After keeping a low profile for the last two years, Japanese auto major Nissan is planning to switch to top gear in India.
The company, which has a meager 1.5% market share in the 3.5-million Indian car market, is targeting a 10% share by 2016 on an estimated industry production of 5 million, or around 5 lakh units, with a slew of launches and an expanded dealer network, said Toshiyuki Shiga, chief operating officer, Nissan Motor Company.
Nissan is planning to add one more assembly line while debottlenecking the existing capacity further to meet the ambitious target as the company expects to reach its full capacity of 200,000 units per annum (with 100,000 units each on both domestic and exports).
In an interaction with section of the media here on Friday, Shiga, who is in the country to oversee Nissan’s operations, said: “We’ll see at least 10 new products by FY16, including four new products in the next financial year (FY14) such as CVT (Continued Variable Transmission) variants of Micra and Sunny apart from the launch of much-talked Datsun and a SUV. All these products will come with loaded features and major indigenisation levels, which would take on competition in a big way while spruce up our growth.”
“We are looking at how we can make Datsun as a step for Nissan to bring its global products in India, including its famous Infiniti brand of vehicles. We want to position Datsun as an entry level car for Nissan in India at a price point of below R4 lakh and of course with global brand position. We are designing, developing and involved completely in indigenising Datsun to make it accessible, affordable and attractive to the Indian customer. Datsun will become the major driver for Nissan. We will launch at least two models of Datsun in India.”
To a question, Takayuki Ishida, MD and CEO, Nissan Motor India, said: “We are working on how to position Datsun in India. We are also mulling whether we can have a separate dealership for Datsun or to give exclusivity within the existing Nissan dealers network.”
To a question on capacity vs growth, he said: “We know we need to spruce up our capacity as we are nearing 200,000 units per annum, including exports of over 100,000 units. Given the launch of new products and our ambitious target to touch 5 lakh units or 10% market share by FY16, we have options to put up another line in our existing facility or debottlenecking the existing capacities further. We are working on this aspect however it is too early to talk about.”
However, Nissan COO hinted that the company may go for a new plant either in Chennai or somewhere outside the state and will be known at that point of time as we cannot afford to miss exports obligation.
