Nissan Looks To Innovation & Styling To Revive Datsun Sales In India

Datsun is close to completing three years in India, is lagging expectation with slow growth. The company had set itself a target of 200,000 units sales in three years; however, Datsun was able to sell only 80,000 units.

In a report by ET, Vincent Cobee, global head of the Datsun brand said that the company intends to bolster modernity, Japanese quality and styling to create a niche for itself in a segment. Renault, Datsun's sister company, managed to break into a segment where market leaders Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai lead with its premium compact car Kwid.

He further stated that in India, they are still in the learning phase and they are entering the lifecycle of the brand. They will continuously improve their products.

He also said that the Indian market leads in cost, features, service in the entry car space. As Datsun, they will try to bring modern style, modern technologies quicker than the others.

Datsun sells more than 50 percent of the cars that Nissan Motor India sells, and is hopeful that the brand will exceed 125,000 units per year by the end of 2020 when the Indian market is anticipated to reach 5 million units in sales.

The Datsun brand was revived after three decades, the company has achieved to sell about 250,000 units globally, lower than what the company had hoped. India estimates a third of the global sales.

Apart from exploring the launch of the GO Cross SUV in India, Datsun will look to enhance the style quotient of its current models with more connectivity features, automatic gearbox and introducing mild hybrid technology over the next three to four years.