Nissan wants to be No1 importer

Nissan Australia is about to embark on an ambitious sales drive to become the biggest import-only car brand in Australia -- a position long held by fellow Japanese brand Mazda and currently under threat from Korean maker, Hyundai.

Although Nissan sales are up 22 per cent so far this year, it still has a tough job ahead to achieve its goal. Nissan is currently ranked seventh in the Top 10 car makers -- and would need to climb to fourth behind Australia's three local manufacturers Toyota, Holden and Ford.

But Nissan Australia boss Dan Thompson says the target is to outsell his import rivals by the end of March 2013 -- the end of the Japanese financial year and a deadline for Nissan's global sales push.

As Nissan released two new high-output diesel versions of the Pathfinder 4WD and Navara ute in Brisbane today, Thompson said: "There is no reason we can't be the number one importer in Australia. We have a lot of new and refreshed models coming and, quite frankly, right now we're not playing in all segments of the market."

Thompson said Nissan Australia plans to more than quadruple sales of the new Nissan Micra, in showrooms later this month. The company has set the same ambitious target for the Tiida small car replacement due next year and which will likely see the revival of the popular Pulsar name.

"If you look at our sales mix today, in SUV and commercial we're generally in third or fourth. It is passenger vehicles that we are outside the Top 10 and we are going to address that," he said.

"We sell a few hundred Tiidas a month, Mazda sells a few thousand Mazda3s. We've been doing 400 to 500 Micras a month instead of 2000. So once these new models come on line we will be really strong."

Thompson said once Nissan fills the gaps in its line-up the target won't seem ambitious at all.

"I believe Nissan, outside of Toyota, probably has the closest representation of a full model line-up of any brand," he said. "But we do have a few small segments that are not covered or we could improve upon."

He said in addition to the new Micra and Tiida small cars, the company was also considering a Micra-based sedan that would come out of the Thailand factory. He plans to re-introduce Nissan vans in Australia and there is also a small-medium sized car that would fit between the Tiida and Maxima, he said.

"Two years ago we didn't have a high level of confidence that the light sedan market would evolve, sedans only represented about 10 per cent of the light segment. But with some competitors moving into the sedan space, and with Nissan moving to Thai production for this car, there is a growing market and it now makes more sense.

"We believe there is an opportunity with medium cars. We're looking to have a product a bit further down the track that may fill that void.

"And through the Nissan-Renault Alliance we are also looking at vans. Vans won't give us huge sales growth but we are better to have than to not have it. Nissan used to sell vans in this country for quite a long time."

According to sales figures to September 2010, here's how the top 10 brands compare:
Toyota: 157,538 - up 10.2 per cent
Holden: 101,169 - up 18.1 per cent
Ford: 73,071 - up 4 per cent
Mazda: 65,568 - up 13.6 per cent
Hyundai: 61,582 - up 29.3 per cent
Mitsubishi: 47,217 - up 17.8 per cent
Nissan: 46,898 - up 22.0 per cent
Subaru: 30,697 - up 12.8 per cent
Honda: 30,677 - down 3.7 per cent
Volkswagen: 28,475 - up 25.3 per cent
Source: FCAI

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