Dongfeng Nissan accelerates completion of new plant during the year

"Last year, China's car market increased by more than 30%, but I don't think this figure can continue." Like many auto company executives, Shih Joon feels that the high temperature of the Chinese auto market will decline. The modest chief executive officer of Nissan Motor Co. hopes that steady growth will eventually become the norm. For this reason, Yokohama's headquarters set a sales target of 1.15 million units for the Chinese market in 2011, a year-on-year increase of less than 13%, and more than half of that will be completed by Nissan's joint venture Dongfeng Nissan in China.

New sunlight selected

On February 16, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the promotion catalogue for the fifth batch of “energy-saving products Huimin Project” energy-saving vehicles (1.6-liter passenger cars and below). A total of 69 models were selected from 18 auto companies such as SAIC-GM-Wuling, Tianjin FAW Xiali and Changan Suzuki. Listed on the Dongfeng Nissan New Sunshine List less than two months ago, the reporter learned from a number of Dongfeng Nissan 4S stores that the 3,000-yuan energy-saving concession will be returned to the owner in the form of cash on the day of lifting the car, while most of the others are 1.6 liters or less. The energy subsidies for the models will be directly deducted from the vehicle price. Since the first batch of the list was announced in June last year, Minda, Tiida, and Sylphy have been selected one after another.

The industry believes that energy-saving subsidies will become the primary driving force for the auto market this year in the event that purchase tax incentives, trade-in subsidies and car support policies for the countryside are withdrawn. In January of this year, Dongfeng Nissan sales reached 75,318 units, an increase of 25.14% over the same period of last year. The growth rate exceeded the industry average (the industry's total sales volume was 1,272,667 units, an increase of 19.89% year-on-year). Among them, Xinguang sold 10811 units, even more than the Converse (10,122 units). ) Contribution to overall sales. "The new sunlight is big and cheap. There is no problem for the company's impulse this year." The analyst told the Times Weekly reporter. More people in the industry believe that for the new sun, Dongfeng Nissan should be more concerned about the production capacity, rather than sales.

Three bases forming

The rapid growth of China’s auto market and insufficient production capacity have become problems for almost every automobile company. Almost no enterprise can resist the temptation of "expansion." In May last year, Guangzhou Automobile Honda launched a new round of expansion plan, which will increase the production capacity of the Zengcheng plant from 120,000 units/year to 240,000 units/year; FAW-Volkswagen's new Foshan plant and Shanghai Volkswagen Jiangsu Yizheng new plant have signed one after another, with maximum production capacity. All of them were 300,000 vehicles. Beijing Benz also announced that not only will the company's capacity be expanded to 200,000 units in the next few years, but Mercedes-Benz will also invest 200 million euros to build an engine plant in Beijing...

From 65012 units in 2003 to 660,999 units last year, the sales volume of Dongfeng Nissan has increased 9 times in 7 years. The production capacity of Huadu Factory (360,000 units) and Xiangfan Plant (100,000 units) has long been utilized to the limit. It is expected that The second plant of Dongfeng Nissan Huadu, which will be put into operation next year, will begin construction in 2008. Recently, the reporter learned from the enterprise that Huadu New Plant has started to install equipment after the Spring Festival, and the possibility of early completion is high. "(This year) Dongfeng Nissan will carry out a series of optimization measures such as process management, production line control, quality supervision, and investment in high-end equipment and equipment in the new plant, which will enable Dongfeng Nissan's product quality to have continuous improvement capabilities," said the company.

Seeing that the new plant in Huadu will continue to tighten its belt before it is put into operation next year, Ren Yong, the head of Dongfeng Nissan’s Chinese team, thinks that the second plant in Zhengzhou Nissan will be put into operation. Under the coordination of the parent company’s Dongfeng, the company smoothly Qi Chun and Qi Ke switched to the foundry of the other factory. The problem of tight production capacity was greatly eased. Although employees of Zhengzhou Nissan made a few criticisms about the new plant, the plant has now become the third production base of Dongfeng Nissan. In press releases to the media, Xiangfan, Huadu and Zhengzhou also called Dongfeng Nissan three bases. , "The future will be dedicated to the production of high-grade cars, mid-size cars, entry cars and SUVs, respectively."

At last year's Dongfeng Daily Product Quality Forum, Ren Yong also admitted to the media that “Dongfeng Nissan has already collected some assets of Zhengzhou Nissan's new factory” and stated that “how we (Dongfeng Nissan) manage the Xiangfan factory, we will manage Zhengzhou Nissan. new factory".

Want to lead the industry

Once the restriction on production capacity is lifted, Dongfeng Nissan will enter the threshold of annual sales of over one million passenger car companies, and the resistance will be significantly reduced. At the annual meeting in January, Ren Yong threw out the company’s new decade’s development goals—leaderships—to employees, owners, and the media. However, under the fierce competition of new cars coming out of China's auto market and continuously dropping prices, the difficulty of relying on a single brand of Dongfeng Nissan is also conceivable.

“The several joint ventures in front of it are very strong,” Zeng Zhiling, JDPOWER Asia-Pacific Automotive Research Director, told Time Weekly that the joint ventures between Volkswagen, General Motors, and Toyota in China occupy both history, quantity, and number of dealers. Advantages, they took root in China for a long time, and implemented a multi-brand strategy. In comparison, Nissan is fighting alone: ​​“A brand hitting people with multiple brands must be beaten.” But he admits that this was only 7 years old. The company is working hard: "So Dongfeng Nissan has opened up the 'Kaichen' brand. Whether it can be done or not depends on the good fortune."

As one of the parent companies of Dongfeng Nissan, Nissan is apparently happy to see the growth of its joint venture company in the Chinese market. Nissan Global President Carlos Ghosn said modestly that he hopes Nissan’s market share in China will reach a historic 10%.

Since Ghosn has saved and revived the severely loss-making Nissan car, the success of the former was mentioned again and again after the successor Shiho Jun was appointed for 6 years. Despite living behind the boss's brilliance, the senior manager who worked for Nissan once in a lifetime blocked the media's mouth with good results, and managed the business in the Asian Pacific region where Nissan attaches most importance.

Thanks to the contribution of the joint venture, last year Nissan (including the Infiniti brand) sold a total of 1,023,638 units in China, an increase of 35.5% compared to the same period in 2009, helping China surpass the United States and Japan and becoming the world's largest regional sales market for Nissan. "Before 2012, Nissan would achieve an annual production and sales target of 1.2 million vehicles in China," said Ghosn. The task added to Dongfeng Nissan will also increase.