Nissan India bets big on SUVs

Nissan in India, and the Middle East and Africa, has a new boss. And Takashi Hata, Chairman for all these mentioned regions, needs to get Nissan in India not just on its feet, but up and running. He believes that will come with SUVs, and not just because India loves SUVs, but because Nissan itself, all over the world, is known as one the most competent and successful SUV makers. Moreover, SUVs are easier to sell and they are more profitable. Nissan is also clear it doesn't want to stick to the CBU route for its SUV for it wants to price them competitively in order to do good volumes. 

So what are these SUVs Nissan wants to focus on? Well, it hasn't said anything clearly, but there will be one in the same space as the Terrano. There will be the Qashqai, and because it will be assembled in India, it should be the next step for existing Terrano owners. The X-trail is bound to make a come back, especially when Nissan begins focusing on its CMF platform. There will be others as well, but we don't have clarity on those just yet.

But, SUVs will have to wait a bit for now, because Hata first wants to give the existing Nissan line up a fair chance to succeed. He accepts that Nissan could have done things differently - better - but adds, it isn't late yet. Taking the distribution channel under its own wing from Hover was a good start and moving forward Hata intends on making each of the existing Nissan products better value.

He says, new products are important - after all, Nissan hasn't plugged all the gaps that exist in our market - but, his priority right now is to explore the possibility of how well the existing products can do. He also agrees that his volume cars, the Micra and the Sunny, aren't perfect products, particularly in the light of the competition, but these cars still need to meet a minimum volume target; something both these cars have to potential to do, even in their current form. And, that's Nissan's next focus area.

Nissan will continue to focus on Datsun as well. Nissan's ambitious target of achieving 10 per cent market share of the Indian market in volume terms can only come with handsome contributions by Nissan's budget brand. It might not be as high as 50 per cent as envisaged earlier, but it won't drop by much either. Nissan realises it needs to take unique steps to reach the Datsun brand's target customer. 

These target customers are mostly in the tier 2 and tier 3 towns. And the most effective way to reach these customers is to go from one shopping mall to another displaying and talking about the Go. And we all know, shopping malls is one thing that's consistent around India - be it Meerut or Mumbai. Hata is also clear - at least when it comes to Datsun - that majority of the sales will not come from showroom walk-ins; the sale will have to be taken to the people. 

And for that, apart from shopping malls, Nissan also intends taking Datsun cars to the most rural areas with a shouting and talking caravan alongside. Appointing sub-dealers - dealers that don't need to meet Nissan's standard of showroom building and upkeep - is another quick but effective way of adding to one's distribution network. And Nissan is pushing on this front as well in smaller towns.

Takashi Hata has made it amply clear that India IS the market Nissan wants to focus on and revive.  To do that he realises that customer connect is key; it is crucial to reach customers and convince them into buying into Nissan. And, if that means he has to disassociate with some of his dealers, he will. Even though this will make the target of reaching 200 dealers more difficult for Nissan.