As announced earlier its intention to have separate dealer network and marketing strategies for its products in India, Nissan Motor has took the lead ahead of Renault in roping a partner to handle sales, marketing and servicing apart from developing dealership network for its products in India.
At a press conference in Chennai in February during the MoU signing ceremony with the Tamil Nadu government for the Rs 4,500 crore manufacturing plant along with its partner Renault, senior official of Nissan Motor had said that though it was a joint venture with Renault, the company would have its own products, dealership networks and marketing strategies for this project.
It was also alleged that one of the main reasons for Mahindra & Mahindra to pull out from the three-way joint venture project in Chennai, which was originally proposed, owing to differences in setting up dealership network.
As announced, Nissan roped in Hover Automotive India as its partner for marketing, sales, after-sales service apart from developing dealership network for its products in India. As per the agreement, Hover will implement Nissan’s marketing and sales strategies and support dealer development (establishing 55 dealerships by 2012 as against five now). Nissan Motor India will, however, continue to undertake overall business management in India, including corporate planning, product planning and distribution. Nissan has announced that the Chennai project will have a total capacity of 400,00 units per annum and both the partners will have an equal capacity of 200,000 each. And on Friday, Nissan has announced that it is targeting a sale of over 100,000 units by 2012. Nissan expects to commence production at Chennai plant in 2010.
The company’s strategy is to launch compact cars initially, followed by premium and larger cars. Nissan expects to manufacture 8 to 10 products by 2012, including a few India-made models, ranging from the entry level to commercial vehicles to sedans, the sources pointed out. In addition to the above products, the Chennai project will also manufacture power trains, gearbox among other things.