Nissan could soar further on lighter yen

Dubai:

Nissan is keen on the yen… at its current levels. With the Japanese currency fetching more than 100 to a dollar, the carmaker’s regional operations expect a favourable turn of affairs, especially in shipments of bestselling models such as the Patrol.

“A strong yen has historically been a challenge on the distribution side and that’s why we had diversified our sourcing of Nissan models from nine plants outside of Japan,” said Samir Cherfan, managing director at Nissan Middle East. “Definitely, the yen’s level currently will give a push to those models that are still brought in from Japan, such as the Patrol, the pick-up, the sportscars (Nissan 350Z) and many of the models in the Infiniti line-up.

“Just as important, it will compensate for the currency advantage that Korean makes had of late with a weak won.”

Even without a favourable currency, Nissan capped a strong financial year 2013 at its regional operations. Growth tuned in at 26.2 per cent during this period, helped by demand for the core models such as the Sunny and Patrol and incremental gains for recent launches as the Sentra and the brand new Altima (introduced in September last and gained a 30 per cent market share in its category over the three months to December). “It was the first time Altima was selling more than the Camry,” said Cherfan.

Nissan’s overall volumes from these markets totalled 157,100 units in the 12 months to March 2013 and projections are that it would swell to 174,000 units in the current one. The compact sedan Sentra will be a key influence in seeking the higher numbers, with the carmaker expecting the model to record unit volumes of 25,000 from the GCC markets.

“The growth numbers indicate Nissan’s emergence from the supply constraints of FY2011 created by natural disasters in Japan,” the regional head added. “In fact we were among the first of our competitors to do so due to the immediate implementation of counter measures but this did constrain supply to the market.”

The official declined to detail whether the Patrol will be seeing any major changes in the next model cycle. Last year, it had brought out the 60th anniversary year edition.

And what of the recently announced Nismo badge? “Introduction of the Nismo in these markets is a work in progress,” said Cherfan. “The intention of the Nismo introduction is to link up with our sports heritage and create a powerful icon for our existing iconic models. Nismo is certainly not about selling 20,000 cars but create an excitement associated with our models.”