Nissan reveals its three-year launch plans for India. The company will be shifting the focus to the increasingly successful Indian SUV market.
After the launch of the Datsun redi-GO, Nissan has geared up to capture the Indian SUV market, in which it has not been able to achieve a great amount of success. Seeing as it is one of the rapidly growing markets in India, Nissan has revealed its three-year strategy to make its presence potent in the Indian SUV market.
With the redi-GO launched at the lower end of the segment, Nissan will be launching at least three more products over the next three years, which will be spread across the SUV segment, thus covering all the price points. The company has announced plans to launch the new X-trail this year, which will cover the premium end of the market. To compete with the likes of the Hyundai Creta, Nissan will be launching the Kicks SUV (codename PB1D) in the Rs. 8-15 lakh range. This will be followed by the Datsun GO Cross (codename EM2), which is expected to be launched by 2019, and will go head to head against entry-level crossovers.
Nissan has tried to capture the compact SUV segment in the past, with its Renault Duster based, Terrano. But the SUV never caught on and could never replicate the success of the Duster. As none of its vehicles were recording mass volume sales, Nissan shifted focus to Datsun, the sub-brand that is responsible for selling the affordable mass market vehicles. The move seems to be working for Nissan as Datsun is already responsible for about 50% of Nissan’s total Indian sales.
The Renault-Nissan alliance will work on the EM2 and the PB1D, which will be built on the new Modular platforms, CMF-A+ and CMF-B. A total of eight new vehicles built on these platforms will be for India, out of which five will be launched as SUVs.
Nissan’s 3 Year Launch Strategy
– Nissan will launch the Kicks in 2018 and Datsun GO-Cross in 2019
– It will try to capture the SUV market with one launch every year, for three years
– The SUVs will be built on the new modular platforms jointly developed by Renault and Nissan
– Products will be launched across all price ranges in the SUV segment
