Nissan India may not achieve 2017 market share target of 10 per cent

The decline in the domestic car sales has led Nissan to reconsider its target to claim 10 per cent market share in India'spassenger vehicle market by 2017. This was confirmed by the head of NissanIndia operations, yesterday. 

Nissan made this announcement on the same day they launched the Datsun GO. Although, they are still ambitious on the advent of the low-cost Datsun brand in India. According to industry data Nissan boasts of a market share of 1.4 per cent in India.  

"We are reviewing our mid-term plan," Kenichiro Yomura, president of Nissan India, told Reuters. "I don't know. It could be later," he said, when asked if the company was on track to achieve its market share target for India.

Although, Nissan is still confident about achieving double digit market share in India, the time period is debatable, according to Yomura.

Nissan also said it will fall short of its global target of eight per cent set for 2017 in order to achieve its eight per cent operating profit margin goal for the same period.

However, there is something new apart from the revision of targets that is playing on their minds. The Datsun GO has been launched in India and the car will compete in the small car segment in India against rivals like Maruti Alto, Hyundai Eon etc. Nissan has been very clear about its targets and other details, but to achieve 10 per cent market share in India won’t be an easy task. Nissan would bank on Datsun to achieve this target and may launch the GO+ MPV and the Redi-GO concept based small crossover in India. 

Source: ET