Nissan eyes 10% mkt share

Gearing up to unveil 10 new car models including three from newly-launched Datsun brand.

How many units will Nissan India sell this fiscal?

I am pretty much confident that we will cross last year’s sales of 37,000 units. Recently-launched Nissan Terrano SUV and Evalia multi-purpose vehicle will drive our growth. We have more than 6000 bookings for Terrano which has a waiting period of two months. As new launches are driving sales in the country, we expect robust sales of our new models as well. However, the first half of the current fiscal was really tough. We will do well in the second half though. We are hopeful of selling 18-20,000 units of Nissan Terrano. Besides, sales of Nissan Sunny and Micra are also picking up.

What kind of models Nissan India intends to launch in near term?

We have lined up 10 new models for India. Nissan Terrano is one of them. Besides, we will soon start selling Datsun brand in India. Datsun Go will be the first new model from the new brand’s stable. It will come into the market early next year. Overall, there will be three new models from Datsun range. Besides, we are also studying various segments in the Indian market. Nissan will launch new models to suit the market conditions here. Our long-term goal is to achieve 10 per cent market share in the country.

Nissan India is not present in compact sedan segment where Maruti Suzuki Dzire and Honda Amaze models are doing pretty well. Do you have any plans to launch compact sedan in the country?

At present, we are present in premium sedan segment with Nissan Sunny and premium hatchback segment in the form of Nissan Micra. However, I am not in a position to offer any comment on whether we will enter the small sedan segment or not. It’s too early to make a statement on that. But we are observing the market closely. We will launch appropriate models at appropriate time.

What is the export strategy for Nissan India?

Most of the models we are making here are for both domestic and export markets. Last year, we had exported over one lakh vehicles from India, while our domestic sales stood at 37,000 units. Middle East market accounts for 20 per cent of our exports while the remaining 20 per cent goes to European and other overseas markets. We are also exporting our vehicles to many countries in Africa, South America and other parts of the world. Nissan India’s total exports crossed three lakh units recently.

Will Nissan launch Infiniti brand in India?

Right now, we are busy with the preparations for the launch of Datsun brand. Moreover, this is not right to launch a new luxury brand in the country. It’s not easy task too. Therefore, there are no immediate plans to launch Infiniti luxury brand in the country.

How will automobile industry fare this year?

We have not seen uptrend in the Indian automobile market since November 2010. Though there was upward movement in sales during the last two months, it was mainly because of lower base in the previous year. Sales were flat even during the early days of festive season this year. But Nissan is on strong footing and it will do well despite difficult market conditions.