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Sunny Days Ahead - Kenichiro Yomura, President, Nissan India Operations and MD & CEO - Nissan Motor India Pvt Ltd

By Niranjan Mudholkar,

Added 10 September 2014

He is committed to build Nissan into one of the largest overseas manufacturers in the country with a significant share of the market.

Yomura is quite sure that Nissan will be able to build momentum over the good start it has got in this year and that's why his outlook for this year remains positive driven by new product offerings in key growth market segments. These include refreshed Sunny and Datsun GO+. "We will achieve double digit growth in India this year," he states.

To support its product range, Nissan India has a robust retail presence. It has created 129 outlets in less than four years building one of the most rapidly established networks of any new entrant. But Yomura wants to go further.

"We plan to have 200 outlets by the end of FY14; 300 outlets by FY16 with an aim to cover 98 percent of network TIV (total industry volume) by FY16. Our key focus on Tier 2 & 3 markets with high TIV potential. We will grow our market share but first we will ensure that our foundation is in place."

India being a very price sensitive market, reducing cost at the manufacturing level is a key to produce competitive vehicles. Yomura knows it well. "Yes, Indian market is very price competitive and that is one of the reasons that motivated us to invest so much in a big manufacturing plant, together with our Alliance partner Renault so that we could produce vehicles for the both domestic and export markets, to realise the scale of economy which is key for the cost reduction. Localisation of procured parts is also a big pillar for cost reduction," he explains.

India will be one of the key markets where the Renault-Nissan Alliance will introduce new products with this platform. "We have confirmed last year, that Renault-Nissan Alliance is developing all-new vehicles to meet the specific demands of new car buyers in the world's fastest growing economies. The program, internally named CMF-A, covers the most affordable category of cars in the Common Module Family, Renault-Nissan's unique, modular system of vehicle architecture," Yomura shares.

The CMF platform
The Renault-Nissan Alliance is currently working on what it calls the ‘Common Module Family' (CMF-A) platform. This is being developed for the growing economic markets. The Common Module Family (CMF) approach defines vehicles as five essential modules: the engine bay, cockpit, front underbody, rear underbody and electrical/electronic architecture. The compatible parts can then be assembled into hundreds of possible configurations, for maximum efficiency and brand differentiation.

(Continued on next page)

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