Nissan Beefing up China Business, Aiming at No. 1 Brand in 10 Years

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 02, 2002

Nissan Beefing up China Business, Aiming at No. 1 Brand in 10 Years

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Nissan Motor Co. is strengthening its business in China with hopes of becoming the No. 1 brand in that market by 2010 under a joint venture announced last month, the executive overseeing the project said Wednesday.

Nissan is the latest among Japanese automakers seeking to expand business in China, where the consumer car market is rapidly growing to accommodate an emerging middle class.

Nissan, Japan's No. 3 automaker, is investing 8.6 billion yuan (US$1 billion) into the new company being set up with its Chinese partner Dongfeng Motor Corp., one of China's top three automakers. Each side will take a 50 percent stake in the new company, Dongfeng Motor Co.

The Chinese partner is not investing any capital in the new company, which will build six models of passenger cars by 2006 in addition to the Nissan Bluebird sedan already made there.

"We hope to position ourselves to aim at being No. 1 by 2010, although there'd be competition and other companies will be making similar efforts," Nissan Senior Vice President Katsumi Nakamura, who is in charge of the China business, said at headquarters in Tokyo.

"We want to make Nissan a valuable and meaningful passenger-car brand for our Chinese customers."

Nakamura said Nissan plans to merge its three dealer channels in China into one and increase its dealers from about 100 now to about 300 in 2006.

The new company plans to sell 550,000 vehicles a year by 2006, 220,000 of them passenger cars, and 900,000 vehicles by 2010, to grow into a globally competitive company.

General Motors Corp. of the United States, Germany's Volkswagen and Honda Motor Co. of Japan already make cars in China.

Japan's No. 1 automaker Toyota Motor Corp.'s first sedan being built under its brand in China is set to roll off the assembly line later this month.

Nissan officials say they are confident about playing catch-up with its global rivals.

Nissan's China deal is more expansive than previous deals other foreign automakers won in China, they say, because it covers various models, rather than one model at a time, and it allows Nissan management to play a leading role in product planning, purchasing, quality control and distribution.

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