Archive for Nissan

Nissan distributor Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd experienced an 18% drop in sales figures for Q2 2006, selling only 5,496 units compared to 6,705 units in Q2 2005. Tan Chong attributed this drop to used car price instability, stringent car loan requirements, and escalating cost of car ownership. Sales also dropped in Q2 2006 as compared to Q1 2006 figures, which showed 6,183 cars sold.

Nissan is still leading the non-national 1.6 liter market with the Sentra 1.6 and the 4X4 non-national SUV market with the Nissan X-Trail, but for the rest of the market perhaps it’s time for some new models? We have one coming up in Q1 2007, based on the Nissan Sports Concept. More details here.

Source

Nissan’s Sports Concept and it’s unit Infiniti’s Kuraza concept makes an appearance in the latest Ghost in the Shell movie, Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society. The Ghost in the Shell series is very popular, enjoying sales of 1.5 million DVDs so far, so this is a pretty good deal for Nissan. I wish they inculded the GTR-PROTO into the anime though, too bad! More details on the Nissan Sports Concept here, and the video is available after the jump!

Click here to read the rest of Nissan concepts star in Ghost in the Shell movie

LATEST UPDATE: Nissan Grand Livina 1.6 and 1.8 launched in Malaysia

Nissan Motors has unveiled the Nissan Livina Geniss, a seven-seater MPV part of Nissan’s new global car line-up. It was displayed to the public today at the 2006 Guangzhou International Motor Show. The MPV was designed and engineered at Nissan’s Technical Centre in Atsugi, Japan.

The Livina Geniss rides on the Renault-Nissan B platform underpinings that also spawned the Nissan Micra, Renault Clio and Renault Modus.

Click here to read the rest of Nissan Livina Geniss

Nissan is investing in auto parts export facilities in Indonesia and Thailand, with the Thai plant set to become Nissan’s largest parts export base outside of Japan. The Thai plant is expected to generated some US$300 million worth of exports per annum, while the Indonesian facility is expected to generate US$100 million worth of exports, procuring parts from about 90 Thai-based component manufacturers. That is about 16% of the parts exported by Japan. The 40,000 square-meter Thai plant will begin operations in January 2007 while the Indonesian facility will go operational in August 2007.

Nissan Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, it’s Singaporean office will be managing the export operations for the ASEAN region, and will handle complex, cross-border financial transactions. Basically the production centers will be Thailand and Indonesia and the financial, marketing and management center will be in Singapore. The Singaporean facility currently handles Southeast Asian transactions but there are plans to grow it into a global centre to handle financial transactions worldwide. Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) has awarded Nissan Asia Pacific Pte Ltd “International Headquarters” (IHQ) status, allowing the company to enjoy a tax rate of 10% and below.

This is quite a major investment! Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. Geographically, Malaysia is in the middle of all three countries. But so far our National Automotive Policy has not been able to attract any new major investments from Nissan. Sigh!

Stay tuned for reports on the latest talks of a GM-Renault-Nissan alliance!

Sources: Bernama, Channelnewsasia, Reuters, Dow Jones Marketwatch

Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd plans to unveil a sports concept car aimed at the younger buyer market segment in the first quarter of 2007. The car is said to be based on the Nissan Sports Concept which was recently shown at the 2006 KL International Motor Show and first unveiled at the 2005 New York International Auto Show.

Click here to read the rest of New sporty Nissan for Malaysians in Q1 2007

Nissan and Suzuki will be expanding their collaboration with sharing vehicle platforms and rebadging. Currently Suzuki supplies some small cars for Nissan to rebadge. An example would be the Suzuki MR Wagon, which Nissan rebadged as the Nissan Moco. These small cars are usually sold in the Japanese market only.

The agreement cites the possibility of new products for the Japanese market. If feasibility studies go well, Nissan will be supplying a minivan to Suzuki to rebadge, and Suzuki will supply another mini-car like the Suzuki MR Wagon to Nissan to rebadge. This is expected to begin at the end of 2006.

From 2008 onwards, Nissan might supply a compact pick-up truck to Suzuki to rebadge for the North American market. This might be a pick-up like the Nissan Frontier, as it’s considered small by American standards of huge 4 liter engined monster pick-ups. Nissan and Suzuki will also begin manufacturing collaboration by sharing facilities. The first facility to do this will be Suzuki’s Indian plant.

This is an example of a successful collaboration between car manufacturers.

Source

Inspired by the popularity of the BMW Short Films, Nissan tried to do something similiar with the Nissan 350Z. It follows the style of underground racing flicks like Getaway in Stockholm, with a camera mounted on the top of the car recording a high-speed spirited drive through a city. Video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Nissan 350Z The Run Video

There have been sightings of a small Nissan SUV being tested on the road. It is said that the new mini Murano is based on the Nissan Qashqai concept shown 2 years ago at the 2004 Geneva Motor Show.

The above artist’s impression image by Hans G. Lehmann photo syndication shows that the new small-sized SUV has abandoned the old Qashqai’s X-Trail-like front grille and has adopted the new Renault-Nissan look. It looks like a taller Nissan Versa. Note that this is an artist’s impression only, but inspired by Nissan’s current design trends.

The Nissan Qashqai is expected to debut in 2007 and will come with 2.0 liter petrol and turbodiesel engines. There could also be a top of the range six-banger version. Naturally, it will have all-wheel drive. This small SUV will be in direct competition with the Toyota RAV4, the Mercedes Benz MLK and the BMW X3.

Hybrid sales could be seeing a sales slowdown and Carlos Ghosn was one of the very few people who had enough foresight to see this during the days of the hybrid hype where everyone was jumping onto the bandwagon.

Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan and Renault said it was far too early to invest in hybrid technology, because costs outweighed the benefits for both consumers and manufacturers. The fuel savings of a hybrid vehicle did not justify the fuel savings incurred.

In fact, on highways a hybrid car like the Toyota Prius might actually use more fuel than a normal car. This is because on highway speeds, the Toyota Prius runs on full gasoline as the ECU detects highway long journeys might drain the battery too fast as the time for journeys are usually long and there is very little opportunity for regenerative braking. Since the Toyota Prius gasoline engine is quite tiny relatively, it actually has to work harder and use more fuel compared to a conventional powered vehicle with a larger more potent engine.

“At least admit I was the only guy saying, Watch out, the consumer decides, don’t be excited about it. I have some kind of satisfaction of being a little bit right on this one.” said Carlos Ghosn at the New York Auto Show. He says diesel or ethanol vehicle holds more promise for now, but he is not abandoning the idea of hybrids completely. He just thinks it’s not time yet. Nissan is still on track to release a hybrid version of the Nissan Altima this year.

J.D. Power and Associates predicts hybrids will make up 1.5 percent of automobile sales in 2006 and will grow to nearly 5 percent by 2013.

Nissan Motor’s CEO Carlos Ghosn has announced that the next generation Skyline R35 will be marketed in the US market as a Nissan. It will be called the Nissan GT-R. The production version of this hot new continuation of the Skyline legacy will make it’s debut at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, with the Japanese market launch scheduled for Fall 2007. The Nissan GT-R will go on sale in the US in Spring 2008.

To me, this is a good move as it allows Nissan to focus on the Nissan GT-R as a proper sports car, not a luxury sports car as it would have been if it was marketed under the Infiniti badge. Previously, it was said that the new car would be marketed under the Infiniti badge instead of a Nissan badge. Toyota is going the other way with it’s replacement for the Toyota Supra in it’s model line-up. It will be marketed under the Lexus badge as the Lexus LF-H. Where’s Honda with it’s NSX replacement?

Related Posts:
Nissan Skyline GT-R Proto (alot more photos)
2008/2009 Infiniti GT-R
Nissan GT-R Proto Art