Production Nissan Lannia Coming to Auto Shanghai

While the 2015 New York Auto Show technically concluded the spring auto season, our friends in China are just warming up. Barely a week after the NY Auto Show’s opening, automakers are already starting to tease new cars and concepts for the upcoming 2015 Shanghai Auto Show. Our first teaser for the event is one from Nissan for their production-spec Nissan Lannia. Nissan has kindly provided both an image preview (above) and a video teaser (below) to get us hyped:

The Nissan Lannia was originally shown all the way back at the 2013 Shanghai Auto Show as the Nissan Friend-ME Concept – a social-centric car that integrated social media and entertainment technology into the cabin for all four occupants. Then, at last year’s Beijing Auto Show (the shows in Shanghai and Beijing alternate years), Nissan showed us a full-fledged Lannia Concept.

Now, after two years of “what if”, it looks like Nissan’s newest youth-targeted car is ready to break onto dealership floors in China. After the car’s official debut later this month, it’s expected to go on sale as a 2016 model in the second half of this year.

What’s special about the Lannia is that this will be the first car Nissan has built and developed exclusively for the Chinese market. More specifically, they’re targeting the younger generation of drivers between ages 20 and 33 or so.

That means the Lannia won’t be available anywhere outside of China when it launches later this year, but former Nissan CPO Andy Palmer had hinted that it may eventually make its way into international markets. Either way, we expect the new Nissan Lannia to look a lot like the 2016 Nissan Maxima that made its own official debut just last week in New York, albeit with a more muscular front clip and a more youth-targeted interior. However, the V-motion front grille and boomerang headlights look like they’ll remain the same.

While the Shanghai Auto Show is an event targeted exclusively at the Chinese market, keep in mind that the Lannia’s target market – Chinese drivers aged 20 to 30 – is currently about 240 million strong. The entire US only holds about 320 million people, so this is certainly a market worth investing in for the world’s second largest Japanese automaker.

Japanese Car Auction Find – 2014 Volkswagen Passat

There’s no doubt that Volkswagen is the automaker with the strongest hold on the Chinese market. In January of this year, the top five best-sellers in the China were all Volkswagen models. If Nissan wants to build a significant presence in China, they’ll have to go through Volkswagen first.

The Volkswagen Passat has always been an extremely strong-seller in China, and it’s easy to see why. It’s the flawless combination of aggressive sports appeal and refined finesse –perfect for the ambitious Chinese business class.

To learn more about this Japanese car auction find, get a full translation of the auction sheet below:

“Interior A, exterior condition A, first registered March 2014, TSI Comfortline Bluemotion, DBA emissions code, FAT, HI headlights, original alloy wheels, official dealer RHD import, AAC, model year unknown, wheels scratched, interior grime and scratches, minor scratches, marks as per map”