Nissan has reached an agreement with a top Chinese university to leverage the advantages of the Chinese market to promote the development of electric vehicle technology. According to the plan, the company will sell its electric vehicle models developed in China globally. Information on Nissan’s official website shows that in 2024, it will establish a joint research center with Tsinghua University, focusing on research topics related to electric vehicles such as charging infrastructure, battery recycling, reuse, and energy management. Masaaki Matsuyama, Vice President of Nissan and President of Nissan China, revealed that Nissan is considering targeting the niche markets where Chinese competitors such as BYD are located. Like other overseas car companies such as Tesla, BMW, and Ford, Nissan also plans to increase the export volume of cars manufactured in China to reduce manufacturing costs and increase factory capacity utilization. Despite showing impressive growth in the global market, Nissan has faced challenges in the Chinese market, with declining sales and decreased market influence, even during the overall recovery in the automotive market in the “Golden September and Silver October” period. Nissan also stated in its financial report for the first half of the 2023 fiscal year, “Apart from the impact of intensified industry competition and the accelerated transformation of Chinese local brands to new energy vehicles in the Chinese market, which led to a decrease in sales, sales in other regions increased significantly year-on-year.”
Nissan’s global retail sales of cars from January to October 2023 were approximately 2.7742 million units, an increase of 1.5% compared to the same period last year. The Chinese market contributed 620,000 units, a 33.1% decrease from 2022. This accounts for 22.3% of the global total, down from 33.9% last year. Only the ARIYA and Qichen VX6 are currently available from Dongfeng Nissan. The ARIYA was released on September 27, 2022, with four versions priced between 272,800 and 342,800 yuan (48410$). In July 2023, a new entry-level model was introduced, reducing the price to 199,000 yuan (28100$), and the prices of the original four versions were reduced by 59,900 yuan (8460$). However, the ARIYA has not made a big splash in the domestic car market, and a recall incident was reported in October of this year. On the 20th of the month, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced that Dongfeng Motor Corporation has filed a recall plan with the State Administration for Market Regulation in accordance with the “Regulations on the Management of Recalls of Defective Automobile Products” and the “Measures for the Implementation of the Regulations on the Management of Recalls of Defective Automobile Products.” The recall plan covers a total of 2958 Dongfeng Nissan brand Aierya electric vehicles produced from August 25, 2022 to May 29, 2023. The reason for this recall is that due to the unreasonable settings of the inverter software, when foreign objects enter between the positive and negative poles of the slip ring of the drive motor and generate instantaneous abnormal current, the inverter will immediately enter protection mode, cutting off the power supply, causing a power interruption during vehicle operation, and posing a safety hazard. The announcement revealed that Dongfeng Motor Corporation will upgrade the inverter software for the recalled vehicles free of charge to eliminate the safety hazards. On November 3, the latest pure electric SUV model, the Qichen VX6, under the Qichen brand, announced a new car guide price of 141,900-159,900 yuan (22580$), further lowering it to the 150,000 yuan (21180$) level, presenting a significant challenge to the sales of popular models such as the BYD Yuan PLUS, the Aion Y PLUS, and the Leapmotor C11. Expanding the product matrix in China is one of Nissan’s important strategies to boost sales. Shouhei Yamazaki, Senior Vice President of Nissan, Chairman of Nissan China Management Committee, and President of Dongfeng Motor Corporation, announced on November 11 that by the end of 2026, Nissan will introduce ten new energy vehicles developed locally to the Chinese market, covering the Nissan, Qichen, and Dongfeng brands. The first self-developed new energy vehicle from the Japanese brand will be launched in the second half of 2024.