Under the new three-year strategy, Nissan will be focussing on core products and markets like the United States, China and Japan with new investments
Nissan will reportedly pull back from the European continent to focus on markets such as the United States, China and Japan. Under a new strategic plan, scheduled to be revealed on May 28, Nissan is aiming to restore its dealer partnerships and refresh its range to regain profitability while looking at ways to fix problems created by ex-boss Carlos Ghosn’s ambitious expansion moves.
The three-year plan is also aimed at Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance working more closely than before. Nissan will utilise Mitsubishi’s plug-in hybrid technology in a large portion while Renault will drive the electric vehicles technologies and focus on sales in Europe. The new strategy is led by COO Ashwani Gupta as it will help in freeing up the resources, so that more investment can be made on developing new products and technologies in the US, China and Japan.
The plan is expected to be finalised within the next two weeks but the financial targets could be really hard to predict, considering the global economic conditions. Focussing on three core markets and core products under the new strategy does not mean Nissan will quit Europe entirely as it will definitely have a presence there with its lineup of popular crossovers like Juke and Qashqai.
The second largest carmaker from Japan will also be expanding its sales reach in Asian markets like Thailand and Philippines as both form the major portion of its volumes in the continent. The report further indicated that Nissan will opt for tighter and targeted lineups in countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Russia, Brazil and Mexico.
Only a couple of months ago, Nissan announced stoping production in Indonesia and it could retreat from more assembly lines in the neat future. Unlike the previous plan of producing over seven million vehicles on three daily shifts per plant basis, the new strategy will focus on two shifts with total capacity of about 5.5 million units according to the report.
Nissan will be looking at launching more premium products including the next-gen Rogue in the US and bring down the average lifecycle time of lineup from five years to as low as 3.5 years to increase operating margins. It will be introducing six new/redesigned products over the next three years in its home market of Japan while more country-specific models will be released in China.
As for India, Nissan recently unveiled the details of the facelifted Redi-Go and 2020 Kicks. It will debut a made-in-India compact SUV known as Magnite along the course of this year.