Japanese carmaker Nissan is targeting domestic sales and exports of 100,000 units each next financial year as part of what it calls its “India resurgence plan”, under which it is launching three cars in less than 12 months, said Thierry Sabbagh, president (Middle East, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Commonwealth of Independent States and India), on Wednesday.
From April to January 2025-26, Nissan rolled out 89,987 vehicles from its Indian operations. Of those 17,662 units were sold in the domestic market and 68,091 units were shipped overseas.
After years of relying largely on a single model -- the Magnite -- Nissan expanded its India portfolio on Tuesday night with the launch of the Nissan Gravite, a new seven-seat multipurpose vehicle (MPV) at an introductory ex-showroom price starting from ₹5.65 lakh.
Sabbagh gave an outline of the carmaker’s renewed India push. He described India as a “core growth market” in Nissan’s global strategy. Rather than aiming to be strong everywhere, Nissan has identified key markets globally, positioning India as a growth market alongside its home market.
A key enabler of the export push could be India’s recent free-trade agreements (FTAs) with countries and regions such as the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Sabbagh said Nissan had leveraged the India-United Arab Emirates trade pact to boost exports from India. Nissan is closely tracking new FTAs signed by India and evaluating how it can support its export plans, according to him.
“If any new FTAs are signed, our job is to review them and determine if we can build on them or if they can help. So if that’s the case, we will do that,” he said. With geopolitical shifts and supply-chain realignments reshaping the auto industry, Sabbagh said agility in decision-making had become critical.
Central to the India strategy is a fresh product offensive. Sabbagh said Nissan’s launch of three products would be in key segments. All three will be built locally.
Apart from the Gravite, which is a rebadged version of the Renault Triber, Nissan is planning to introduce the mid-size SUV (sport utility vehicle) Tekton around mid-year, followed by a larger seven-seater C-segment SUV. The Tekton will be based on the recently launched Renault Duster.
Renault and Nissan are alliance partners under the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, sharing platforms, technology, and manufacturing facilities globally, including in India.
The company’s approach rested on what Sabbagh described as “India for India” and “India for the world”.
Nissan is present in the country since 1965 and had used India as an export base in the past, including for models such as the Sunny and, more recently, the Magnite.
Network expansion is another pillar of the India strategy. Nissan has around 170 sales touchpoints and plans to expand it to about 250 by the end of the year.
 "Nissan targets 100k exports in FY27 as part of renewed India growth plan")
