The Hindu Business Line : Nissan focussing on brand building

Hyderabad May 1 Ahead of the launch of the tripartite manufacturing facility in 2009, Nissan Motor India has decided to go for a major brand-building exercise by offering high-end luxury vehicles.

"We will see the response to our vehicles. This will help us identify the vehicles from the Nissan stable for further launches," Mr Neeraj Garg, Director (Marketing and Sales) of Nissan Motor India, told Business Line.

Mr Garg was here in connection with the launch of Teana, a luxury sedan, which has a price tag of Rs 20.47 lakh (ex-showroom, Hyderabad). This is the second vehicle from Nissan after X-Trial launched three years ago.

It has set a sales target of 350 for Teana for 2007-08. "We have already sold 50 units," he said.

"We are not worried about the volumes for now. We are concentrating on building the brand out here," he said.

Tripartite company

The company hopes to build a brand to reckon with by the time the 1,000-acre Chennai plant gets ready for manufacturing in the next two years. The Rs 4,000-crore plant would be set up through a joint venture company to be formed by Nissan with Mahindra & Mahindra and Renault. It would reach a capacity of four lakh units in seven years when all the investments are made into the project.

Mahindras would have 50 per cent stake in the company, while the two would add up to the remaining stake. The break up between the two had yet to be finalised.

"We are in the process of formalising the company and naming it. Also, we are working on the split of manufacturing capacities among the three players," Mr Garg said.

Asked whether there won't be any conflict of interest among the three, he said in fact it would be a healthy competition. Nissan Motor would utilise its share of capacity to focus on the Indian market.

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