Nissan eyes 5% market share in India by 2022, says Thomas Kuehl

On the backdrop of a slowdown in sales, Japanese auto major Nissan has pushed its timeline to achieve the goal of five per cent market share in India by two more years, from the earlier fixed 2020. 

It achieved 1.6 per cent market share and ninth position among car makers in India recently.

Both Nissan and Datsun saw sales decline during FY18. The Datsun brand has been the focus of the car maker in the past four years. Together, the two brands clocked a local volume of 52,796 units.

In FY16, the figure stood at 39,389 units, compared with 47,474 units in FY15, while sales in FY17 picked up to 57,300 units, thanks to the Datsun brand. 

In FY18, however, sales dropped to 52,796 units, according to numbers provided by SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers).

President of Nissan India Operations, Thomas Kuehl, who took charge last year, has said the plan is to reach five per cent by 2022. 

The company had a launch cycle of one to two years for new products so far, while plans are to launch one in six months starting this festival season, he said. Earlier, the company management said its plans were to achieve the five per cent target by 2020. 

“In the next 12-18 months, we will add another one per cent market share and will see the next big push coming after the Bharat VI implementation. We have more products to come and we will have a presence in segments where we are not there today,” said Kuehl.