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"Many people who used to drive Teana for online ride-hailing have switched to new energy vehicles."

Like most online ride-hailing drivers, Zhang Mingyuan, a Beijing master born in the 1980s, chose Teana not only because of its "large space" and "low fuel consumption", but more importantly, it is the cheapest model among private cars.

However, in the past two years, the online car-hailing industry has seen a shortage of drivers, and many places have issued warnings of saturation of online car-hailing capacity. The commission issue has also attracted much attention. There are fewer and fewer orders, and the commission is getting higher and higher. The cost issues of car prices, fuel consumption, and maintenance, which used to be similar, now have to be calculated by drivers' fingers.

"Nowadays, people who drive gasoline cars are all living Lei Fengs. No matter how fuel-efficient gasoline cars are, they are still not as fuel-efficient as electric cars." In order to get more jobs, Zhang Mingyuan started driving express cars. He no longer needs to rely on Teana to squeeze into the private car industry. He is preparing to change cars recently.BYDUndecided between GAC Aion.

The two cars that Zhang Mingyuan is struggling with are the brands that online ride-hailing drivers love. According to the China Passenger Car Association, in 2023, the number of new online ride-hailing vehicles in China will be close to 850,000, a year-on-year increase of 18%, of which new energy online ride-hailing vehicles will accelerate to 740,000, a growth rate of 23%. Among these 850,000 new online ride-hailing vehicles, Aion ranks first with nearly 220,000 vehicles, and BYD ranks second with 190,000 vehicles. The two together account for 410,000 vehicles, almost half of the new online ride-hailing vehicles in 2023.

Compared with Zhang Mingyuan, Wang Xin, who is also a Beijing master born in the 1980s, gave up Teana earlier. In 2018, Wang Xin, who decided to run an online car-hailing business, hesitated between the Nissan Sylphy and the Volkswagen Lavida. "High cost performance, durable and fuel-efficient are necessary conditions for becoming an online car-hailing business." The two models that Wang Xin was interested in were both priced at around 110,000 yuan. In the end, he bought the Volkswagen Lavida, and the Teana was not considered.

CVT transmission was once a major selling point of Dongfeng Nissan, but as time went on, the halo of "Technological Nissan" gradually faded, and large-scale recalls of problematic models were carried out many times.

As one of the "Three Great Japanese Cars", the Teana, which entered China in 2004, was once the standard for successful middle-aged people. With a price of around 300,000 yuan, a Teana was equivalent to a house in Beijing at that time.

In 2008, Li Yue, born in the 1970s, was working in a material storage and transportation company in Beijing. The company's top leader had two cars, one of which wasFordThe other is Nissan Teana Duke. "The Teana was priced at nearly RMB 300,000 at the time. Although it was not a luxury car, it was still very outstanding among B-class cars, and it was very prestigious to drive it out."

However, since the replacement at the end of 2018, the sales of Teana have shown a downward trend. For sedans, monthly sales of 10,000 units is a watershed. Before 2019, the monthly sales of Teana were basically around 10,000, but since then it has become difficult to sell 10,000 units per month. In July just past, the domestic sales of Teana were only 3,726 units. As of the end of July 2024, the cumulative sales of Teana in 2024 were 42,139 units, far behindCamry、AccordTwo former rivals.

The Teana, which has left the mainstream mid-size car market, is also facing continued competitive pressure from domestic new energy vehicles. In July this year, the retail share of Japanese brands in the Chinese market was 12.9%, down 3 percentage points year-on-year; the retail share of German brands in the Chinese market was 17.6%, down 2.9 percentage points from the same period last year; and the retail share of American cars in the Chinese market was 5.8%, down 1.9 percentage points year-on-year.

Faced with increasingly fierce market competition, traditional car companies have embraced change. Even their former rivals Accord and Camry have launched hybrid models in response to the market. Only Teana is still sticking to the fuel camp.

From a middle-class car priced at RMB 300,000 per vehicle to its current fall into the private car camp, Teana has still not found a transformation path that suits itself.

A

In the eyes of online ride-hailing drivers, the former "king of private cars" - Nissan Teana, is gradually falling out of favor.

Zhang Mingyuan used to run a restaurant. In 2019, due to the difficulties in operating the restaurant, he started driving an online car-hailing service. His original car was an SUV, which was not suitable for online car-hailing. So, after closing the restaurant, he bought a Teana and became a full-time private car driver.

"The drivers who drive Teana as private cars basically do so because it's cheap." Zhang Mingyuan bought the car for 168,000 yuan. "Teana was the cheapest joint venture B-class car at the time.Magotan、Passat, Accord and Camry are all cheaper.”

But in Zhang Mingyuan's opinion, apart from being cheap, the Teana has few advantages, but many disadvantages. "Except for the big sofa which is a bit more comfortable, everything else is pretty average. The power is poor and the fuel consumption is not low, especially in the summer when the air conditioner is on, the average fuel consumption is close to 9 points. There is not even a heated seat, which is quite painful in the winter."

Recently, Zhang Mingyuan is preparing to change his car. "A car can only run as a private car for 6 years. If you want to continue to operate it, you have to downgrade it to an express car." Another reason why Zhang Mingyuan decided to change his car to an express car is that the orders for private cars are getting fewer and fewer. As a full-time private car driver in Beijing, he used to drive more than 10,000 kilometers every month, and at his best he could earn an average of 15,000 yuan a month. But now, the orders for private cars are getting fewer and fewer, and it is difficult to earn 8,000 yuan a month.

Zhang Mingyuan's idea of ​​changing his car is not new. In recent years, new energy vehicles have developed rapidly, and their prices have been getting lower and lower. Compared with fuel vehicles, the operating costs of new energy vehicles are significantly lower. The improvement of infrastructure such as charging piles has also alleviated the initial "range anxiety". Half of the online car-hailing market has gradually been infiltrated and occupied by new energy vehicles.

"Under this circumstance, the Teana no longer has a price advantage. If I continue to drive a private car, I can choose BYD Han or hybrid Accord and Camry. If I drive a fast car, I have more choices, such as BYD, GAC, and Volkswagen. The configurations of the same car, which costs hundreds of thousands of yuan, are much better than that of the Teana."

Like Zhang Mingyuan, Lin Xiang, a post-90s Beijing part-time online car-hailing driver, changed his car to FAW Bestune this year after renting a Teana for a year. Last year, Lin Xiang decided to use his commute time to drive an online car-hailing part-time. He rented a Teana for 7,000 yuan per month. Although he did not expect to make much money, he hoped to supplement his daily transportation expenses by driving a private car.

But after a few months, Lin Xiang found that his monthly cash flow was basically equal to the car rental fee, and he still had to pay for the gas. "Fuel cars are too expensive."

In 2024, Lin Xiang gave up the idea of ​​driving a private car and rented a FAW Bestune pure electric car for 6,000 yuan per month. "Now my monthly turnover is about 10,000 yuan. If I switch to an electric car, at least I don't have to pay for it."

Zhao Ming, a salesperson at a Nissan 4S store in Beijing, said that in the past, the group that chose Teana was mainly private car drivers and middle-aged people. Now, the number of people consulting and buying Teana is indeed less than before. "Many consumers will feel that it is expensive and not cost-effective after understanding the price."

As for why few young people choose Teana, Zhao Ming believes that on the one hand, it is because the appearance of the vehicle is too business-like and does not conform to the aesthetic tastes of young people. On the other hand, the "exclusive car image" has been deeply rooted in people's hearts and has also affected individual buyers' car purchasing decisions.

“Why wouldn’t I buy it at this price?BYD SealDM-i or Han DM-i, or choose the ninth-generation Camry Hybrid and the 11th-generation Accord 1.5T. "As a young car owner, Zhang Mo, born in the 1990s, not only dislikes the "old-fashioned" appearance of the Teana, but is also worried that his colleagues will ask him if he wants to drive Didi after driving it. At the same time, what Zhang Mo doesn't understand is, "What era is it, and they are reluctant to equip it with a full LCD instrument panel, let alone other intelligent functions."

Today's Teana is unpopular on both ends: middle-aged people look down on it, and young people don't like it.

B

In the short history of B-class car development, Teana has made a significant contribution.

"Surpassing the concept of high-end sedan manufacturing, the sensory experience is fully sublimated... integrating modern life concepts into the car." In the first advertisement broadcast in China when Teana was introduced to China in 2004, a blue Teana was traveling through a bamboo forest, with leather seats and mahogany interior, showing a sense of luxury.

This fourth-generation Teana was born in the second year after the joint venture between Dongfeng and Nissan. At a time when Japanese cars were booming in the Chinese market, Dongfeng Nissan placed high hopes on it to enter the mid-to-high-end car market.

At that time, the size of China's passenger car market was only one-tenth of what it is today, and demand was dominated by official and business purposes. The "old three" of Accord, Passat and Regal became the mainstream choices in the B-class car field.

"Whoever wins the mid-range car wins the world." In the era when private cars were just starting out, when most mainstream models in the mid-range and high-end car market competed with control and technology, the Teana, which sold comfort and luxury, focused its publicity on the experience. The "Nissan big sofa" label, which has been deeply rooted in people's hearts, was also given to the Teana. This title benefited the Teana and the Nissan brand a lot in the following ten years.

With its luxury appearance, hard-core V6 engine and driving comfort, Teana gradually gained recognition from domestic consumers and soonHondaThe Accord and Toyota Camry are collectively known as the "Three Heroes of Japanese Automobile" and have become the new synonym for high-end B-class cars.

The success of Teana also established Dongfeng Nissan's position in the Chinese automobile market.Qashqai、X-TrailIn 2011, Teana had its highlight moment in China, and the fifth generation of Teana set the highest monthly and annual sales record in China.

The turning point came in 2018, when the Teana missed a good opportunity in the generational change test. As the car-buying population becomes younger and younger, all car models are targeting young people. The Teana, which keeps pace with the times and carries out the reform of youth, is a step behind. The Accord and Camry, which are also the "three heroes" of Japanese cars, have completed the generational change and seized the market one year earlier than the Teana.

The price of a car sold to young people cannot be too high. As its signature, the expensive engine cannot be abandoned. To control costs, the Teana can only focus on configuration and materials, and thus the most "twisted" Teana was born: with a price of 215,800 yuan, no electronic handbrake, a small 5-inch LCD instrument, halogen headlights, and poor safety configuration, it has lost its competitive advantage in front of the Accord and Camry models of the same price.

In 2019, Nissan Teana's annual sales were only 97,800 units, down 13.15% year-on-year, with an average of less than 10,000 units per month. In 2020, it sold only 118,088 units, further widening the gap with Camry's sales of over 180,000 units and Accord's sales of over 210,000 units, and completely falling out of the top three joint venture mid-size cars. Subsequently, even Buick Regal, Volkswagen Passat and Toyota Avalon have surpassed Teana in sales, and Teana's ranking has been declining.

Seeing that its sales were crushed by its competitors, Nissan Teana had to resort to price-for-volume trading, with the price dropping all the way to around 150,000 yuan. However, in the increasingly competitive Chinese market, Teana, which cannot offer more attractive differentiated product selling points, cannot reverse its decline by price cuts alone.

Today, Teana has become the bottom-ranked B-class car with monthly sales of more than 3,000.

C

When it comes to innovation, Teana is becoming increasingly lacking in sincerity.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the birth of Teana, Nissan launched the new Black Gold Edition of Teana. However, the so-called special edition has not changed much compared with the previous models, and the models currently on sale in the market are basically models from two years ago. "The Black Gold Special Edition adds some configurations to the Enjoy Edition, such as seat heating, ventilation, and functions such as leaving the car and unlocking it, and changes the silver bright strip to gold, and the price is 2,400 yuan more expensive." Zhao Ming said that most of the Teana currently on sale are 2022 models, and there is not much difference between the 2024 and 2022 models.

In order to keep people fresh, traditional car companies often make major changes every three years and replace the model every five years. However, with the fast pace of new energy vehicles replacing the model every six months in China, the replacement speed of Teana has become slow. The last replacement was the seventh generation at the end of 2018.

Catching up with the golden period of development of domestic joint venture cars, joint venture car brands including Nissan have achieved rapid development. However, in the tide of development of the times, foreign-funded car companies have been slow to respond to changes in the Chinese market, and have fallen behind in the transformation to new energy.

In the past five years, new domestic car-making forces have emerged one after another, but Toyota, Honda and Yisan have no outstanding new energy technologies. Toyota bZ3 even directly uses BYD's three-electric technology, and joint venture electric vehicles are therefore nicknamed "no-name brands" by consumers.

In fact, Dongfeng Nissan was not late in entering the new energy field, and launched a Sylphy Pure Electric as early as 2018. However, it was not until September 2022 that ARIYA, the first global strategic model of NISSAN NEXT built on Nissan's pure electric platform, was officially launched in the Chinese market.

Nissan is not positive enough about Teana, whether in the replacement or the transformation to new energy. Nissan's product planning shows that the brand is planning to launch a new pure electric model, positioning it as a mid-size sedan under the brand. It is understood that the new car will not be a direct successor model, but will replace the former product position in the form of a new product. The main competitors in the same class are Volkswagen ID.7, BYD Han and other models.

The above news has triggered widespread speculation in the industry about Nissan's future product layout. Some industry insiders even speculated that the launch of the new car is expected to replace the Nissan Teana model currently on sale.

As the online ride-hailing market becomes increasingly saturated and the price war among new energy vehicle companies intensifies, the time left for Teana to catch up in its former comfort zone is getting shorter and shorter.