"Designed in China" to save Nissan

Now, everyone knows that Nissan is in deep trouble. Once a pioneer in the industry with the world's first mass-market electric vehicle, the Leaf, Nissan has now gradually lost its way in the market tide.

Its leading position in the electric vehicle field was first strongly seized by Tesla, and then its market share has been continuously eroded under the fierce competition from Chinese brands such as BYD.

Currently, Nissan's financial situation is extremely precarious. In May this year, Nissan announced a series of shocking restructuring plans, including laying off 20,000 employees and closing 7 factories, aiming to cut both fixed and variable costs by 250 billion yen each.

In July, it even predicted an operating loss of 180 billion yen from April to September. Meanwhile, Nissan is also under the pressure of high debts, with debts of over $5 billion due next year.

The problems at the product level are the core crux of Nissan's predicament.

The problems of an aging model lineup and slow model updates have persisted for many years, directly leading to a significant decline in market competitiveness.

Take the iconic model, the Leaf, as an example. Since its launch in 2010, technological iteration has almost come to a standstill: when the mainstream global markets have generally switched to the CCS charging standard, the Leaf still stubbornly uses the outdated CHAdeMO plug, resulting in limited compatibility for users with public charging facilities; even in the 2024 model, the battery cooling technology still remains at the air-cooling stage, showing obvious gaps in range stability and safety in high-temperature environments compared with the liquid-cooling systems widely adopted by competitors.

The fuel vehicle lineup also faces the dilemma of an old platform. The Frontier pickup in the North American market is based on a 2004 platform and has not undergone a fundamental upgrade for 17 years. It wasn't until 2021 that a replacement model was launched, while competitors such as the Toyota Tacoma and Ford Ranger have completed two platform updates during the same period, leading comprehensively in intelligent configuration, body rigidity, and fuel economy.

Some kei cars in the Japanese domestic market have also gradually lost consumers' favor due to the long-term lack of design and technological updates. This product rhythm of being outdated as soon as it is launched has put continuous pressure on Nissan's sales in major global markets. In the first half of 2024, its global sales decreased by 8% year-on-year, and the performance in core markets did not meet expectations.

01

Nissan's Self-Salvation

Facing the difficult situation both at home and abroad, Nissan has launched a comprehensive self - salvation effort under the leadership of its new CEO, Ivan Espinosa. Espinosa took office in March 2024 and had long been in charge of Nissan's global product planning, having a deep understanding of the company's problem of "low product development efficiency".

He has listed "shortening the product development cycle" as the core goal of the "Re:Nissan" revival plan, clearly stating that the R & D cycle of the first - generation new models will be compressed from the current 52 months to 37 months, and further shortened to 30 months for the next - generation models, which is equivalent to a 40% acceleration on the original basis to quickly respond to market demand changes.

To achieve this goal, Nissan has carried out a large - scale restructuring of its global design system. According to the plan announced on September 17, 2024, Nissan closed two design studios in San Diego and São Paulo, and at the same time scaled back non - core businesses at its headquarters in Atsugi, Japan, and the London Design Center, concentrating design resources on four core platforms: the Global Design Center in Atsugi, Japan, Studio Six in Los Angeles, the Nissan Design Europe Center in London, and the Creative Box Studio in Tokyo.

Nissan's Global Design Director, Alfonso Albaisa, said in an interview that this restructuring is not only about streamlining the organization but more importantly, reducing costs and increasing speed through process optimization. It is expected that the design work time will be shortened by 40%, and the overall design cost of product development will be reduced by 25%. The saved funds will all be invested in the R & D of new models.

In terms of specific product implementation, Nissan has clearly outlined a number of update plans: modifying the Leaf to optimize its charging compatibility and battery performance; upgrading the configurations of its popular kei cars to enhance competitiveness in the domestic market; and soon launching a new Elgrand minivan and the ultra - compact crossover Kicks to fill the gaps in niche markets.

For its core overseas markets, Nissan plans to launch a new version of the entry - level Sentra sedan in the United States in the second half of 2024 and add a plug - in hybrid version to its best - selling Rogue compact SUV in early 2026 to improve the product strength of its fuel vehicle lineup.

Meanwhile, Nissan is also promoting the innovation of its design language. The Hyper Urban crossover and the GT - R Hyper Force concept car unveiled at the 2023 Japan Mobility Show indicate that its future models will adopt a more radical design style, and these new design elements will be first applied to the next - generation Leaf.

In addition, the truck field has been identified as a key area for breakthrough. Nissan plans to launch a series of new vehicles based on a new body frame platform starting from 2028. The high - end brand Infiniti will also undergo a design upgrade. The new design language is expected to make its debut on a model developed within a 30 - month cycle, and it is speculated that it will probably be the sister model of the Nissan Skyline (the US - spec Infiniti Q50).

Currently, Nissan's self - salvation efforts are showing initial signs. The next - generation Nissan Skyline sedan (the US - spec Infiniti Q50) has become a test case for shortening the development cycle. Its development process has adopted a new collaborative model and is expected to be launched in 2027.

However, for Nissan to truly get out of trouble, it still needs to overcome multiple challenges: how to ensure product quality while shortening the cycle, how to rebuild consumers' trust in the brand, and how to achieve breakthroughs in electrification technology to catch up with competitors. This self - salvation battle not only concerns Nissan's future but also provides an important reference for the transformation of traditional automakers in the industrial revolution.

02

Learning from "Chinese Speed"

In the process of exploring how to shorten the product development cycle, Nissan has set its sights on China. In recent years, the Chinese automotive market has shown amazing vitality and innovation ability, especially in the electric vehicle field. Chinese brands such as BYD, NIO, and Zeekr have risen rapidly. They have not only made major technological breakthroughs but also attracted global attention with their product development speed.

The Wall Street Journal pointed out that the Chinese luxury brand NIO can develop a new model in 36 months, while Zeekr, which belongs to the same company as Volvo, can develop a product from scratch in just 24 months. This "Chinese speed" is beyond the reach of traditional automakers and has shown Nissan the direction of change.

Nissan's Global Design Director, Alfonso, admitted that Nissan's design department has drawn important inspiration from the speed of its Shanghai studio in China. Compared with Nissan studios in other parts of the world, the employees at the Shanghai studio require 30% to 40% less work time to produce designs.

Now, Nissan's global studios are gradually adopting the same efficient processes, abandoning rigid bureaucracy and cumbersome flowcharts to achieve more flexible and smooth creation. This transformation has greatly promoted close communication between engineering and design and accelerated the approval speed of senior management, making the entire product development process more efficient.

Through this centralized management, Nissan hopes to better integrate resources, improve design efficiency, and reduce costs. Alfonso said that this innovation is part of a thorough transformation, aiming to shorten the design work time by up to 40% and reduce the overall design cost of product development by about a quarter.

Since testing the new design method on the Skyline, Nissan's designers have applied these efficient processes to two other models under development. Alfonso said that this is a fundamental change in the company's culture, and it has been very successful so far.

In addition to learning from "Chinese speed" in the design stage, Nissan has also started in - depth cooperation with China in vehicle R & D. The debut of the Dongfeng Nissan "ZuiJia" pure - electric sedan N7 at the Shanghai Auto Show this year is a typical example. From the concept car at the Beijing Auto Show in April 2024 to the national pre - order in April 2025, it only took one year, and the birth of the N7 perfectly interprets "Chinese speed".

On September 11, Dongfeng Nissan announced its sales and delivery results for August, achieving a sales and delivery volume of 10,148 units, breaking through the 10,000 - unit mark for both sales and delivery. This achievement not only marks a major breakthrough in Dongfeng Nissan's sales but also reflects a significant improvement in its market acceptance and user trust. It has topped the sales list of joint - venture pure - electric sedans for three consecutive months.

As the first pure - electric vehicle under the new energy Tianyan architecture developed locally by Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, a joint - venture enterprise of Nissan in China, the N7 is not only targeted at Chinese family users. It is equipped with five industry - leading technologies, including AI zero - pressure cloud blanket seats, full - domain intelligent anti - motion - sickness technology, one - stage end - to - end combined driving assistance, the NISSAN OS super vehicle system, and a four - needle multi - cell non - thermal - runaway ultra - safe battery that has passed the most stringent industry tests. It will also rely on Nissan's global dealer network advantages to enter the global market within one year, supplementing and enriching Nissan's global product line.

This fully reflects Nissan's strategic commitment of "in China, for China, to the world" and also demonstrates its determination to achieve rapid product iteration with the help of Chinese strength.

Nissan's emulation of "Chinese speed" has indeed bought it some time to breathe, but the evaluation of Felipe Munoz, a global automotive analyst at JATO, hits the nail on the head: "These measures should have been taken a few years ago, not after Chinese brands have soared for three or four years."

This article is from the WeChat official account "Automotive Commune" (ID: iAUTO2010). Author: Yang Jing, Editor: He Zengrong. Republished by 36Kr with permission.