Nissan Surprises in China
Whereas other Japanese carmakers struggle a bit in keeping up with the still quite hot Chinese market, Nissan finds itself way ahead. Nissan’s China sales rose 51.4 percent in the first half to 503,077 vehicles, says The Nikkei [sub]. Reason given: strong demand from middle-class buyers. The Chinese market as a whole rose some 30 percent in the first six months.
Nissan President Carlos Ghosn had said in April that Nissan wants to sell 850,000 vehicles in China this year. Nissan already has fulfilled 58 percent of the target. June sales were boosted by the popularity of the Teana and Sylphy sedans. Teana sales rose 145.1 percent to 12,638 units, Syphy sales rose 128.9 percent to 12,128 units.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Hi Bertel, Well in Brazil, Nissan can't seem to get their *** together. Though improving little by little they insist on overpricing their offerings. For you to have an idea, they recently launched the Versa sedan here. For more than 50K reais! It'll go nowhere. It faces strict competition from sedans like the Polo, Linea, Hinda City, not to mention hatches like Focus, Stilo and even C3. For next year they have plans to built the Micra in Brazil. Let's see how that goes. The same as for Etios. Price it at 30K it'll sell. But from their corporate communications so far, talking about how the car would be a "premium" compact, it won't go anywhere. And they desperately need volume in Brazil as they occupy close to zero mindspace with Brazilian consumers. It's a shame. I want to like them, but they give me no reason.
Here in Venezuela the Versa (or Tiida as it was named) was stupid expensive. Near Sentra prices.
Wow, is that how they sell cars in China? Show off crazy weird planets aligning cg videos? Haha. Weird, culture clash. It's new lunar year! Buy a Nissan! We'll give you a moon cake! ^_________^