Nissan aims A-platform small cars and Ultra Low cost at South America

Nissan Motor Co. plans to market throughout South America a family of small cars imported from China, India, Thailand and Mexico.

Nissan aims to boost its market share in a region where it and other Japanese automakers have a modest presence.

Heading the sales effort will be Carlos Tavares, the new chairman of Nissan Americas. Tavares noted that Nissan has a 20 percent market share in Mexico but less than 1 percent in Brazil. He estimated that Nissan’s combined market share across South America, excluding Brazil, is about 8 percent.

“We have a huge diversity of situations around the region,” Tavares said this afternoon during a conference call with reporters.

Nissan will use its low-cost A platform as the basis of what Tavares called a full line of new vehicles for markets such as Brazil and Argentina. The company initially will rely on a Renault assembly plant in Curitiba, Brazil, to build the vehicles. As sales grow, Tavares said, Nissan may have to expand manufacturing capacity.

The South American sales push might include a very low-priced vehicle under consideration for production in India. That project, by Bajaj Auto, would produce a car intended to sell for about $3,000.

Said Tavares: “This is a candidate.”

Source by : Lindsay Chappell AT www.autonews.com