Nissan sales grew by 141% in KSA

LONDON: Samir Cherfan, managing director of Nissan Middle East, expects tougher market conditions in the region this year due to drop in oil prices.
He, however, confirmed in an interview with Arab News, that the market is stable.
The company will continue to launch new models in 2016 and focuses on customer service.
In the Saudi market, Nissan sold 61,806 cars, reaching 7.2 percent market share, which represents 141.7 percent growth year on year.
The company plans to introduce new technologies in the next four years including autonomous driving innovations.
These are highlights of the interview:

Have you seen any impact yet on Nissan’s regional operations from the drop in oil prices?
If we look at the overall performance of the automotive sector on a calendar year basis then the GCC market is considered stable.
However, it is clear that we will face tougher market conditions this year and Nissan will need to be more dynamic and make more of an effort to deliver against the needs of our customers.
At Nissan, we have continued to deliver against our Power 88 brand strategy, adding to our growing line-up of models available in the region.
As proof of this we have launched the all new Nissan Maxima 2016 and also introduced the performance arm of Nissan in the region — known as NISMO. We also revealed a world premiere — the Nissan Patrol NISMO.

How important is the Saudi market for Nissan in terms of sales? And what are the best-selling models there?
Nissan has a strong heritage in Saudi Arabia, dating back to the early 50s, and is committed to becoming a powerful force in the automotive sector in the Kingdom, through a host of new models, a completely re-structured sales network and a firm focus on providing best customer service.
In September 2013, we announced the appointment of Alissa as our official authorized dealer in the Kingdom.
Nissan and Alissa share a vision to provide high quality automotive products and dependable after-sales services to customers.
In November 2014, we expanded our Saudi Arabian operations by announcing ‘Nissan Saudi Arabia’, which is a joint venture formed with our partner Khaled Juffali Company.
In Saudi Arabia, after the first full year of operation of its revival plan, Nissan has reached the third position in sales with 61,806 units, reaching 7.2 percent market share, which represents 141.7 percent growth year on year vs FY13.
Furthermore Nissan Brand Purchase Consideration has strengthened by 27 percent reaching the second position in the market.
As for the top selling models in the kingdom, they are the Nissan D22 Pick-Up, the Nissan Sunny, Nissan Patrol and Nissan Sentra.

Why is Nissan reluctant to introduce electric vehicles — such as Leaf- in the region?
Nissan are believers in supporting sustainable driving technology and we offer greater fuel efficiency across all of our models and have invested in bringing hybrid models to the region, such as the Pathfinder Hybrid.
At the moment, we are not announcing plans to introduce any electric vehicles within the region.
We do however see a lot of opportunity for EV in the Middle East market, especially as more countries start to introduce more sustainability initiatives.
As Middle East consumers become more eco-aware and environmentally conscious, we foresee that EV will start to increase in popularity the same way they have in Western markets.

How did Nissan do in the region in 2015?
Earlier in May 2015, we announced our financial results for our 2014 fiscal year (April 1st to 31st March), which demonstrated that in the UAE, Nissan maintained its strong No 2 position in the sales charts, selling 63,036 units — up by 10 percent versus 2013 and achieving 15.3 percent market share.
Nissan’s purchase consideration in the UAE has also increased by 46 percent in the past two years, closing the gap with the market leader.
In our last financial year, the Nissan line-up has performed extremely well across the spectrum but sales of the Patrol, the facelifted Juke, the Nissan Sunny, Pathfinder and X-Trail have been exceptional.


In which segment does Nissan see growth in the region in the next few years? 
We have noticed that consumers nowadays want technologies and automated systems that enable them to drive safely, for longer.
As part of our strategy to continue innovating for the future, we are ensuring that we stay ahead of the technology trends and deliver exactly what our customers need and want from us.
Nissan has been one of the industry leaders at the forefront of autonomous driving innovation.
Many forms of this are already implemented in cars but the next step — and it’s a big step — is to secure both the regulatory framework and consumer adoption to make autonomous driving a reality. We have shown, in road tests, how new technologies such as automatic lane-changing and automated parking can enhance the driving experience, and make it safer.
Nissan is focused on autonomous drive technologies that we know will work, and can be introduced over the next 4 to 5 years.
We aim to be ready with revolutionary, commercially viable autonomous driving technology by 2020, with a goal of bringing the next two autonomous-drive technologies to market by 2016.

You recently launched “SmartCar” services in the Middle East while at the same time suspending a smart app (for Leaf) elsewhere — how much risk do you see from hackers on such services?
The ‘Nissan SmartCar’ mobile application, which is offered as an option for the All New Maxima 2016 and the Nissan Patrol 2016 models in the Middle East, was developed independently from ‘NissanConnect’ and operates on a different application architecture.
When designing the ‘Nissan SmartCar’ application, Nissan adhered to the most stringent security standards and built in multi-layered security protocols, which have considerably minimized any risk of a cyber-security threat.

How is Nismo brand doing in the Middle East?
In the GCC, we view the addition of NISMO as a key element of our business expansion strategy, which is based on our successful motorsports heritage.
The NISMO brand is a highly valuable, credible and desirable addition to our range and we were honored to bring the brand to the Middle East in October last year.
As part of our performance road car line-up, we showcased three NISMO models — the 370Z NISMO, the GT-R NISMO, and the Patrol NISMO.
The Patrol NISMO was a world-premiere for Nissan as we could not have launched NISMO in the region without including our most iconic model — the Nissan Patrol — in the range of NISMO vehicles, which will be available across showrooms beginning of April 2016.