Tag: Nissan

Nissan is forging paths and spending on the sedan and subcompact categories.The company’s optimism in those segments comes at an interesting time.

The diminutive 2019 Nissan Versa Note wears clothes that differ greatly from its sedan brother, a trait for which it should be thankful.

The five-door car will be offered in a trio of trims – S, SV, and quasi-sporty SR. All models are powered by a 1.6-litre inline-four making 109 horsepower and lashed to a Nissan calling card, the Xtronic CVT. In this iteration of the gearless wonder, the company claims it packs some gee-whiz wizardry in the form of D-Step Logic Control. Not a new dance move to be tried on the floor of the Mad Trapper Lounge in Inuvik, D-Step attempts to give the continuously variable transmission a personality mimicking that of an actual gearbox rather than holding a constantly high-rpm while being flogged up to cruising speed.

Starting at $15,650 before the inevitable $895 destination and handling fee, the base S and its 15-inch steel wheels furnishes its driver with Bluetooth connectivity and a backup monitor but is bereft of gear like power windows and cruise control. The SV adds these features in its $16,550 price.

Those who want the jazzy SR rear spoiler but do not want to fork out the $18,360 for that trim can spec one at the dealer on any Note for $320. The lone option on any model is a Special Edition package on the SV, a bundle which includes 15-inch aluminium alloys, fog lights, push-button start, and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto for a not-unreasonable $735.

Active aero tricks like a grille shutter help the Versa Note to slip just below a 0.3cD. This, and the CVT, allow the Note to nearly hit 40mpg on the EPA highway cycle. With a 10.8 gallon fuel tank, cruising range should outstrip the length of time most people will want to ride in a subcompact hatchback of any sort, not just a Note.

Sales of the Note are not broken out of the overall Versa numbers (one can speculate this is the reason why the hatchback is called the Versa Note in this market but simply the Note elsewhere in the world) but, year-to-date, just over 54,000 of the subcompact units have been shuffled off showroom floors. This is down about 25 percent compared to this time last year, when 71,000 Versas went to new homes. It could be that fleets made up a larger number of those sales in 2017 versus this year’s results.

The Note does, however, land in Nissan’s top five models in terms of total sales to this point in 2018, beating the Murano and 13 other nameplates which it shares lot space.

Nissan has announced its best sales in nearly two decades. It hiked 10 per cent market share in 2017, with passenger vehicles growing 44 per cent against the previous year and bakkies (pick-ups) mustering a share of 19.5 per cent up by nearly a fifth.

Datsun, the brand’s highest market share in South Africa since 1981, similarly rose to 1.3 per cent, just as the Sub-Saharan Africa sales also grew, rising to 13.9 per cent.

Nissan Sub-Sahara said the sales success came on the back of product launches, including the Patrol, X-Trail and Micra Active.

Nissan had in the year under review also focused on customer- service, winning eight awards.

“Nissan is poised to build on our success with further growth in Africa,” Managing Director of Nissan South Africa Mike Whitfield, said.

He said: “We have invested almost R1 billion rand to increase the efficiency of our plant at Rosslyn increasing automation without reducing jobs, and in training and skills development for our people.”

Nissan has developed its supplier base with initiatives to encourage young black entrepreneurs to become suppliers and the company continues to produce a high number of engineers at Rosslyn through its graduate development programme, which has been supporting South Africa employees to become master trainers by sending them to Nissan manufacturing plants across the world.

To drive future growth, Nissan will focus on further developing its dealership network in South Africa with improved customer experience and enhanced facilities, while it continues to work to increase its share of the passenger vehicle market, and maintaining its strong position in bakkies.

Nissan was the first manufacturer to introduce electric vehicle to South Africa, with the Nissan LEAF launched locally in 2013. Globally, more than 300,000 units of the LEAF have been sold, more than any other electric vehicle.

Whitfield said: “The global automotive industry is going through revolutionary technological change, with electric vehicles, autonomous driving and connectivity. South Africa has the potential to lead Africa in embracing this change, and the automotive industry here and the economy stand to benefit. To do that we need to ensure that the infrastructure and support is in place in South Africa to help build demand for these products.”

Rosslyn is Nissan’s manufacturing hub for the rest of the continent where demand is growing rapidly. And in April 2014, Nissan became the first mover to assemble cars in Nigeria, and is exploring new manufacturing opportunities on the continent.

“Africa has huge potential but not every country can have a plant and manufacturing hubs needed to be developed. The automotive industry has been a driver of economic growth around the world for a century, and Africa will be next. What is we need now is a conducive environment, including the development of free trade areas, for the continent to flourish. Africa’s middle class is forecast to grow from 137 million people in 2009 to 341 million by 2030,” he added.

Renowned Polish explorer Arkady Pawel Fiedler, who in February, inaugurated the first-ever Electric Vehicle (EV) expedition with the Nissan LEAF car from Cape Town South Africa via West Africa to Europe by road has arrived in the country.

Fiedler drove alongside his companion, Albert Wojtowicz, an architect-cum photographer, in an  first-generation electric Nissan LEAF car powered by a 30kwh battery with a range of 250 kilometres for two months, covering 8,000 kilometres.

Addressing reporters in Victoria Island, Lagos Stallion NMN showroom, Fiedler said apart from being the expedition across the continent, the trip aims to build awareness for electric mobility and new cleaner technologies in Africa, Poland and the world.

The voyage, according to him, also seeks to change peoples’ perception of the world and human choices with particular recourse to the impact of transport on the environment.

“Care of the environment, home and family starts with us, with our subjective decisions and this journey are also proof that something apparently impossible can be achieved when given appropriate attitude and determination,” he said.

Fiedler said the choice of the electric Nissan LEAF model wasn’t by impulse.

“When it came to considering which kind of electric car I would drive across Africa, we took into account several brands, featuring similar specifications but this particular model was favoured. It has been a proven model since 2010 and just last January, the Nissan-Renault Alliance announced the delivery of the 300, 000th LEAF car sold worldwide,” he said.

Besides being the world’s first 100-percent electric, zero-emission car designed for the mass market, its advanced powertrain provides a totally new driving experience, with smooth, responsive acceleration with stable handling and quietness.

Also reiterating that initiative was conceived over time, Arkady said the expedition was entirely his idea, adding: “I chose to drive in my own electric Nissan LEAF car bought in 2017 that wasn’t in anyway modified to facilitate this expedition. The car is the standard specification you will find in many European cities.”

Fiedler described Africans as warmth and hospitable and believes they will catch up with on-going technological transformation in Europe and America to also embrace electric mobility and new technology as soon as possible.

“If I can convince someone in Europe that I embarked on a long-haul trip by crossing this massive African continent with an electric vehicle, then it is possible more people will buy a car like this,” he said.

Fiedler, however, decried the inadequacy of infrastructure, such as charging facilities during the journey, which he said is the only limitation to the attainment of complete transition to EVs in Africa.

He said: “While it is rather seamless to get electric sockets to fill the battery in Europe, we have to rely on people to assist us in charging the car battery without which the expedition wouldn’t have been successful.

“Travelling across Africa is probably the hardest test for any vehicle – poor roads, limited charging infrastructure and dramatically diverse weather conditions – from equatorial storms to the scorching heat of the Sahara are just few challenges that we had to contend with in this journey.”

The explorers who are billed to proceed to the Republic of Benin in their schedule will also visit Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, Morocco, before terminating in Poland.

Arkady and Albert had earlier being in Namibia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Gabon, and Cameroon since leaving Cape Town South Africa in February.

Stallion NMN Head of Sales And Marketing Amit Sharma, who received the duo of Arkady and Albert in Lagos, said: “We are proud of this initiative, being the first-ever electric vehicle expedition across Africa, and as you all are aware, the Nissan tagline – innovation that excites has always kept the brand going – scoring so many FIRSTs in its entire outings.

“Without mincing words, mobility is going electric already and Africa can’t be an exception. We must therefore move along with the entire world as EVs becomes the mobility of the future. We, at Stallion NMN, cherish this milestone.”

Nissan is halting joint development of luxury cars with Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz, sources close to the companies told Reuters, suspending a key project in their seven-year partnership and potentially hitting profitability at a new shared factory in Mexico.

Nissan decided in October its premium Infiniti brand would not use “MFA2”, an upgraded Daimler car platform that the companies have jointly funded, in part because Infiniti was not performing well enough to absorb Mercedes technology costs, the sources said.

“It wasn’t possible to close a deal on the basis of MFA2,” said one of the people. “The targets set by Infiniti were too difficult to achieve.”

The move could reduce efficiency at a $1 billion shared factory opening this year in Aguascalientes, Mexico, where the companies had planned to use the same compact car architecture to cut complexity and production costs, two of the sources said.

It could also ultimately force Nissan to write down part of a 250 million pound ($306 million) investment at its UK plant that included Mercedes-based tooling, they added.

Daimler and Nissan pursue joint programs only when “beneficial for both sides”, the companies said in separate statements to Reuters, without directly addressing emailed questions about their plans for MFA2 vehicles.

Projects are constantly reviewed against targets to account for “developments beyond the control of management”, they added, and discussions about joint development of future premium compact cars are ongoing.

Nissan’s decision deals a blow to the broad cooperation deal struck between Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn and his Daimler counterpart Dieter Zetsche in 2010.

It also underscores the mixed results of Nissan’s battle over almost three decades to transform Infiniti into a significant global player in the lucrative luxury car market.

The decision predates Donald Trump’s election as the next U.S. president, the sources said, and was unrelated to campaign vows to penalize Mexican imports that have rattled the auto industry. Ford (F.N) on Tuesday scrapped a planned compact car plant in the country.

Nissan and Daimler are pushing ahead with Aguascalientes, where they will build Infiniti and Mercedes models for the United States (US) and other markets from a single assembly line opening in 2017.

The project nonetheless faces weakening U.S. demand for smaller cars that contributed to Ford’s cancellation and has further raised profitability hurdles for new Infiniti compacts.

Persistently low oil prices accelerated the market shift to larger vehicles last year, Ford sales chief Mark LaNeve said last Wednesday, adding: “All the growth was SUVs and trucks.”