On April 8th, Nissan Motor Co. released its sales report for March 2024 in China, with a combined total of 59,914 units sold in both passenger and commercial vehicle segments, marking a notable increase of 10.04% compared to the same period last year.
Nissan operates two major joint venture brands in China, namely Dongfeng Nissan and Zhengzhou Nissan. However, the performance of Zhengzhou Nissan has been lackluster, with sales in March totaling only 3,428 units, falling short of Dongfeng Nissan by a significant margin.
Meanwhile, the sales performance of Dongfeng Nissan in March witnessed a remarkable turnaround, putting a halt to Nissan's continuous sales slump in China since the beginning of the year, with a substantial increase to 41,824 units compared to February.
At present, it appears that Japanese automakers, represented by Nissan, have stabilized their sales in the first quarter of the year, without being severely impacted by the domestic car market's price war, which has led to a loss of market share.
However, it is crucial to note that Nissan's flagship model, the Nissan Sylphy, has lost a considerable number of customers to the 79,800 CNY BYD Qin PLUS DM-i Glory Edition. Its sales in February plummeted to a rare low of 19,878 units, falling below the 20,000 mark.
Furthermore, the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) indicates that in February, the retail market share of Japanese brands had declined to 14.4%, a decrease of 3.4 percentage points compared to the same period last year. The competitive pressure on Japanese automakers in the Chinese market has intensified significantly.
