Nissan unlikely to attain target of one lakh units car sale this financial year

Chennai:
Nissan is unlikely to attain its target of selling one lakh units this financial year due to the economic slowdown, president of Nissan India Operations Kenichiro Yomura.

Addressing reporters after the launch of Terrano Premium compact sport utility vehicle (SUV) in India here, Yomura said that Nissan has sold 13,000 cars this financial year while highlighting the dull market for auto sector. “The market condition is not favourable,” he says.

Terrano is the first locally manufactured compact SUV from Nissan and marks Nissan’s entry in the fast growing compact SUV segment.

The price range starts from Rs 9.58 lakh (exc-showroom Chennai) and the SUV will be available in seven variants spread across three engine options --- 110PS diesel, 85PS diesel and 104PS petrol.

Yomura said that the SUV is different from Renault’s Duster. The overall clean design of the car is accentuated  by imposing Nissan heritage grill which emphasizes tough, solid and durable attributes.

He said that Terrano has additional features than Duster band Nissan is going to roll out 3,000 units a month. The pre-sales bookings is around 6,000 units and the waiting period is two-months, said Yomura.

He also said that Nissan would be launching Datsun in January next year. The model was unveiled in July this year.  He also ruled out the plans for new plant stating that the current plant has adequate capacity for 400,000 units production and it could be upgraded to manufacture 480,000 units. “Only if the sales and exports exceed 480,000 then we will think of new plant,” he said.

The first quarter of the financial year has been dismal for the automobile industry as the sales, exports and production declined. The sales of passenger vehicles declined by 7.49pc during April-July 2013 over the same period last year.

But Yomura says this does not deter Nissan plans in India. “Our aspiration is to be in India,” he says. Interestingly, Nissan Nissan plans to capture 10 per cent of Indian car market share with the launch of new models in the next three years.

The company is also planning to planning to increase the dealer network to around 300 outlets, says Yomura.