Nissan India to distribute vehicles and parts directly

Nissan Motor Ltd. has announced that the full responsibility for the sales, marketing and distribution of all Nissan branded vehicles and parts in India has been handed over to the Nissan Motor India Private Ltd (NMIPL). The existing agreement with Hover Automotive India (HAI) for the same has been terminated from today.

Kenichiro Yomura, Nissan President, India Operations, said, “Nissan is now at a point of maturity in India where the time is right to establish our own marketing and distribution operations. Nissan’s priority will be to ensure a smooth transition from current operations. We remain committed to our customers and will continue to deliver high quality products and services.”

NMIPL, the Indian subsidiary of the Nissan, had started its operations in India back in 2005 with the launch of the X-Trail SUV. It controls all of the Nissan cars’ manufacturing operations in the country and the Oragadam plant in Chennai. Back in 2008, plans for the Oragadam plant were just finalised and Nissan probably considered it safe to hand over sales, marketing and distribution operations to a third party. But the customers have always been discontent with the services not being as good as expected from a global manufacturer of this calibre. The presence of a middleman seems to have only complicated the matter and has not worked in Nissan’s favour.

Now with Nissan introducing the Datsun brand to the Indian market, it seems that the Indian arm is confident of managing these operations on its own.