This sedan is a Venucia D60, seen parked alongside the road in Beijing, China. It is painted in Pearlescent White, with blue-lined headlights and sporty alloy wheels. The license plates are from Liaoning Province.
Venucia was founded in 2010 as a brand under the Dongfeng-Nissan joint venture. Venucia was a budget brand, using older Nissan cars as a base for its vehicles. The Chinese name of Venucia is 启辰 (Qǐchén), which means Morning Star.
The Venucia D60
The Venucia D60 is a compact sedan. Venucia launched the D60 on the Chinese car market in late 2017. The model shared its platform with the third-generation Nissan Sylphy sedan, also built by Dongfeng-Nissan. But it was more than just a rebadge — the design was completely new. Perhaps not too pretty, but surely… different. The D60 is still around today (!). It received facelifts in 2019 and 2023 when it was renamed to D60 Plus. The car that I saw is the original 2017-2018 D60.
The current Venucia D60 Plus. There is an EV version too, called the D60 Plus EV.
The interior of the Venucia D60
The interior was quite fancy for the segment at the time, with sporty fake-leather seats, red trim, piano black trim, two cup holders, and an audio system with a shipload of tiny buttons. The owner put a sun protector behind the windshield. Rightly so, the Beijing summer sun can be hard and hot.
Specifications
The rear lights are enormous! It has the Venucia name in Latin script on the boot lid, in capitals. Under the hood, the Venucia D60 packs Nissan’s 1.6-liter four-cylinder petrol engine with 122 hp and 155 Nm, paired with a CVT that drives the front wheels. The top speed was 180 km/h, and 0-100 took 12 seconds. The fuel consumption was a rather steep 6.18 liters per 100 kilometers.
Pricing
The grille is cool, with 20 shiny pieces. This older model has the original Venucia logo, depicting five stars, two gray and three blue, against a dark blue background. The D60 was quite popular, mainly because of its price. It sold for only 93.800 yuan in the period, which was a good deal for a 4.7-meter-long sedan with Nissan genes.