Like most other international automakers who want a slice of the growing Chinese market, Nissan was obligated by government regulations to start a joint-venture with a local company. It chose Dongfeng Motor Corporation, one of China’s largest manufacturer of passenger cars, trucks, and buses.
Dongfeng is no stranger to joint-ventures with foreign companies. At the time of writing, it has similar agreements with Honda, PSA Peugeot-Citroën and Kia, as well as with two American components manufacturers, Cummins and Dana.
Nissan and Dongfeng agreed to sell cars via a new company called Venucia, which according to Nissan is derived from the ancient Roman “Venus”. A logo with five stars inside of a circle was created for the brand.
The first Venucia was introduced at the Guangzhou Auto Show this week. It is called the D50 and is essentially a rebadged version of the last-generation Nissan Tiida, dubbed the Versa in the United States.
The D50 is powered by the same 110 horsepower 1.6 four-cylinder found in the old Tiida. The four banger can be mated to either a manual or an automatic gearbox, though Chinese consumers tend to lean more towards automatics. It should carry a base price of 70,000Â¥ , or about $11,000.
Nissan and Dongfeng are currenty working on creating a Venucia dealer network. They plan to have about 100 dealers by the time the D50 goes on sale during the first half of 2012.
The two companies have ambitious goals for Venucia: over the next four years, the brand will release five new models that will be sold through a total of 250 dealers spread out throughout China.
Once Venucia is fully launched, the two partners hope to sell about 300,000 cars a year.
