Nissan announced its strategy for India

Nissan has announced its strategy for India that will see the company launch new products, strengthen the Nissan and Datsun brands, expand its dealership network, optimize flexible manufacturing and strengthen R&D facilities together with its Alliance partners in the country. Under the strategy for India market Nissan aims to:

• Launch a product offensive
  • Bring the best of Nissan’s worldwide lineup to India, building on Nissan’s technological leadership in electrification and connected cars
  • Build a strong line up for Datsun in India representing the best of Japanese engineering
• Enhance both the Nissan and Datsun brands
  • Reinforce Nissan as a premium mainstream brand with wide appeal, building on Nissan’s SUV heritage and leading performance globally, starting with the Nissan Kicks
  • Focus the Datsun brand on progressive mobility, with products offering high value to customers equipped with connected technologies
• Strengthen network and teams
  • Double its sales and service touch points and strengthen dealership network in the next three years, from 270 today
  • Expand regional marketing and sales operations teams to four key regions across India
  • Further, develop the Nissan design center in Chennai to ensure cars meet the rapidly changing expectations of Indian customers
• Lead with Digitisation
  • Hire 500 employees in FY 2018 at Nissan’s first Global Digital Hub in Kerala, with further expansion plans. Nissan Digital Hub will focus on innovations in mobility to enhance Nissan’s products worldwide and in India
  • Improve customer service and satisfaction, and expand access to Nissan’s products and services, through digitization and eCommerce

“Nissan is committed to India and has built the foundations to succeed,” said Peyman Kargar, senior vice president of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd and chairman of Nissan in the Africa, Middle East and India (AMI) region.

“Our strategy will strengthen both our brands for our customers across India. The Nissan brand will bring the best of global Nissan products and technology to our customers in India, starting with the Nissan Kicks. For Datsun, we aim to offer compelling products across segments offering value, connectivity and Japanese engineering.”

Since 2010, Alliance has invested INR 61 billion in India and will continue to focus on the Indian market to further develop its engineering, research and development and manufacturing operations in India.

The Alliance is already India’s largest automotive research and development employer through the Renault Nissan Technology Business Centre for India in Chennai. Further, the Alliance’s plant in Chennai is a global manufacturing hub exporting to 106 countries.

The continued commitment to the Indian market will be driven by a three-part plan focused on people, processes and product innovation:

• People
  • Optimise opportunities for transfers and advancement between manufacturing, R&D and other operations for all employees
  • Train plant workforce to prepare for the increased demands of manufacturing next-generation cars; 10% of employees to be trained in the first year
  • Reinforce flexibility of manufacturing through career mobility between Alliance organizations, recruitment of people with future-technology skills and, in areas where there is a surplus of skills today, offering a voluntary option of financial support for plant employees who wish to pursue opportunities elsewhere
• Processes
  • Reduce complexity through the greater use of common platforms as part of the Alliance 2022 goal for 9 million cars per year globally to be based on four common platforms by 2022
  • Substantially increase plant utilization enabling greater efficiency
• Product innovations
  • Harness opportunities in India from Nissan’s global leadership in electrification, connected cars
  • Further enhance India as a global hub for innovation, and continue to build capacity to develop products to meet the expectations of Indian customers.
  • Hire 1,000 more engineers at RNTBCI to further enhance the Alliance’s number one position in R&D in India

“In the coming years in India, we will grow and our workforce will shift towards highly skilled jobs to lead the technological changes coming to the auto industry in India,” said Kargar.

“Our aim is to ensure our operations in India are best in class, and that India becomes an even more significant global hub for Nissan and the Alliance in manufacturing, engineering and research and development. Our strategy in India is to invest in talent and people.”