Nissan had three big announcemnets at the Auto Expo.
Nissan had three big announcemnets at the Auto Expo. The company will be launching its iconic GT-R sportscar in September this year which will be followed by the X-Trail hybrid SUV in India. The next big announcement was that Nissan appointed Bollywood Actor John Abraham as the brand ambassador for the above mentioned flagship models in India. We spoke to Guillaume Sicard, President, Nissan India about his plans for the Indian market. Here is what he shared with us.
Q) Do you plan to separate Nissan/Datsun dealerships? Is there any timeframe for that?
A) Not in the short term basis. To invest into a network is a lot of money so you need to have a certain level of sales. The big idea with launching Datsun was launch it with the support of Nissan and not to generate any extra costs. We are in that direction right now. Then after we reach a certain level of sales and profitability we will separate both the brands. It is about managing the two brands and the profitability. There is not any timeframe as we will require growth, so I cannot ensure anything but i have a vision of say 5 years in which we would initiate the process.
Q) With the X-Trail, why only the hybrid and why not other engine options?
A) At Nissan, there are two key words innovation and excitement and I want to make sure that everything we do embraces those two values. And when we decided to launch the X-Trail, that was the first choice, the natural choice of everybody was to launch it in diesel with 4-wheel drive which is a typical classical way of looking at things. But if you want to be different and to answer to the future, to not only evaluate today’s needs but also evaluate tomorrows needs i took a bet against the team to launch it in hybrid a year back when nobody was talking about pollution and emissions. I’m coming from other markets to India and I wanted to start with a hybrid to show that we are different and show off the best of technology and the know how and also to say something about the brand.
Q) Will Datsun be launched in other emerging markets like Africa?
A) We have only good news for India and the first good news is the economy in India. I love hearing that India is the highest growing market and we are going to skyrocket. I would like to see it transforming into the automotive market a bit more. Also very good is that Nissan is expanding in some markets and plans for Africa and middle east with increasing demand in India and the boost also in the export markets. The line up will also increase with a aim of 5 percent market share. I think the plant is going to reach full capacity in a few more years.
Q) Do you have a fixed ratio for domestic production v/s export production?
A) There is no fixed ratio. What is for sure is I would like the domestic ratio to increase definitely but I would always like to keep exports because if there is an issue in India we have to make sure we have the back up of exports. Also, I would like to ensure that the main industries of the country follow Make in India. So we would like to keep exports.
Q) Are there plans to locally manufacture the X-Trail hybrid in India?
A) It will come in CBU form initially and according to how things are moving at what pace lets evaluate the demand the feedback for this car and then we can always evolve into the strategy.
Q) Do you think that Tamilnadu and Chennai market will be ready for hybrid vehicles?
A) I must say the hybrid solution we are trying to aim are for the bigger cities. Markets like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore are highly sensitive markets, while Chennai is traditional market so people might wonder about this technology but that’s okay, i agree with you.
Q) Why so long for the GT-R?
A) I remember when I arrived here a year ago, everyone was talking to me about the GT-R as to when are you going to launch the GT-R. So I went back to the headquarters and looked at the sales figures and I said, it would be nice to launch as there is the demand but coming to the sales figures, it was quite a lot of hassles, lot of training for just a few cars and the car is going to be CBU so it will be extremely expensive. So I had to convince them that it would be good because we have a lot of passion for sportscars. This one is probably one the best dream cars that the industry is offering today both in terms of driveability and pure racing. So it took some time to convince and it is for sure we are offering it.
Q) Will this be a halo product?
A) If you look at the UK market, make a survey and you ask people which are the two most most emblematic cars. First one is going to be GT-R they sell about 150 per year and the second one is X-Trail and actually the last one is Micra. So we want to launch all the emblematic cars from Nissan. It will also show that Nissan is a global brand.
Q) When you talk about 5 percent market share the two of the most important segments today are the sub 4-metre sedan category, are you looking at that space?
A) We are looking at those for sure. The thing that I can comment is that we will launch a new car every year in the next 5 years. Products are going to be targeted towards customer needs and will be extremely global.
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