Land Rover's "Zhiyin" is about to embark on a new journey...

However, this "Zhiyin" with a "Hua" gene has chosen to have its production outsourced to a brother factory.

On June 17, it was reported that Land Rover's brand-new pure electric family SUV will be produced at Dongfeng Nissan Yunfeng Plant.

However, neither Land Rover nor Dongfeng Nissan has responded to this news as of now.

But according to relevant announcements disclosed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Land Rover's new SUV model "Zhiyin" has appeared in the new car declaration directory, with the production address displayed as "No. 8 Yunfeng Avenue, Junshan Street, Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, Hubei Province," which is precisely the location of Dongfeng Nissan Yunfeng Plant.

This news is not unfounded.

In fact, on March 21 this year, during the party building exchange between Land Rover and Dongfeng Nissan Wuhan Plant, Jiang Tao, COO and Trade Union Chairman of Land Rover, revealed that both teams were reasonably promoting new projects, giving a glimpse of the situation.

Why did Land Rover choose Dongfeng Yunfeng as a contract manufacturer for its pure electric "Zhiyin" SUV instead of self-production?

As we all know, Land Rover's original factory is located in Huangjinkou, Wuhan, which was transformed from the Dongfeng Renault factory. The factory only has one main production line that has been operating for many years. However, it needs to produce sedans, SUVs, and MPVs with completely different body and chassis sizes, and the power system covers extended range, pure electric, PHEV, and the manufacturing department faces increasing pressure from the production of increasingly complex models.

Especially in the face of the higher production standards, higher quality standards, and higher intelligent machinery standards of the new Land Rover Feey318 model, the on-site operating space is even more strained.

Forced by the situation, given that Land Rover's existing factory production line needs to meet the production of currently sold models, it also needs to open up more production lines to support Land Rover's further expansion of its product matrix and climb to higher sales.

The emergence of Dongfeng Yunfeng's contract manufacturing is not unexpected, and it can even be exaggerated to say that it is also rescuing Nissan's surplus new energy production capacity.

Some netizens say, "You're taking advantage of a good deal and still acting humble..."

Really?

As we all know, Dongfeng Nissan is not doing well at the moment.

Retail data shows that Dongfeng Nissan's cumulative sales in 2023 were 673,755 vehicles, of which the cumulative sales of ARIYA were 3,702 vehicles. In the first five months of this year, sales were 251,455 vehicles, and the average monthly sales of ARIYA have fallen below 300 vehicles. Even Nissan's prized X-Trail e-Power model has not seen significant volume increases.

It happens that these new energy models are all produced at Dongfeng Yunfeng Plant in Wuhan.

Initially, Dongfeng Nissan's Wuhan Yunfeng Plant was custom-built for the three-cylinder X-Trail and electric ARIYA, with a designed annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles, including stamping, welding, painting, resin, assembly, tire pressing, and battery PACK workshops, boasting a complete new energy vehicle manufacturing industrial chain.

It is said that Nissan originally positioned the X-Trail e-Power and ARIYA models as blockbusters, but they did not generate much buzz or topics. Data shows that Dongfeng Nissan's new energy vehicle production in 2023 was only 41,883 vehicles, resulting in a pitiful utilization rate of Dongfeng Nissan Yunfeng Plant's production capacity, which has been in a semi-shutdown state since its production started in 2021.

Even during the peak sales period of BYD Tang, Dongfeng Yunfeng Plant's welding and painting workshops were subcontracted to Changsha BYD to produce Tang's body.

Think about it, it's not surprising that Dongfeng Yunfeng is subcontracting the production of Land Rover's "Zhiyin" brand this time. Perhaps with the success of Land Rover's Zhiyin SUV, one day Dongfeng Group's announcement will show that Yunfeng Plant has been sold to Land Rover due to market demand. Let me tell you a secret, a certain American-based base in Wuhan is scheming to sell itself to a major automotive group in Shanghai for its high-end new energy brand. Do you think such things will continue to happen?