Datsun to be sold through Nissan dealerships

We speak to Mr Toru Hasegawa, Global Head of Datsun to understand his thoughts about the future plans of Datsun and Nissan for India. The company has recently unveiled the Datsun Go! and the next product that the company will launch will be the Nissan Terrano. The Terrano will be out in the market sometime in September. Following was our discussion:

Q1) Is there an upper price bracket for the Datsun models?

Ans) We are looking at pricing the Datsun Go! up to Rs 4 lakhs. We have even mentioned it in our press releases. This is because most of the Datsun Go buyers will be first-time car buyers. The idea is to provide them with the best product for a complete customer satisfaction.  

Q2) Will you be selling the cars from Nissan dealership or Datsun will have it separate dealership?

Ans) We can’t comment on the marketing strategies from Nissan and Datsun. But on dealerships, Datsun will have the same dealerships and it will be sold through the same Nissan’s already set-up network.

Q3) The newly launched Micra Active’s pricing start at Rs 3.5lakhs. Won’t it hamper the Go! sales?

Ans) Nissan is targeting first time buyers with the Go! Now definitely there will be an overlap between the two models, because there will be some who will want to upgrade directly to the Micra Active. So, that is one reason why the Micra Active is in place. The idea to keep the customer within the Nissan brand and giving him so many options that he picks our products. There will be some cannibalisation and no one can stop it.

Q4) How many models is Nissan planning to launch?

Ans) Nissan will launch 10 products till 2016, from 2013. We will have 3 new Datsun models and 7 from Nissan. These all are new products and no refresh or replacement model. We target to have a 10% market share, five for Nissan and five for Datsun. These new products will help us capture a major chunk.

Q5) So if there is an engine or transmission change in a model?

Ans) We won’t count them as a new model. We mean strategically new products  will be considered as new models in the 10 models I just mentioned.

Q6) What kind of localisation are you looking at?

Ans) As all our vendors are Indians and most of the products are local, so are localisation is almost 100%.