DH Interview | All OEMs eagerly awaiting the upcoming festive season to boost sales: Nissan India MD

Bengaluru: Selling just one of its models - Magnite - in the Indian market, Japan’s Nissan has been rather slow in courting it. But that is going to change this year as its India arm - Nissan Motor India Pvt Ltd  - gears to launch four new models over the next three years. This will include two  mid-size SUVs, one electric vehicle and a face-lifted variant of Magnite. Earlier this month, it also launched its premium SUV, X-Trail - which it is importing as completely built-up (CBU) units. The 14-year-old subsidiary expects the exercise to yield a domestic sales rise of over 3% through FY26. In a free-wheeling conversation with DH’s Abhilash Reddy, Nissan India’s managing director, Saurabh Vatsa, threw light on the company’s strategy to play it slow in the market not just in the past but also going forward in introducing hybrid models. 

What is your outlook for the current fiscal year ?

If you look at the quarter one of this financial year, it had been a subdued growth. On a TIB (total industry benchmark) basis, we've lost about 50,000 units. But the market has softened up a little bit since then, and Nissan dealers have a decent stock today. They are at about 27 to 29 days of stock. We are estimating the industry to grow at 6-7% for  the current financial year. All original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are looking forward to a very strong festive season and so are we. In terms of vehicle sales, we are expecting  33,000-35,000 units this year which is almost the same as last fiscal.

How do you plan to improve your market share?

We're going to increase our vehicle sales from over 30,000 units in the last fiscal to 100,000 by FY26. Moreover, we are going to export over 1,00,000 vehicles and to 40 countries from 17 countries at present by FY26. Right now we are at about  0.67% of the total industry volume (TIV) in India. This will take us to beyond 2% in terms of TIV and that's what we are targeting. There are many things in the pipeline to further increase our market share which we can't share with you right now.

What took you so long to update of your lineup and what are your upcoming models?

I think Nissan has taken a little bit of time, and that time was very consciously taken to strategise for India. We are going to introduce four new models including an electric vehicle, all  SUVs (sports utility vehicles), by 2026, in addition to the recent launch of Nissan fourth generation X-Trail which is being imported as a completely built-up unit (CBU). All the four new models will be manufactured in India. So essentially, when you say delayed launch, yes,  but now whatever I'm telling you is only till FY26. We are going from one car company to a five car company in 30 months. Normally, you see five cars coming over a period of three, four years. We have an internal ambition plan which goes to 2030 but we can't disclose that. Regarding the pricing of the electric vehicle (EV), it will be affordable. It’s too early to comment on the exact pricing. Even for the SUVs, we are looking at competitive pricing.

Why are you bringing in the X-Trail as CBUs instead of manufacturing it in India?

Because of three reasons. One, you are able to pick and choose what you want to bring from outside to India. Two, you are able to configure the vehicle and cater to the different consumers the way the consumers want it. So it's a customer first strategy. And number three, you can get the global best from different parts of the world, regardless of volumes. So you can get small volume cars. You can get high volume cars, and you can bring them to the Indian market very quickly. You don't have to wait, invest, develop a line, build a vehicle, test it, validate it, and then bring it to the market. Moreover, we don’t want to set up a (production) line right now for small volumes. Because, when you are bringing in high quality, high tech cars from outside, you will not be able to sell them in super high volumes. And when you're not able to sell them in super high volumes, you'll never be able to justify the investment on the line. What we need right now as a brand is that we need to showcase the best technologies that we have.

What about hybrid vehicles? Any plans to launch them?

Consumers today, clearly, are still giving a high preference to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and they are going to ultimately decide  what he or she wants.  You can't force the consumer to buy a particular technology. The governments will always put ambitious targets but EVs market share is still a percentage and half. So, if the consumers decide that they are not shifting there, we can't really drive that. Our focus will be ICE vehicles till FY26 since 96% is still ICE. Nonetheless, we have decided in our Nissan internal strategy that we are going to have a very balanced portfolio. When we think that we need to bring in the hybrid, and we have enough volume in the market, we will do that. We have the technology, but I can't tell you when exactly as we don't have a firm timeline.