Do you remember Datsun? Well if you do then yhou are abour my age. This was what Nissan was called in the early days of its motoring. Then the decision to use the Nissan nameplate was decided and it was taken globally.
Now strong rumors say that Nissan may very soon revive the Datsun nameplate as a low-cost sub-brand for emerging markets such as Russia and India. Just like the ‘Logan’ nameplate for Renault.
Nissan plans to relaunch Datsun in 2014 and initially start selling the cars in Russia, India and Indonesia. A focus on expanding sales in emerging markets is a key pillar of Nissan’s mid-term business plan. It aims to make countries such as India, Brazil, China and Russia account for 60 percent of its global sales by 2016, from 40 percent in 2007.
It also has ambitious goals for expanding market share in emerging markets. Many of the upcoming Datsuns are expected to ride on Nissan’s global V-platform for low-cost small cars and source most of their parts locally. But in Russia, Nissan will use platforms supplied by its local partner AvtoVaz. Nissan targets global volume of 300,000 units a year for Datsun.
