Nissan lines up plans to revitalise India operations

“What we are seriously missing is sales,” says a candidTakashi Hata, chairman – Africa, Middle East, India Business Region and senior vice-president of Nissan Motor Company. Hata, who is barely three months into the job, has to address this serious problem. Nissan Motor India sold 38,220 vehicles in 2013-14. That’s just two percent of the Indian passenger vehicle market, and way behind its peers. Except for the Terrano SUV, Nissan’s models have failed to excite the market. The Sunny sedan got off to a good start, but it couldn’t sustain strong performance in the face of stiff competition and the slowdown in the market.Hata admits that there’s correction to be done in the way Nissan performing in India. “This is THE market we have to revitalise,” says Hata, reflecting the importance India commands in the boardroom at Nissan’s global headquarters.

The first step in the revitalisation drive has already been taken. In February this year, Nissan took back the responsibility of distributing and selling its cars from Hover Automotive India. The next is to set up a dedicated sales and service network for Datsun cars, which are currently sold and serviced by 120 dealers of the Nissan brand. Even as that happens, there could be a shake-up of the sales network as Nissan is “not happy” with the quality of the group of dealerships which it inherited from Hover Automotive.

As India’s prosperity grows, there are newer markets coming up in the hinterlands. Carmakers like Maruti and Hyundai have taken some steps to tap the potential there, but there is still a big untapped market which Nissan too wants to partake of. So it is considering building a network of sub-dealers. “It’s a smaller investment,” says Hata and hence the risk involved is also less. The benefits of a successful implementation would far outweigh the risks.

Even as work progresses in enhancing operations, Nissan is also planning to revitalise its product portfolio. The plans include refreshes of its existing models, adding new models as well as developing new models designed for the Indian market.

With a slew of actions which are in various stages of implementation and planning, Nissan’s target is to reach a 10 percent share of the Indian passenger vehicle market by 2020. “We may be late, but I believe we are not too late,” says an optimisticHata.