In the previous article, I introduced to you the history of Yulon's development in Nazhijie 's previous life, and in the next article, I will bring you the bumpy road of Yulon Automobile after the new century and the birth of Nazhijie.
Yulong's third chairman Yan Kaitai (center)
In 1991, Yulong Auto encountered an unprecedented crisis. Yan Kaitai (son of Yan Qingling and Wu Shunwen) at the time, implemented the policy of "relocating the capital with three meanings and integrating factory operations" and curbed the loss momentum through cooperation with China Automobile and Nissan Automobile . In 1998, Yulon Automobile Engineering Center was changed to "Yulon Asia Technology Center", becoming one of Nissan's many important R&D centers.
1991 Nissan Bluebird (U13)
After entering the new century, Yulon did not stop moving forward. In 2000, Yulon and Dongfeng jointly established Fengshen Automobile Company, and based on the 1991 Nissan Blue Bird (U13), it launched Dongfeng Fengshen Blue Bird in the mainland. Unexpectedly, this car is extremely popular in the domestic automobile market. So in 2002, Dongfeng Motor and Nissan Auto officially jointly established the current Dongfeng Nissan, while Yulon, the biggest contributor, was gradually marginalized.
In 2003, Yulon cooperated with General Motors to establish Yulon General Motors Co., Ltd., becoming the agent of General Motors Automobile in Taiwan, China. And spent hundreds of millions of NT$ to build the market channels of three major brands: Cadillac , Buick and Opel . But just when Yulon wanted to achieve his rise with the big sign of GM, GM had a crisis, and Taiwan's automobile industry in China also entered a downturn. Within just three years, GM's dealers in Taiwan suffered continuous losses, almost losing 490 million yuan of investment. General Motors had to sell 49% of its shares to Yulon in 2008 for NT$1, and Yulon General Motors officially became a branch of Yulon Automobile.
In the same year, due to the sluggish global economy, the sales of automobiles in Taiwan in China were not ideal. In order not to prevent Yulon from facing the bankruptcy crisis again, Yan Kaitai once again decided to enter the independent brand market. So in June, Yulon established the current Nazijie Automobile Company. Yan Kaitai’s positioning for the new brand is also very clear, that is, to create products that combine "luxury" and "wisdom". He also incorporated this concept into the company’s English name. "LUXGEN" is a combination of "Luxury" and "Genius" (wisdom).
Nazhijie's first model also appeared very quickly. Just one year after the brand was established, the first model of Nazhijie was released. This car is Nazhijie Big 7 MPV. However, because it uses an independently developed engine, the power performance of the Big 7 MPV is unsatisfactory. However, in terms of vehicle configuration, Nazhijie fulfills the "luxury" and "wisdom" in the brand name. The use of THINK on-board intelligent system also made the Nazijie Big 7 MPV one of the few models that adopted intelligent operating systems at that time.
In 2010, Nazijie released its second model - Nazijie Big 7 SUV. In the same year, Dongfeng Motor and Yulon joined forces again to establish Dongfeng Yulon Motor, and NaZie officially entered the mainland automobile market.
The first introduced model chose the Nazijie Big 7 SUV with better market prospects, because the Big 7 SUV basically continues the powertrain and configuration of the Big 7 MPV, which also makes its price higher than the mainstream joint venture brand SUV. However, due to Nazijie's successful marketing strategy, domestic consumers are still very accepting of the Nazijie Big 7 SUV. In the early stages of the product launch, the Big 7 SUV achieved good sales. Then, Nazhijie took advantage of the victory and launched the more high-end MASTER CEO and compact sedan Na5 to enrich the product line.
Nazhijie 7 CEO
Nazhijie 5
Nazhijie 5
Nazhijie 0 These two models also achieved ideal sales in the early stages of their launch, but at this time, the first batch of Nazhijie models entering the mainland market had a fatal problem - the extremely high fuel consumption, which also led to Nazhijie becoming a model that everyone feared in the used car market. Therefore, the sales of Nazhijie also showed a cliff-like decline. Although Nazhijie launched two low-end models, U5 SUV and Rui3 in the later stage, the entry price of Nazhijie brand has reached 50,000 to 60,000, due to its worse reputation, these two models have become completely unpopular cars. Nazhijie's annual sales have also plummeted from 60,000 units to 20,000 units today. Judging from the sales volume in the first three quarters of 2018, if Nazhijie no longer makes adjustments, then the annual sales in 2018 may only be around 10,000 units.
The reason is that Nazhijie has not made any new breakthroughs in vehicle technology. The 2.2L turbocharged engine with many problems is still used in the latest models. There is a significant gap between it and the current mainstream engines in terms of fuel economy and power performance. Moreover, there is no news of a replacement for the big 7 SUV that has been on the market for nearly 7 years. Its appearance and interior design have long been unable to keep up with the current trend. Therefore, the backwardness in many aspects has gradually made Nazhijie gradually marginalized in the current automobile market and become an extremely niche brand.
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