‘I must bring to all of our brands a sense of Japan’

Behind that John Travolta hairstyle and keen sartorial sense, Alfonso Albaisa is a grounded, modest individual. As Senior VP and Head of Global Design for Nissan Motor Company, his climb to the top had its share of hardship and toil.

On his habit of meeting school children and their parents during business trips, he says, “I’m acutely aware of the need to share stories because I myself was extremely lucky to have been a Cuban immigrant in the US, as poor as a church mouse with a struggling family, and have somehow ended up as head of design for one of the largest car companies in the world!”

Alfonso spoke to Business Line during a recent visit to India. Excerpts:

What is the kind of work that the Chennai design studio does?

Typically two types of projects, including those that have been designed just about anywhere, become become rationalised or made real here in Chennai by our engineers. But very quickly we are going to be initiating projects that are designed specifically for India because the needs of the Indian market are very different. We think that it has the potential to be much bigger.

We will be creating some cars from scratch here. There will be downstream work like production engineering design and also upstream like concept creation, including exterior and interior design, colour and the rest.

Will the Chennai studio form part of a strategic position within Nissan’s global operations?

The Chennai studio is the same as the rest in California, London, Brazil and Beijing. They are all allowed to compete and participate in any project that they want. The general rule is that they should first focus on the local business and use the remaining resources for global projects.

These studios serve as the eyes for us and deliver the local expertise that we can’t hope to acquire remotely. For example, the Nissan Kicks for India (based on the same platform as the Renault Captur) will benefit from this local expertise.

After the Kicks, we still have opportunities in many areas. Multiple factors will interplay and influence future products including the model size restrictions that are unique to India. The Kicks will be first, and then we are also bringing the Leaf here and hope to gauge its acceptance and feasibility.

For Nissan, electrification is central and we are already into the second generation of the model. Connectivity is another area we will be focusing on; and both China and India are impressively big into this and way beyond other markets.

Do you believe design of mass market cars can be aspirational to consumers worldwide especially with Datsun design?

Even though I have been with the company for 30 years, I didn’t know enough about Nissan’s home country. So, when I was appointed Head of Design, the first outsider to be offered the role in a Japanese company, I decided to study that market in greater detail.

After doing a few projects, we found some expressions that have meaning for all the brands of the group. So what you are going to be seeing more and more is a return to the foundation that we are Japanese. But, the beauty of the Japanese automobile is its ability to go to different countries and cultures and yet become part of their lives and families. The key is that there is no arrogance of an exporter who wants others to accept what is being offered.

I have an obligation to bring to all of the brands a sense of Japan and yet the spirit of the country that the buyer lives in. The same sensibility to design will run across all the brands irrespective of price position.

All our designers, including the ones in India, will reflect the vision of the group. So, a Japanese brand that is powerful in India is natural; it is frustrating that it is not, yet.

So, we are redoing Datsun and a lot of it is because of a natural evolution of the platform. There will be cars that progress from where they are now to a position where we were allowed to create a different aspiration and meaning to the Datsun brand; as also the Nissan brand.

With Datsuns being put through changes, including a platform change, is this just organic evolution or being being driven by regulation?

Regulation and safety are doubtless big drivers for changes in platforms. These are being renewed for Datsun and will enable entering new segments. So, the new design will reflect brand attributes of robustness and dynamic purity.

As for the current design, I think it is time to move ahead. I got in at a time when the platform change was happening so I had the opportunity to create a new language for the brand.

How will the future wave of electric vehicles and hybrids change automobile design?

Electrics are very important to our portfolio and the Leaf has been such a key car. Over 3,50,000 on the roads and many of the original Leafs are still running with their batteries. So, the EV is here to stay and we are expanding that range with a crossover and we will go even wider with another vehicle which I can’t discuss right now.

From the design point of view it is freeing; it is a bit of a magic carpet with a flat battery pack under the floor and then watermelons (that is the size of the electric motor). It is very liberating because the reduction of volume and positioning the various critical parts and elements, moving cabin features outside is all possible.

The design of the cabin itself can be very different within a compact vehicular footprint. They are also powerful and fun to drive; our next EV — the crossover — will have the torque of the GT-R!