Nissan TektonNissan Motor is open to leveraging its global partnerships across key regions, including India, in the coming years.
“This is because we are moving from globalisation to regionalisation. Each and every country or continent has different regulations, which is breaking down globalisation. You cannot do one car and sell the same everywhere in the world. So this change is pushing some partnerships for Nissan,” Guillaume Cartier, Chief Performance Officer, told ET Auto soon after the launch of the Tekton SUV in Mumbai on Thursday.
The company has alliances with Renault in India and with Dongfeng in China, while talks are underway with Honda to collaborate in specific areas. Mitsubishi, likewise, has been an ally since 2016 when Nissan took a 34 per cent stake in the company.
According to Cartier, India is “a good demonstration” of an alliance that is working well with Renault. The two share capacities at the plant near Chennai and even while its former French ally of many decades is now in charge of manufacturing operations, Nissan will use the facility to make its own product range.
This makes solid business sense, given that the facility has a capacity of 4.8 lakh units, which can be comfortably optimised with two players, especially since barely 50 per cent is being used now.
“I think the footprint we have in India is remarkable. We have a sales and marketing entity and R&D with nearly 10,000 engineers between Nissan and Renault. And there is the plant where we have some capacity reservation. This is the universe which we share with Renault in India,” said Cartier.
China is quick. China is aggressive. And what will be amplifying the phenomenon is the market of China now decreasing. They will try to compensate this with exportsGuillaume Cartier, Chief Performance Officer, Nissan Motor
China alliance to fuel exports
As for China, the Dongfeng Nissan 50:50 joint venture is “something special,” with products including the N7 electric sedan and the NX8, which will be exported. Likewise, the Frontier Pro “is something that we will export,” as well as the Terrano. There are also rugged vehicles produced under the ZNA (Zhengzhou Nissan Automobile) umbrella that could be shipped to other parts of the world, especially the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.
“China is quick. China is aggressive. And what will be amplifying the phenomenon is the market of China now decreasing. They will try to compensate this with exports and that will be an interesting challenge,” said Cartier.
He was quick to point out that there were similarities with India too in terms of “India for India, China for China and India for the world, China for the world”.
SUVs made by Nissan in India are being exported to 65 countries, and this growth story will be fuelled with Tekton shipments which have already been earmarked for the Middle East and Africa.
The other part of the Nissan partnership drive concerns Honda, where a merger was once discussed but subsequently shelved. The two companies have now resumed talks to look at other areas of cooperation.
Discussions are underway in Japan for joint development of technologies such as SDVs By the end of the day, reiterated Cartier, Nissan is “essentially open to everything” as part of its overall partnership strategy.
Why do we need to sometimes develop the same practical car for the same market when you can go and partner with somebody?Massimiliano Messina, Chairperson, AMIEO Region, Nissan Motor
Flexibility in partnerships
His colleague at Nissan, Massimiliano Messina, Chairperson, AMIEO (Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania) Region, echoes these sentiments on the need to be flexible with partnerships like the one with Dongfeng where the “product character” can be used across the globe, especially in the region which he heads.
“We are going to launch quite a lot of new and very exciting products,” he added.
Mitsubishi, similarly, is part of the alliance where it produces a pickup for Nissan in Australia. Eventually, it is the “obsession for competitiveness” that is important, and Nissan’s top priority is to make good products for any market. “We don’t want to launch and then fix and go back again,” he said.
As for India, there is no “major reason to deviate” from the present strategy given that the relationship with Renault is working very well. According to Messina, there is huge flexibility happening across car manufacturing worldwide “which has not been the case for the last 100 years”.
Today, the mindset is to bring more cars to market while remaining asset-light. This is because each manufacturer wants to make sure that “we utilise cash and investment” in the right way.
“Why do we need to sometimes develop the same practical car for the same market when you can go and partner with somebody?” he asks.
Tekton, for instance, was developed on the same platform that spawned the Renault Duster, but is still a different SUV.
“If you want to be distinctive, you do not abandon your DNA, because you are not going to just rebadge the car. We are making sure that our vehicles have the Nissan DNA,” explained Messina.
We are looking but do not want to go too fast at the same time because we need to prove we are relevant nowMassimiliano Messina
Agility is an imperative
The key is to be “very agile on many things” and keep doing things in ways that ensure Nissan stays relevant in the market.
This again underscores the need for strategic alliances where there are “many, many conversations” with other OEMs. “We are looking but do not want to go too fast at the same time because we need to prove we are relevant now,” he said.
Will vehicles produced in the Dongfeng joint venture make it to India someday? It’s no secret that China and India are experiencing strains in their relationship, even though some leeway is being granted without direct investment being allowed.
“We need to understand what is going to be the future development by the Indian government about having more Chinese investments coming into India. I believe we have the assets but we do not want to create any massive waves,” said Messina.
Cartier is in sync with this view. “We are looking and we are ready but need to make sure that geopolitically….” he says while leaving the sentence incomplete. “At the moment, you still have a lot of tariffs and any business model has to make economic sense.”
It took us four years to determine what was needed but we did, and this is the second launch in the year after GraviteMassimiliano Messina
Upbeat about Tekton
In Messina’s view, Tekton is a “clear example” of how Nissan is getting closer to Indian customers with the right level of product and technology.
“It took us four years to determine what was needed but we did and this is the second launch in the year after Gravite,” he said.
From the company’s perspective, India was not an easy market to understand a few years ago, but things are now moving at a different pace altogether.
“You come here to Mumbai and the city looks like Singapore, Hong Kong or New York. The young generation is starving for technology and I believe that with the products we are bringing, we can feed all their desires,” said Messina.
Tekton represents a “clear SUV” that the family can use both within and beyond their cities. “Nissan is a Japanese company, and we are obsessed with quality, precision and, in this case, boldness too because the car is inspired by Patrol,” he added.
The region he heads, comprising a host of countries, is huge and can “utilise this fantastic asset”.
Customers across these regions want a car that looks bold with a presence on the street.
“In any vehicle, there is an emotional and a rational part. At Nissan, we try to combine the emotional part by having a nice design that is bold and inspirational,” said Messina. The coming months will show how customers across the world react to Tekton.
