Nissan is looking to make a resurgence in India. After years of being a lukewarm entity in the Indian market, Japanese Auto giant will now be looking to bank on India’s love for SUVs to establish a stronger footprint. On the sidelines of the unveil of the new Nissan Kicks that will soon make it India, Nissan’s President of Thomas Kuehl, said that the Kicks will form the foundation for an onslaught of global SUVs with plans to add a few electric vehicles as well. Now, globally speaking Nissan makes some very premium SUVs, including the X-trail (that used to be on sale in India), the Pathfinder and the Patrol. None of these SUVs — aside from the Kicks — really figure in the mass market segment. They are more premium offerings that take on the likes of the Toyota Fortuner and the Toyota Land Cruiser respectively.
At present, Nissan has only a laser thin slice of the market with a 1.5 per cent total market share, with total sales in the previous year amount to about half a lakh cars.The Kicks will mark the beginning of their second chapter in the more premium space, where Nissan has earned themselves an international name. Nissan also intends to take full advantage of the 2,500 cars a year limit for homologation. Through this option, a manufacturer can import up to 2,500 Completely Built cars without having to homologate the vehicles. Through this Nissan might look to bring in the Patrol and the Pathfinder in the years to come. The Nissan Terra is also on the likely list, considering that they are planning to bring a mid-size SUV that will sit above the Kicks. Like the Kicks is positioned against the Hyundai Creta and the Captur, The Terra is likely to take on the creamy layer of the segment that includes the Jeep Compass, the Mahindra XUV500 and the soon to launch Tata Harrier.
Speaking of electric cars, Nissan said that they already had concrete plans to follow the government’s policy of moving away from fossil fuels with more Electric Cars. At present, they have already announced that they will launch the Leaf in India soon but will only sell to corporations. The company also said that they are very keen on bringing the ENote to India as well but will wait till the ecosystem grows a bit more comprehensively before they consider launching the Electric car in India. Now this is a sort of realigning for the Japanese brand in India, that’s more in line with what they do globally rather than in emerging markets but we feel like this will further the trust that they have in the Indian market and might be a more accurate strategy for the brand, at least, in the context of the Indian SUV market.
