Nissan Motor Company, which last year decided to re-launch the Datsun brand and showcased the first Datsun car the ‘Go’ for the first time in the world at an event in New Delhi, will have an aggressive roll-out plan once sales start in mid-2014.
Speaking exclusively to The Pioneer, Ashwani Gupta, Program Director, Datsun India said that he expects the new ‘Go’ to make quite a splash on the market when it is launched. “The big plus point of this car is that we started with a white-sheet of paper and designed this car for India”, Gupta said, adding that, “in the process we discovered that Indian consumers use cars very differently and made such changes. For example, the Go will be far more comfortable for passengers in the back seats than competing vehicles because we developed a different sort of suspension system for the rear.” Also, by starting with a fresh design, Gupta said that most parts for the car were indigenized from the very start, and Datsun did not need to spend on an expensive ‘localisation’ program.
Nissan re-launched the Datsun brand for developing markets like India, Indonesia, Russia and Brazil. The chief executive of the Nissan-Renault combine Carlos Ghosn wanted a brand that could slot below Nissan to attract first time car-buyers in these countries, much like the Infiniti brand targets luxury car buyers at the top of the market. India, where Nissan-Renault operates a huge 400,000 vehicle a year plant outside Chennai will be the first market where Datsun will be relaunched. Nissan, which launched the Micra in India in 2010 has enjoyed limited success with the Micra and Sunny.
With an expected starting price of under Rs 4 lakh, the Datsun Go is expected to compete with products such as the Maruti WagonR and Hyundai i10, current best-sellers on the market. Gupta stated that to achieve success Datsun will ensure that the vehicle is available as soon as possible, and that the vehicle was being targeted at first-time car-buyers/users.
“We will have exclusive Datsun showrooms, where our sales-persons will be trained to be customer oriented. First-time car-buyers tend to be a bit shier than people who buy cars a second or third time’, Gupta stated. As a lot of car sales are done through ‘word of mouth’ according to him, Datsun will make special efforts to reach out to ‘influencers’ both online and offline. Datsun will also build up a new network of dealers, working with existing Nissan dealers and new dealers as well, although Gupta declined to be drawn into specifics.
Much has also been made of the Datsun Go+, a multi-purpose vehicle which will be Datsun’s launch vehicle in Indonesia. Based on the Go platform such a vehicle is also expected to come to India soon. “We have no concrete plans for the Go+ as yet, but such a vehicle could be launched soon. It is a spacious car which will be ideal for joint-families in India and it is also below four meters in length (so as to not attract higher excise duties). However, our immediate plans are for the Go”, Gupta said.