Nissan's big small car push

Nissan Australia is making no secret that it is targeting the title of Australia's leading fully imported brand by the end of 2012. The details on how they intend to achieve such a feat are becoming clearer.

The next-generation Micra light car and Tiida-replacing small car will lead a complete overhaul of the brand's passenger car segment over the next three and a half years. And that could mean replacing the Tiida nameplate with the much-loved Pulsar branding.

"We have to deliver a complete revitalisation of the passenger car line," says Nissan Australia CEO, Dan Thompson. "So it's not just light cars, it's small cars, it's the whole lot including Dualis. We've got good presence, good product in the SUV segment and the light commercial but it's really passenger vehicles that will take us to that next level.

"I think light car, which is Micra for us today, and small car, which is Tiida for us today, have huge upside potential for us in the GT2012 period, in the back side," he adds. "Delivering the proper light car and the proper small car to Nissan. That's where the greatest upside through share is for us."

Tiida has failed to live up to the high expectations on its arrival in 2006. Thompson is hopeful that the new model will turn the car's performance around and make up lost ground on the likes of the Mazda3, Toyota Corolla and Ford Focus. But there will still be a wait for it.

"There will be a Tiida replacement," he says. "That's also many years out."

And before then there will not be any significant changes to the Tiida line-up. Instead all efforts will be held for the new model.

"We have no plans to expand the range per se over the next two years, if you count '09 as year one and '10 as year two," he says. "We're very much looking to maintain share in the market, we're not looking to aggressively grow share.  We're looking to re-establish the brand loyalties and getting back to some of the basics. Then when the core models come on line is when we'll really start to look to grow share."

Part of that push could be a return to the Pulsar name. It was clear from the beginning that the Japanese HQ was forcing the Tidda name onto the Australian operation and the concerns of the locals have proven well founded. Tiida hasn't captured the Australian public in the same way the Pulsar name did during its time.

Although he stopped short of confirming that Tiida would be dropped to make way for Pulsar to return Thompson admits that the name still holds lot of value in the Australian small car market.

"I certainly hope there is a chance we can resurrect it for the next generation small car," he says. "It's still too early to have those discussions with Japan yet. But I think we all believe that name has plenty of equity and even still today it resonates in this market. It's still very much associated with the Nissan brand. So we'll see."

The Micra is also due for a replacement in coming years and it too will not be the subject of major changes before then. But the next model could open up far more options.

"With the current generations of Micra and Tiida we won't make any line-up changes until the new generation," he reveals. "At this point we're looking at all kind of options with both the small and the light car replacements; powertrains, configurations, the whole lot."

Another crucial element of the plan for both new models is where they will be manufactured. Currently the Tiida is sourced from the company's Thailand factory with the Micra coming from Japan. The new Maxima will come from the Thai facility and Thompson admits more models could also be sourced from the country.

"Yeah, over the coming years absolutely. So obviously we are bringing part of our car range out of Thailand and we continue to look to see what we can resource from Thailand. Maxima is the first product from there. Every future product will have Thailand in the mix, whether it ends up getting sourced from there or India or Japan or wherever the case may be Thailand will certainly be in the mix. We have the capacity, we've made the investment locally in Thailand for it to be a significant export base for Nissan."

But Nissan has also invested in building a new factory in India and the next Micra is expected to be the first model built there. Thompson says that although Thailand and India currently allow companies to gain a pricing advantage because of exchange rates and labour costs that will not be the case much longer.

"Fast forward a few years down the road I think everybody will be sourcing from low cost countries," he says.

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