Nissan, having marked their entry into the country in 2005, has been struggling to gain volumes since the start. Market share has remained stagnant at around 2 percent while sales have been noting a steady decline.
Nissan Micra hatchback failed to appeal to buyers in the country. It was it archaic design, lack of safety features and low mileage that led to diminishing sales which currently stand at less than 100 units. The Nissan Terrano compact SUV also failed to garner much interest among buyers in the country and has hence been pulled out of the company lineup.
Nissan India launched the new Kicks compact SUV on 22nd January 2019 which instantly clocked 1,370 unit sales in January 2019 boosting the company’s overall sales by 55 percent as compared to the same month in the previous year. Sales of Kicks in Feb and March have averaged at about 700 units.
Financial Express reveals that Nissan Motor India saw its revenue from operation in FY18 – April to March decline by 21.67 percent YoY to Rs.7,437 crores as against Rs.9,495 crores in the same period a year ago. Net profits declined 49.30 percent YoY at Rs.61.9 crores for fiscal ended March 2018 as against net profit for the previous fiscal which stood at Rs.122.1 crores.
Exports also suffered with a 38 percent YoY drop to 67,829 crores as compared to 1,09,829 crores in the FY17 period while in domestic markets production dipped 27.51 percent to 1,22,653 units in the last fiscal with the company in 9th position on the list of 14 car makers in the country. SIAM has also revealed that in FY18, Nissan market share in the domestic PV segment fell to 1.61 percent as compared to 1.88 percent in FY17.
In the last fiscal, out of 33 lakh PVs sold, Nissan sold just 52,796 units which also included those from the Datsun brand. Taking only Datsun sales into account, sales stood at 40,387 units as compared to 12,409 units of Nissan cars. Overall, Nissan India sales declined 31% in FY2019, as compared to FY 2018.
The new Nissan Kicks, the company’s flagship SUV, is expected to add some excitement to the brand in terms of sales. The Kicks is offered in XL, XV, XV Premium and XV Premium Plus variants and is priced aggressively from Rs. 9.55 lakhs to Rs. 14.65 lakhs. It gains in terms of features and dimensions over segment leader Hyundai Creta which averages around 10,000 units per month.
