HomeCar NewsNissan hopeful of selling 5,000 units of Datsun Go monthly in India

Nissan hopeful of selling 5,000 units of Datsun Go monthly in India

Nissan had initially estimated that sales of the Datsun Go hatchback would touch 5,000 units per month due to which production capacity was set at 60,000 units per annum. But this target seems to be far from achievable as of today.

Talking about the reason behind low sales, Mr Andy Palmer, Chief Planning Officer at Nissan, points towards their break-up with Hover Automotive, just before the Go was launched. Hover was Nissan’s official marketeer in India, and breaking up with them just before Go launch, has had an effect on marketing strategies. The other reason according to Mr Palmer is the absence of separate dealerships. As of now Datsun cars are sold at existing Nissan dealerships.

With sales of Datsun sales in India falling way short of targets, Nissan Motors has extensive plans in place to get back on track, as indicated by Mr Palmer. By end of this financial year, Nissan India expects to have 200 dealerships in place and plan for another 100 over the next two years. Apart from this, they will also open separate Datsun dealerships across India by 2017.

They will also launch Go+ MPV, a 7 seater family car by the end of this year. Just like the hatchback, this too would be aggressively priced. Another Datsun car will be launched in late 2015. This one will be smaller than Go, and will compete with Tata Nano. It will be priced in the Rs 2-3 lakh segment.

Speaking about growth and market share in India, Mr Palmer agrees that Nissan has been over-ambitious. They had earlier predicted of achieving 8% market share in India by 2017/18. But that seems to be far from reach. With a market share of 1.3% in 2013, Nissan India currently claims a market share of 2.2% as on date and indicates ambitions to target a 8% market share by 2020.

via Economic Times

Rushlane Google news