NISSAN SHUFFLES BRASS AS PROJECTS FACE DELAYS

 The global economic downturn and realities of the Indian automobile market appear to be forcing Nissan Motor to change its strategy. Till last year, the company was viewing India as a "frugal engineering" opportunity, with ambitious manufacturing plans and a detailed product rollout calendar. Though product rollouts are still largely on track, the pace of development on several fronts has slowed down.

Nissan operates a wholly owned subsidiary, Nissan Motor India, a manufacturing joint venture with sister company Renault called Renault Nissan Automotive India and another JV with Ashok Leyland for light commercial vehicles. Besides, it is working with Renault and Bajaj Auto to develop an ultra low cost (ULC) car.

Patrick Pelata, the COO of Renault SA, has already conceded the likelihood of a "slight delay" in the ULC project due to Bajaj's objections on the positioning of the vehicle.
Going by sources, though several prototypes of the vehicle have been prepared, none has been finalised so far. Thus, though both Renault and Nissan appear committed to this ambitious project, Bajaj Auto may well go it alone in the end.

On its part, the LCV JV with Leyland is also suffering. Land acquisition for the project, near Chennai, has been delayed and the partners appear to be looking at scaling down the venture.

A Nissan spokesperson told DNA Money, "Nissan is studying the optimisation of its investments for its LCV business unit. Studies are ongoing and at this stage, we have no comment to make on the timing or outcomes."

Meanwhile, the attempts of Hover, the Indian company which handles marketing, distribution and sales of the X-Trail and Teana cars for Nissan within India, to expand dealership network remain unsuccessful.

Some months ago, Hover had roped in Nitish Tipnis from Reliance Retail for the top job. However, going by sources, the limited sales numbers of the two cars have ensured that the total number of dealerships remain at five.

In a far reaching organisational shake up late last week, Nissan announced the appointment of two separate heads for the manufacturing operations at Chennai and the marketing, sales and distribution function (outsourced to Hover Automotive but based out of Mumbai). Till now, both these functions were being looked after by Shohei Kimura.
But from April 1, Kiminobu Tokuyama has been promoted to the post of MD & CEO of Nissan Motor India even as Neeraj Garg, director and well-known Indian face at the company, has put in his papers.

Tokuyama would look after exports and domestic business for Nissan, the spokesperson said. Sources say he would also be the headquarters' key operative in dealing with the Leyland JV and the ULC projects.

Akira Sakurai, the current general manager of vehicle production engineering division at Renault Nissan Automotive India has been appointed the MD and CEO. Sakurai would be based in Chennai, looking after the production function. The company insists that production of next generation car 'Micra' remains in track from next year.