The Nissan 370Z is here

The company faces tough fight in the sports car space

It’s action time in the sports car segment with Japanese car giant Nissan Motor on Wednesday launching its flagship sports car — the 370Z — in India.

The 370Z, a two-door, two-seater compact yet powerful car, debuted in the US market in 2008 and has already sold more than 1.5 million units worldwide. The company is expecting to sell almost 50 units of the vehicle in India over the next one year. Nissan has priced the cars at Rs 53.5 lakh for the six-speed manual version and Rs 54.5 lakh for the seven-speed auto version (ex-showroom Delhi).

Kiminobu Tokuyama, managing director and CEO, Nissan Motor India, says the company is confident of creating a robust demand for the 370Z in India as is the case internationally. “We also believe that the 370Z will create an aspirational value for the Nissan brand in the country. The growing buying power (of Indians) is reason enough for us to bring this car here,” he says.

Nissan, however, faces tough competition as Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, Porsche and Audi are already in India with their sports cars and have been reporting a steady increase in sales despite the steep price tag ranging from Rs 55 lakh to Rs 1 crore.

Analysts say the big boys sell about 150 sports cars a year, which is still quite small considering that luxury cars sell over 4,000. But the good news is that the sports car segment is growing at 30 per cent. With newer players like Nissan coming in, analysts expect more customers, specially those who were buying second hand sports cars.

A sports car is so called because of its finer agility, superior handling, brisk acceleration and sharp braking, when compared to other mass selling or luxury cars. Most of the driving characteristics for a modern day sports car are generally derived from Formula 1 cars.

While Nissan has started accepting bookings for the 370Z, German car maker Mercedes Benz is gearing up to bring the SLS AMG, a two-door sports car, which it showcased at the recently concluded Auto Expo in Delhi. The car will be launched by the company in India a few months after it goes on sale in Europe which is scheduled by the middle of this year.

Wilfried Aulbur, managing director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz, is confident of the market growing even faster. Mercedes is currently the largest importer of luxury cars into India and imported a total of 210 units, including luxury sedans, sports utility vehicles and coupes.

Another German company, Porsche, has reported robust sales of the Boxter, Cayman and 911 range, all of which are cult sports cars. Rod Wallace, managing director of Porsche’s distribution company Precision Cars, says “The response to Porsche's new sports car models like the 911 Turbo and the Panamera has been encouraging and we are confident that the introduction of the latest models of Boxster and Cayman in February will raise consumer interest in luxury sports cars.”

BMW, which launched the Z4 convertible priced at Rs 59 lakh in October last year, is also drawing favourable response from the local market and is on course to meet its sales target of 40 units in the first year.

Tata-owned luxury car brand Jaguar is also witnessing a favourable response for the XK convertible which comes at a price tag of Rs 92 lakh.