Renault-made site selection in Zhengzhou Zhongyi

Not long ago, Renault-Nissan’s CEO Carlos Ghosn announced that “Reynolds has signed a preliminary letter of intent with Dongfeng Corporation”. According to foreign reports, Renault's settlement in Chinese production is a foregone conclusion, and Dongfeng Motor Corporation will be Renault's sole partner in all joint venture projects in China.

In this regard, Renault China and Dongfeng Motor related person in charge said that they are not aware of the situation. However, Renault’s domestic eagerness is also evident.

Unlike other joint-venture projects, which are constantly finding objects, Renault and Dongfeng have already established a “marriage” relationship. The factors affecting the success of the two parties, in addition to the national threshold for the approval of new joint venture projects, the delays and difficulties in setting up a site for the plant are also key to achieving good results for both parties.

According to informed sources, Renault has been hoping to leverage the strength of Dongfeng Nissan’s headquarters in Huadu, Guangzhou, while Dongfeng believes that setting up a factory in its headquarters in Wuhan is an expedient measure to enhance its own strength and satisfy the local government.

After the Spring Festival, there was news of Renault’s joint venture production in Dongfeng Fengshen Factory and the channel in Wuhan. However, with Shanghai GM base determined to settle in Wuhan, Dongfeng used Renault project hopes Wuhan's "refusal" of GM has been dispelled, coupled with Dongfeng "great autonomy" strategy is extremely urgent for Dongfeng Fengshen's self-empowerment, therefore, the option of landing in Wuhan Renault and Dongfeng have been related to the person in charge that "must certainly not play."

In this context, in addition to Guangzhou Huadu, another site selection option emerged in Ghosn's mind - Zhengzhou Zhonghao plant, namely, with Zhengzhou Nissan's new plant in China, to achieve Renault domestically. In this way, it can not only mix production with other models of the Nissan platform, but also form a joint force with Dongfeng Nissan's factories in Zhengzhou to produce Qijun and hackers, making Zhengzhou become the SUV production base of the Renault-Nissan Alliance in China. The "Central" strategy Dongfeng has always emphasized can also be added.

If according to the schedule set by Carlos Ghosn, Renault-made projects will be launched before 2014. Well, the siting of the site should not be too long.

Ghosn's multiple-choice questions In early February, it was reported that Renault will use Dongfeng Fengshen to achieve domestic production, and Renault will also establish a joint venture with Dongfeng. Both parties will not build independent new factories in China. Renault products will put production and sales into the Dongfeng Fengshen system. Internally, sales are conducted in the form of "independent brands, independent store brands, parallel channels, and shared networks."

According to Dongfeng insiders, this is indeed one of Renault's domestic plans put forward by Dongfeng. Dongfeng passenger car has also been discussed internally. The original intention of Dongfeng's proposal for this program is that this leveraging force will meet the requirements of the national policy on automobile production capacity control. Renault-made can be started as soon as possible. But this idea is likely to be overturned due to Dongfeng’s "great autonomy" strategy.

The relevant person in charge of Dongfeng Passenger Car Company stated that “the company is now taking Dongfeng Fengshen as the top priority in implementing the 'autonomy' strategy and it is impossible to marry the Aeolus brand.” Currently, Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle has a production capacity of 60,000 vehicles. In the A1 plan put forward at the beginning of this year, the sales target for this year will be 60,000 and it will reach 120,000 next year. Obviously, Dongfeng passenger vehicles do not have excess capacity to share with Renault.

Relevant persons close to Renault China also stated that, according to Ghosn, Renault will use electric cars and luxury cars as the main force points, and the factories and channels of Fengshen will obviously not match this position. Wuhan is simply not possible."

At the same time, the relevant person in charge of the Wuhan Investment Promotion Bureau, who once participated in the Dongfeng Renault joint venture project, also believes that as two very independent companies, the integration of Renault and Dongfeng passenger vehicles will be difficult to achieve. From the standpoint of Renault, Renault still hopes to establish a separate joint venture with Dongfeng alone, without using any existing company to produce. Even if it is affected by the state's policy of controlling production capacity and has to borrow, it is still hoped that borrowing a “self-owned” platform in the Nissan system will not only improve efficiency, but also make it easier to control and grasp.

In addition, there is a detail that also affects the balance of Dongfeng Renault Huali Wuhan. It is reported that before that, Wuhan City government departments very much hope to introduce the Dongfeng Renault project. After hearing that Shanghai GM plans to drop the new passenger car project into Wuhan, Dongfeng has used the Dongfeng Renault project as a bargaining chip and hopes that relevant Wuhan authorities will make a choice. With Shanghai GM eventually being able to reach the hinterland of Dongfeng, Dongfeng clearly became indifferent to the continued selection of the Renault project in Wuhan.

In this context, Ghosn, who was eager to make Renault domestically, had to reconsider the site selection issue.

Influenced by the industrial policy of “discouraging overseas car manufacturers from investing in vehicles” announced last year, Renault will have a hard time re-establishing a new plant, and the time it takes to establish a new factory is also something Renault does not want to bear. Therefore, within the Dongfeng limited system of the joint venture company of Nissan and Dongfeng, using existing resources, it became Ghosn's first choice.

In fact, Guangzhou Huadu has always been Ghosn’s most valued joint venture location option. At present, Dongfeng Nissan has formed a complete industrial support in Huadu, Guangzhou, and Lei and Nissan's many models are on the same platform. Once settled in Guangzhou, resources and platforms can be shared.

However, according to the relevant person in charge of Dongfeng Nissan, Renault will not consider the establishment of a business unit under Dongfeng Nissan, but will form a joint venture with Dongfeng independently. At present, Dongfeng Nissan has already proposed a production and sales target of 1 million units in 2012. Although the Huadu II plant has just been put into production, it is difficult to provide sufficient production capacity to Renault.

Therefore, Zhengzhou Nissan Zhongli Factory, which is also under construction within Dongfeng's limited framework, has begun to enter Ghosn's sight.

The status of Zhongkai has been highlighted since 2011. Dongfeng has been limited to frequent operations in Zhengzhou.

At the beginning of the year, Zhengzhou Nissan started the capacity expansion of the Zhongyi plant, which is expected to be completed within this year. After that, the current capacity of 98,000 units will be increased to 180,000 units. According to relevant person in charge of Zhengzhou Nissan, the plan to establish yet another new factory has already been put on the agenda. “At present, the company is communicating with relevant departments such as Zhengzhou, but the final location is still unknown, and the initial planned production capacity is 200,000. Car."

A series of expansions is exactly what Ghoen has laid for Reynolds' localized production capacity. According to sources, in 2011, Zhengzhou Nissan achieved a total sales of approximately 116,000 units. Compared with the huge expansion project, there is still enough capacity left. Zhongmu plant is large and has room for production capacity, and it just meets the demand for mixed production of Renault and Nissan models.

In terms of institutional adjustment, it is also easier. Although Renault and Nissan have established joint ventures with Dongfeng as two companies in China, Renault Nissan will easily adjust and allocate resources within the joint venture system. This point has already begun to appear on the call of the Zhengzhou factory last year.

In October last year, the original Zhengzhou No. 2 plant in Zhengzhou Nissan was renamed Dongfeng Nissan’s new Zhengzhou plant to produce Dongfeng Nissan’s Qijun and hackers. Dongfeng Limited claims that "At present, the plant belongs to Dongfeng Limited and the joint venture company adjusts the production line within the system."

At this point, Zhengzhou has a total of Zhengzhou Nissan Zhongli Factory and a new Zhengzhou plant that produces Dongfeng Nissan Qijun and hackers. If Zhengzhou Nissan's new factory can also be spent there, Zhengzhou has become the third strategic place for Nissan following Huadu and Fuyang.

“This is not a simple change of factory and production capacity.” According to the person in charge of Dongfeng Limited, “This adjustment to the Zhengzhou plant shows that Dongfeng and the Renault-Nissan alliance have reached a consensus on a new development strategy. And this change marks the start of a new strategy that will affect the next eight years of joint ventures."

According to insiders, Carlos Ghos plans to build Zhengzhou into a limited SUV base for the future Dongfeng, not only to produce Dongfeng Nissan SUVs, but all Renault-Nissan SUV models will be moved to this base production, including Renault's domestic Koreo and Others. . Therefore, the Zhongmu plant will become a more important joint venture location option for Ghosn.

However, according to Nissan stakeholders, Renault's home-made site is not an opportunity. At present, Dongfeng Nissan’s own brand Qichen, which will be listed this year, has already been confirmed to be produced at a new factory in Zhengzhou. This will remove some of the production capacity for Dongfeng Nissan’s Huadu plant and give Ghosn’s coordination space to make Renault available in the early days of domestic production. Once Renault is domestically produced, it will probably be imported into electric vehicles, and it is likely that delays will be postponed when the Renowned electric vehicles originally introduced through the Qichen brand are introduced.