DATSUN CARS ARE LEAVING RUSSIAN MARKET

Nissan is winding down the production of Datsun cars in Russia. Unpleasant news for many Russian dealers was announced in the framework of the four-year plan for the automotive alliance, which was presented on May 28, 2020.

The concern plans to achieve sustainable growth and increase profitability by the end of 2023. According to Makoto Uchida, the CEO of Nissan, the company is changing its strategy. Instead of bloated expansion, Nissan managers decided to optimize the business and rationalize the costs.

The fact that the Datsun brand is living out its last days in Russia, have been predicted by the experts since the last year. Nissan's plans to reduce capacity in non-core markets have been voiced before.

The representatives of the company stated that they would try to focus their efforts on the growth of the car sales and their promotion in the markets of China, the USA and Japan itself.

The local publications reported, in particular, that they would stop assembling Datsun cars at Tolyatti factories in 2020. However, earlier this information was disproved by the employees of the Russian office of Nissan.

We should recall that Datsun cars were assembled in Russia at AvtoVAZ enterprises. They were based on Lada car models (Granta, Kalina). The first model was created as the Datsun On-DO sedan, and the second as the Mi-DO hatchback. In fact, both models were adapted for the developing countries and were sold in an inexpensive price segment. Russian production has been established since August 2014.

The Representatives of the company note that the termination of the assembly of Datsun has not yet affected other brands produced and sold in Russia.

Terrano cars, assembled at a factory in Moscow in parallel with Renault Duster, would continue to be released. What is more, the St. Petersburg plant, which produces cars of the brand Qashqai, X-Trail and Murano, will not change the work schedule. Last year, the release of the cars, however, decreased by 7.4%.The plant in St. Petersburg produced only 52.3 thousand cars in 2019. At the same time, the Qashqai brand became the most popular model. 27 thousand cars were produced per year, which exceeds the volumes of 2018 by 3%.

Nissan Company plans to leave the South Korean market as well to optimize the ASEAN markets.

The car producers are looking for the opportunities to expand their presence in the electric car market, to introduce the ProPILO driver assistance system in more than 20 models. In the next year and a half, despite the reduction in the lineup from 69 to 55 models, the Japanese promise to introduce 12 new models of cars of the future. Whether they will appear on the Russian market, is still unknown.