Nissan is highly confident about achieving its midterm business plan in Thailand which was announced in July 2011.
Takayuki Kimura (left), president of Nissan Motor Thailand, and Toshiyuki Shiga, chief operating officer of Nissan Motor, pose with the new Sylphy. The Sylphy has newly developed 1.8- and 1.6-litre engines featuring dual injection for the first time in this segment.
Under the Nissan Motor Thailand (NMT) Power Up 2016, Nissan plans to introduce two new models a year or 10 models from 2011-2016 in order to achieve 15% share of the Thai market in 2016.
Nissan introduced the Almera eco-car sedan early last year and yesterday it unveiled the Nissan Sylphy compact sedan as the second new model under NMT Power Up 2016.
The Japanese carmaker achieved a 9.2% market share in 2011 when the midterm plan was introduced. In 2009, Nissan's share was only 5.7%.
"We will introduce nine more models during the midterm plan period. I am confident that this will contribute to our goal of doubling sales and achieving more than a 15% market share by the end of 2016," said Toshiyuki Shiga, Nissan Motor's chief operating officer, who attended the debut of the Nissan Sylphy in Bangkok yesterday.
Nissan's sales and after-sales network will be expanded from 171 to 210 by next year. Figures for 2016 were not disclosed.
Nissan has maintained leadership in the eco-car segment.
Car of the Year winners March, the eco-car hatchback introduced in the Thai market in March 2010, and Almera now command 63% of the eco-car segment in the Thai market, said Mr Shiga.
Nissan achieved sales of 100,000 eco-cars in August, according to NMT's president Takayuki Kimura.
For the first half this calendar year, Nissan posted record sales with a 40% increase year-on-year, keeping business on track and robust.
"We will surely reach a double-digit market share this year with sales of more than 120,000 units," said Mr Kimura.
Nissan yesterday introduced the Sylphy, the third generation of the compact sedan in Thailand, the second market after China.
Thailand will serve as a regional production base for the Sylphy. Exports of the Thai-built Sylphy to the Middle East and Australia are slated for the near future.
The Sylphy has newly developed 1.8- and 1.6-litre engines featuring dual injection for the first time in this segment.
"We expect to sell 20,000 units of the Sylphy by the end of 2012 fiscal year ending March 2013 despite that fact competition in the compact car segment is intense and there are very strong players," said Mr Kimura.
The Sylphy, equipped with both manual and automatic gearboxes, is priced at 746,000 baht for the standard version and 833,000 baht for the top version.
The 1.8-litre Sylphy is priced at 899,000 baht and 931,000 baht.