The Nissan Ariva was officially launched in China on September 27, 2022, and Nissan said at the time that it was the first global model under its Nissan Next strategy.

The Ariva was officially launched in China on September 27, 2022, and Nissan said at the time that it was the first global model under its Nissan Next strategy.

The model's four variants started at RMB 272,800, 284,800, 327,800 and 342,800 at launch.

Notably, Nissan raised the price of the Ariva on January 4 in response to the end of the national subsidies for NEVs in China.

Nissan became the latest Japanese car company after Toyota to significantly lower the prices of EVs in China, after Tesla lowered the prices of all China-made models on January 6, which had a great impact on the Chinese EV industry.

On February 9 Toyota's joint venture in China, GAC Toyota, announced an RMB 30,000 price cut for the bZ4X electric SUV, bringing the starting price down from RMB 199,800 to RMB 169,800.

The model went on sale in China on October 10, 2022, and is the first GAC Toyota model based on the e-TNGA architecture.

Following GAC Toyota's price cut on the bZ4X, images circulating on Chinese social media show some FAW Toyota dealership stores lowering the model's price by RMB 60,000, bringing the starting price down to RMB 139,800.

Both Toyota and Nissan are Japanese automakers that made dazzling gains in China through joint ventures in the era of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles, but they have fallen significantly behind in that space as the EV era rapidly approaches.

In terms of retail sales, China's NEVs had a 25.7 percent penetration rate in January, up 8.7 percentage points from a 17 percent penetration rate in January 2022, but down from 29.5 percent in December, according to data released earlier this month by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

The penetration rate of NEVs among local Chinese brands was 43.8 percent, compared to 21.4 percent for luxury brands and only 2.7 percent for mainstream joint venture brands.

Including passenger cars, light commercial vehicles and imported vehicles, Nissan sold 47,521 vehicles in China in January, down 64.4 percent from a year earlier, data released by the Japanese automaker on February 6 showed.

According to the CPCA, retail sales of all passenger vehicles in China fell 37.9 percent to 1.293 million units in January, down 40.4 percent from 2.17 million units in December.

($1 = RMB 6.867)