Team-BHP - Nissan India : The Way Forward

Thanks S2.

But the botched up Nissan strategy coninues.
What fun in introducing further brands and vehicles when the existing offerings are in shambles?

Infinity may be a non aspirational brand in India considering the amount of aspiration value the 3 big Germans enjoy.

Case in case, I drive an Infiniti Q40. Oh ok!!
I drive a BMW 5 Series. Wow. Great car/Must be successful. BMW. Great.
He drives a Beemer Man!!

Hope the drift is clear.

Nissan to introduce a smaller 1.2-litre diesel engine. Renault and Nissan will share this engine in its products.

A new 1.2-litre diesel engine has been derived from the existing 1.5-litr K9K engine. This engine will produce a power of about 55bhp. This engine will be utilised for Nissan Micra Active, Datsun GO and Datsun GO+, expect Renault to use it for XBA and Datsun for RediGo.

http://motoroctane.com/news/8806-nis...l-engine-scoop

Quote:

Originally Posted by volkman10 (Post 3641105)

Why? It costs almost the same to make a 1.2 as also a 1.5 unless they chop a cylinder off.

Might be for the new small car coming out

Renault-Nissan aspire to touch 5% market-share in India by end-2016.

Quote:

The new launches should be able to more than double Renault’s market share to 5% by end of 2016, said Sumit Sawhney, country CEO and managing director. The European car maker whose has presence in India for the last three years has a market share of 2 %.

Source

Do I think it's possible? No chance.

5% means equalling the sales of Tata & Toyota (who both currently have ~5% market-share). You're talking 12,000 - 13,000 sales a month!

More importantly they need vehicles with their own footprints. Ones which have some level of uniqueness. They should look at fresh designs for India and ones which bring a breathe of fresh air. I would definitely say they should look at Qashqai (while Renault looks at the Kadjar) to be manufactured in India. That would give some amount of premium and also a new segment. But if they go that route, I just hope they dont get carried away and price it in stratosphere. 18-23L OTR would be ideal. Its time they look at replacement for Sunny and Micra too. They just dont have enough products on the shelf to attract buyers to their showrooms. Also the Juke/Capture platform should add some colour.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3657600)

5% means equalling the sales of Tata & Toyota (who both currently have ~5% market-share). You're talking 12,000 - 13,000 sales a month!

It's Renault-Nissan-Datsun combined. They are already doing 6867 nos, above Ford (5959) and VW-Skoda (5122). Another 5k is doable provided their dealers let go of the Hover era hangover. I say this because, basically their cars are good. IMO, all it needs is a strong leadership from the manufacturer. Add to it imminent new launches. Not discounting that the same could be done by Ford and VW-Skoda or even Chevrolet. It's a level ground forward (among these players) and who wants to play better get the scores.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ampere (Post 3657642)

They just dont have enough products on the shelf to attract buyers to their showrooms. Also the Juke/Capture platform should add some colour.

I agree with this. But they could keep the existing good ones too, IMO. Compare the portfolio of Maruti / Hyundai.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thoma (Post 3657694)

I agree with this. But they could keep the existing good ones too, IMO. Compare the portfolio of Maruti / Hyundai.

Very true. Strength will also show up in the variety. If they understand they cannot take the volume route, at the least take the premium/semi-premium route.

Nissan’s 1.2-litre diesel engine to be ready by early 2016.

This engine will be introduced in the Micra Active by early 2016.
This 1.2-litre diesel engine will produce about 50-55bhp of power and will come mated to a five-speed manual or AMT (automated manual transmission).

Quote:

Nissan has been considering AMT for the Datsun brand.This engine will also be made available in the Datsun GO+ and Renault will also be using it on its products below the Pulse.
The 1.2-litre diesel engine is the three-cylinder of the existing 1.5-litre K9K engine that already powers the Pulse, Micra, Sunny, Scala, Duster, Evalia, Fluence and even the Lodgy will be getting the same engine.

With the smaller diesel engine, the gap between the pricing of the petrol and diesel engines for smaller vehicles will be lower and this will make Renault and Nissan both competitive, as they do not have a diesel unit in this portfolio.

http://motoroctane.com/news/10861-ni...-by-early-2016

This does not help Nissan much to improve their hold. If they assume, the problem is with smaller capacity engines being the blocker items for them to introduce better products, I disagree. They need a newer/current product line-up for the market. Period. I just hope they dont introduce the Lodgy's twin (what ever that is!)

OMG! The 4 cylinder K9K is already a noisy one and aging w.r.t. to technology. I am wondering how they will overcome NVH issues with a chopped cylinder, or will it be another tractor like the Chevy Beat and the old Polo?

I guess Nissan is bent upon improving volumes which is why they are looking more and more at mass market products than high end ones. But for that, the first thing is to improve your dealer network and then an aggressive marketing strategy. Good that a right step in this direction has been decided in improving the shell strength of the Go.

As an owner of the Sunny, i think that Nissan deserves more success in India. They make decent cars that are low maintenance and trouble free. The mess up is totally to do with their sales, distribution and marketing department. My heart goes out to them.

I have two strong views regarding their models

For SUNNY / MICRA

Unfortunately, i attribute the failure of the model to the unconventional multi brand marketing strategy of Renault - Nissan - Datsun. It didn't set the sales charts on fire. And in a process to spread the same car across all budgets, it made them look like they did not have a solid proposition (apart from space) at a time when the competition was launching so many cars around them.

For NV200 / EVALIA

I guess it will be a very long time before any other brand will attempt a sliding door van with windows that don't open too well! I guess Evalia got 'self typeset' into a commercial vehicle, and for Nissan i am happy that it is getting some traction in its Ashok Leyland STILE avatar.

And my recommendations to Nissan

1. Build your identity. Show your worth as an equal to Honda and Toyota.
2. Up your funk quotient Part 1- Stop the micra and launch the Note.
3. Up your Funk quotient Part 2 - bring in the Juke
4. Spin off Datsun as a distinct unit. The Go looks too much like the Micra. I think Micra is done and dusted as a result
5. Stop sharing models with Renault and Datsun
6. Bring in a lot of your higher models as CKDs - Sentra, QASHQAI, XTRAIL, ALTIMA, PATROL
7. Have some fun - sell your sports cars in the CKD route for much less than others do currently