For Dongfeng Nissan, this day is getting sadder and sadder every day.
Who is the murderer?
Some people say that in the context of the chip shortage of raw material prices, such achievements are not declining, but horizontal comparison will find that this is not the case. FAW Toyota retailed 60,000 units in February, up 23% year-on-year; Dongfeng Honda retailed 55,000 units in February, up 22.1% year-on-year; and GAC Toyota retailed 53,000 units in February, up 4.3% year-on-year. "Lack of core" is not original sin. So will it be the "credit" of the helmsman who is rumored to be crazy in the outside world?
Looking back at history, former deputy general manager Chen Hao has been at the helm of Dongfeng Nissan since September 2018, and since then the brand has experienced many rounds of challenges, including the epidemic, but from 1.3 million vehicles in 2018, to 1.29 million vehicles in 2019, and then to 1.21 million vehicles in 2020, Dongfeng Nissan still maintains a high level of performance under the influence of many unfavorable factors. I have to say that Chen Hao has two sons. But we must also realize that the shortcomings of the brand are also overflowing at the same time.
Product positioning is wrong, sales only rely on "old things"
2018 can be said to be a small climax year for Dongfeng Nissan, this year Nissan's total sales in China exceeded that of The Two Fields, and won the overall championship of the annual sales of Japanese car companies. However, in terms of specific products, Nissan's pace of innovation is too slow, even if it is a new product, the product strength is far inferior to before. You should know that from cars to SUVs, Nissan basically covers every market segment, and products such as Xuanyi, Qijun, Qashqa, Tianlai and Qida have not lacked fans before, and have been at the top of their respective tracks. Unfortunately, with the failure of the replacement and the slow launch of new products, these former hot-selling models finally fell to the altar, only Xuanyi was struggling to support, which can be seen from the sales: throughout 2021, the sales of only one model of Xuanyi reached 513193, accounting for the majority of the brand's overall sales, and the rest of the Qijun, Qashqa, Tianlai and Qida have long ceased to be glorious. If you really want to calculate, you can barely take a look at the next Qashqai and Tianlai.
Under the premise of a fire in the backyard, the external pressure is also increasing. In addition to old rivals such as Lang Yi and Corolla, relatively new faces like BYD Qin PLUS are also gradually approaching. Smarter, more fuel-efficient, high-configuration Qin PLUS has been recognized by consumers, and production capacity is gradually expanding. Xuanyi's advantages in products are constantly shrinking, and people can't help but wonder whether they can still maintain the sales throne in the future.
The process of new energy is slow, and e-POWER is afraid that it will not be timely
After Gao Guolin took office, he tried to save the building that would fall, and for this reason he almost "did everything to the extreme", such as introducing his own hybrid system - ePower. In order to promote ePower technology, Dongfeng Nissan does not hesitate to shout out such a vague slogan as "electric drive technology without charging", but in fact, the ePower system does not have a novel technology that can be taken, which is essentially an unplugged extender power system using a small battery pack. This makes the models equipped with the ePower hybrid system different, which can not be green like the range extender hybrid model, and has the disadvantages of serious high-speed energy loss of electric vehicles. Compared with the ordinary version of Xuanyi, which is very fuel-efficient in itself, it cannot highlight the advantages of low fuel consumption. How does this make consumers pay for this expensive hybrid technology?
In fact, in the process of electrification, nissan has not shown radical performance as a German car company, but compared with Toyota and Honda, it is also ahead. But I didn't think that Nissan got up early in the morning, but Dongfeng Nissan rushed to a late set. As early as 2020, Nissan released its first pure electric product Ariya, which was subsequently unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show, attracting a lot of attention with its futuristic design and good performance. According to the plan at that time, Ariya will be sold in the Chinese market in 2021. Unfortunately, now that the first quarter of 2022 is almost over, the news about Aria's listing is still far away.
According to the information released by the official, this new car is equipped with an 87kWh battery and a fast charging interface as standard, and the pure electric mileage of the front-drive version of the model is 483 kilometers, and the pure electric mileage of the four-wheel drive version is about 426 kilometers. As an SUV positioned in the middle of Qashqa and Qijun, the starting price of the North American market is 44950 US dollars (about 284,000 yuan), if it is also such a battery life and price level in China, it is indeed a little competitive.
The fuel vehicle market has lost momentum, and new energy vehicles have not been able to fill in, so that today's Dongfeng Nissan can no longer speak the same day as in the past, and the gap between the two old rivals of Toyota and Honda is gradually widening, and the brand value of nissan, which has accumulated over the years, is gradually shrinking. Can Dongfeng Nissan, which is gradually lonely in chen Hao's hands, make a comeback in the hands of Gao Guolin?
Car world viewpoint
Looking at Gao Guolin's resume, he is a good hand in the professional field, and the minister of investment and the minister of finance have done it all over again. It can be said that when it comes to Dongfeng Nissan's money bag, Gao Guolin knows better than anyone. But can an accountant be a good captain? Or let's ask another question: What is the purpose of Dongfeng choosing Gao Guolin?
The experience of financial background makes Gao Guolin more stable than most people in decision-making. For enterprises, being stable means that there is greater hope for survival. If you look at Apple and Ali next door, Cook, Daniel Zhang are all financial. But also to know, to a certain extent, steady is also conservative, Dongfeng Nissan itself has been in the downward period, the product is too stable and steady, at this time still play conservative, is it really meaningful? By extension, Dongfeng and Nissan now hope to bring more profits, which forces the brand to complete the transformation of smart electric vehicles in the context of the era of new energy. Such a magnificent "black cauldron", is Gao Guolin sure that he can afford it? Perhaps it is not as reliable as the "Lantu" team left to Dongfeng.
Another point, Gao Guolin also needs to solve the "mess" left by his predecessors, such as the legacy of Dongfeng Group and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, this "heart disease" is not removed, and 10 Gao Guolin forces cannot make Dongfeng Nissan return to the fast lane of development. As for whether Dongfeng Nissan will return to the situation of "zero contribution of Chinese companies" in the future, I think it is left to Gao Guolin to answer by himself.
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