Nissan to launch 8 new car models in India by 2021: Executive
NEW DELHI: Nissan
Motor Co Ltd plans to launch eight new car models in India by
2021, a senior company executive said on Thursday, under a new product strategy
expected to boost sales and market share in one of the world's fastest-growing
markets.
The launches will include cars from Nissan's
global portfolio and new Datsun-brand cars developed in India - a shift in
strategy for Nissan where it has largely sold cars shared with its global
alliance partner, Renault SA.
"Maybe we have not differentiated enough in
the past," Christian Mardrus, Nissan's chairman for Africa, Middle East
and India, told Reuters in an interview in New Delhi.
"The strategy now is more common platforms,
common modules, common technology ... No more cross-badging now as we may have
done in the past," he said.
The company has been working on tweaking its
strategy as seen in Nissan's and Renault's most recent launches. The Datsun
small-car Redi-Go and Renault's mini-SUV Kwid had more than 50 per cent of
parts in common, helping keep costs low, but the car design and some of the
features were different.
"In the future we want to develop more
Redi-Go and Kwid stories," Mardrus said.
Sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and crossovers - a
mix between a sedan and SUV - are likely to dominate the new launches in India,
said Guillaume Sicard, president, Nissan India, adding that the focus
will be on car design, technology and cost.
The push to launch products from its global portfolio
and differentiate comes at a time when Nissan's market share in India, expected
to be the world's third-largest car market by 2020, is just 2 per cent.
Even that share could be under threat because
Nissan is likely to face more competition from new entrants in the future.
South Korea's Kia Motors Corp, an affiliate of
Hyundai Motor Co is mulling plans to build cars in India, while Toyota Motor
Corp is setting up a company with subsidiary Daihatsu to build cars for
emerging markets like India.
"We may have common ideas ... the difference
is execution. We have to do it better than the others. This is our
challenge," Mardrus said, adding that Nissan already has a strong
engineering and manufacturing base in India it can leverage.
Nissan also plans to make India an export hub for
Africa and the Middle East, and will develop some of its future Datsun cars in
the country with an intention to export them, Mardrus said.
Source : Nissan
to launch 8 new car models in India by 2021: Executive