‘China speed’ car development to save Nissan: Japanese giant embraces Chinese manufacturing for global models like the upcoming 2026 BYD Shark 6 rivalling Frontier ute as it faces existential crisis from both Toyota and BYD

The Chairman of the Nissan China Management Committee and President of Dongfeng (Nissan’s primary partner in China) Ma Zhixin explained how the brand would lean more into its Chinese manufacturing connections in a new push to be more globally competitive, in an interview with Chinese media.

“My return to the Chinese market is to do my best to get Nissan’s business back on track, and bring China’s excellent products and technologies to the world”, said Zhixin in a wide-ranging interview published by XCar.

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“Over the next three years, Dongfeng Nissan plans to invest 10 billion RMB in new energy research and development and expand its technical centre to accommodate 4000 employees,” he said.

He said the Dongfeng partnership was crucial to the brand becoming more globally competitive because the company’s control over research and development cycles and costs is “world-leading.”

“In China, we must maintain a Chinese pace,” he explained, “We have shortened our product development cycle to under 24 months to ensure our products consistently exceed consumer expectations. We have adopted many innovative approaches to ‘China Speed’.”

Zhixin said China speed will be a breakthrough for Nissan’s quality and safety standards given the short development cycles the joint-venture is aiming for.

Zhixin said the latest batch of models were a core part of the brand’s global strategy, with both the N7 and Frontier expressly designed to be global models.

“We’re at the starting point of a new round of product revitalisation, which means there will be many new and exciting products coming out” he said.

“As China often says, every crisis brings opportunity. It is true that some doors are closed now, but other doors are also open.

“I will focus on formulating future regional strategies, improving local operation efficiency, and strengthening the synergy between China and the global business,” he said.

Zhixin explained the Nissan/Dongfeng joint venture would be more empowered to make research and development decisions in China as part of this China speed strategy, but it wouldn’t come at the cost of Nissan’s “unique characteristics.”

“Within Nissan, we've always sought to convey a ‘self-evident’ Nissan experience. How can we make the user instantly understand that this is a Nissan as soon as they step into the car, without needing any badges?

“Whether it’s the exterior design or the in-car experience, we aim to cultivate this unique brand perception,” he said.

Nissan announced a US$5.26 billion loss at the end of the last Japanese financial year, and it annunced plans to shut seven of its 17 global factories, including its historic Oppama plant in Japan.

This followed on from failed merger talks with Honda, and new talks with Taiwan-based Foxconn on a potential stake in Nissan, as well as joint manufacturing on future models. In addition, Nissan is also dealing with the fallout from the Tariffs on products imported into the US - one of its largest markets.

On top of this, Mercedes-Benz recently announced it would be selling its 3.8 per cent stake in Nissan, which it was holding in a pension asset fund.

Locally, Nissan is the most recent large brand and historic favourite in Australia to exit the top-10 automakers, booted out by the entry of BYD, which now ranks ahead of even MG.