Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Thailand is confident about its sales prospects in fiscal year 2018 starting in April, hoping to grow in line with the overall Thai market.
President Antoine Barthes said Nissan forecasts the car market to stand at 920,000 cars throughout fiscal year 2018, a slight 2.2% rise. But he said it would be too early to disclose a sales volume as the company is working on those figures.
"2018 will be a promising year for Nissan to keep its momentum after we grew faster than other car brands in the mass market last year," said Mr Barthes.
Nissan sold 55,449 cars during April to February, a 46.4% gain from the same period the last fiscal year.
The performance is expected to be the best in five years.
He said Nissan has earned a market share of 6.9% as of February, up by 1.3 percentage points.
"We aim for promising growth in the upcoming fiscal year," he said.
Nissan recorded its best year in fiscal 2012 with 138,000 vehicles sold, propelled by the first-time car buyer scheme, before dropping to 74,000 in 2013.
Nissan sold 56,600 vehicles in fiscal 2014, down 23.5%, and 49,032 in fiscal 2015, a dip of 13.4%. In fiscal 2016, Nissan sold 44,331 cars, down 9.6%.
Nissan sells 11 models -- the Note, Almera, March, Sylphy, Pulsar, Juke, X-Trail, Teana, Livina, Navara and Urvan -- covering eco-cars, sedans, sport utility vehicles, pickups and vans.
In a related development, Nissan is importing its famous sports car, the GT-R, to be sold locally at a price of 13.5 million baht at its exclusive dealer -- Siam Nissan TKF.
The GT-R is equipped with a 3.8-litre, 24-valve twin-turbocharged V6 engine, each unit handcrafted in Yokohama by its own Takumi master technician. It is produced at Nissan's world-class plant in Tochigi, Japan.
Mr Barthes said Nissan committed to begin selling its 100%-electric Nissan Leaf in seven markets in Asia and Oceania, including Thailand, during the upcoming fiscal year.
"We will sell the Leaf locally sometime in the next fiscal year after teaming up with Frost & Sullivan to conduct a survey about the perception of electric vehicles (EV) among buyers in Southeast Asia," he said.
"In Thailand, we found 44% of 300 buyers are looking to buy pure electric cars and are willing to buy them at a 50% premium of the price of regular vehicles."
Antoine Barthes, President of Nissan Motor Thailand with the Nissan GT-R