Dubai: The new 2010 Patrol from Nissan Motors Company will take over the Middle East's sports utility vehicle market, a top company official said .
At a media gathering for the new Nissan Patrol, chief executive and president Carlos Ghosn said he expects the company's flagship model to gain the maximum possible market share in the region.
"With our name, with our potential, we should do much better than today," he told reporters.
Michel Ayat, chief executive of Arabian Automobiles Company, distributor of Nissan's products in the UAE and part of the AW Rostamani Group, said: "I will not accept less than the number one [position in the market]."
Branded as the ‘Hero of all terrain', the company forecasts the sale of 20,000 vehicles of the model this year globally.
"You can't be a hero and come number three or number two. The hero has to be number one," Ghosn said.
The seventh-generation model has a new 4x4 system tuned for sand, on-road, snow and rock conditions. It comes with a V8 5.6 litre engine and is specifically designed and tested for the Middle East.
Ghosn said the company had invested at least $500 million in developing the car. With an average life cycle of 10 years, the Patrol is expected to be a long-lasting investment.
While 2009 was a "terrible" year with a 30 per cent drop in sales in the region, "2010 will probably be stable compared to 2009 and we should see a recovery in 2011," he said, adding that he is "very optimistic".
Overall, the company expects to sell 3.4 million cars globally this year.
