In an interaction with Takashi Hata, Chairman of Nissan in India, Africa and West Asia, it was revealed that there are some big announcements in store for India. Not only Nissan plans to enter the luxury car market, they also want to get their GT-R sports car to India. For luxury brand Infiniti, they are also mulling plans to commence local production in the country so as to ensure that pricing is competitive. The Indian luxury market as on date is dominated by BMW, Audi and Mercedes and Nissan wants a slice of this pie as well.
Plans reveal that Infiniti will be imported into India as a completely knocked down unit, the GT-R will not be made in the country due to the fact that it will be a low volume car, and will be offered as CBU. Nissan has also unveiled concept models of Infiniti Q30 hatchback and QX30 crossover suited for India. Both these models will debut in 2015 while competing with BMW 1 Series, Audi A3 and Mercedes A Class. With so much competition in India, the company will also have the extra burden of import duty at 120% which needs to be addressed.
Apart from this, in the entry level segment, where sales are to be generated, Nissan India plans to strengthen their Datsun brand, and launch a new compact SUV, which will compete with the likes of Ford EcoSport. Nissan India, to enhance value of the brand will also be introducing two new cars in India over the next three to four years. Nissan India has seen sales increase 116.42% to 21,594 units during the period April to August 2014 while overall markets saw an increase of 4.46% to 1.02 million units.
Speaking about their Datsun brand, it has seen sales of 7,484 units till August, as against expected sales of about 5,000 units per month. Nissan says they have plans in place to revive the brand. The company is also stepping up dealership networks in the country which will be enhanced not only where number of networks are concerned but also where quality of service offered is concerned.
via Live Mint
