NissAn shifts indiA strAteGY, to lAunch 8 neW cAr models BY 2021

The launches will include cars from Nissan’s global portfolio and new Datsun-brand cars developed in India.

Nissan Motor Co Ltd plans to l aunch eight new car models in India by 2021, a senior company executive has said, 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 Datsunbrand 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, said here.

“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% 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%.

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, an affiliate of Hyundai Motors, is mulling plans to build cars in India, while Toyota Motors 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. Japanese car maker Nissan Motor shipped out 11,999 cars made at its Indian plant in September 2016, the company's Indian subsidiary said.

In a statement, Nissan Motor India said that in September it shipped out 11,999 Nissan and Datsunbranded cars which was 20% higher than what it has exported in September last year. “Our strategy to use our plant in India as an export hub underlines our significant presence here and also demonstrates our long- term plans for growth,” Guillaume Sicard, President, Nissan India Operations, said. (With inputs from Reuters and IANS) Automobile major Mahindra and Mahindra has launched the all-electric cargo and passenger vans under the brand name of “eSupro”. These will serve primarily the businessto-business (B2B) segment.

“The launch will usher in a