On August 31, 2020, Nissan Motor Thailand reportedly announced to its dealers in a letter, stating that production and distribution of the Nissan Sylphy, Teana and X-Trail models will end on September 1.
According to the Bangkok Post, the company plans to focus on subcompact cars, small MPVs, commercial vehicles, and electrified vehicles. Dealers were also advised to stop publicity campaigns and “destroy” promotional materials of the Sylphy, Teana and X-Trail once they sold out.
Existing owners of the soon-to-be discontinued models are assured that replacement parts will continue to be supplied, and that dealers would still service said vehicles.
Nissan Motor Thailand has yet to publicly confirm this. A spokesman said “we don’t comment on our product strategy,” and added that other models would continue to meet the needs of local consumers.
Thailand Automotive Institute president, Pisit Rangsaritwutikul said a change in production lines among car makers during the economic recession – exacerbated by the pandemic – is normal. They need to adjust themselves to markets in each country.
“I’m not shocked by the news reports. The parent company will have already carefully considered what car models will be produced to satisfy motorists in different countries,” Rangsaritwutikul said.
He also said the Thai market has potential for EVs, and it’s likely that companies see an opportunity for new business directions. Case in point – the Nissan Kicks e-Power facelift, an electric B-segment SUV with a range extender, made its global debut in Thailand earlier in May, and is the second country in the world to produce the e-Power hybrid powertrain.
The Japanese automaker is determined to produce hybrid and electric cars in the long term, and has even won the support from the Board of Investment through its incentive programmes, said Thai industry minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit.
All this is part of a grander scheme aimed at turning the company around, which has been in turmoil since the saga involving former chairman Carlos Ghosn broke in 2018. Earlier in March, Nissan shut one of its two production facilities in Indonesia, and announced that it will scale back production in at least seven other facilities globally. For now, Nissan’s sole production base in Southeast Asia is in Thailand.
Besides shuttering plants, it also planned to cut over 20,000 jobs, or a whopping 15% of its 139,000-strong global workforce. Moving forward, Nissan will strengthen its core models, including plans to launch 12 new models in 18 months. The next-generation Fairlady Z, dubbed the 400Z, is part of the new brigade, and will be unveiled soon on September 15.
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Is huge mistake to hire Carlos Ghosn, sigh.
Nissan ,never recovered from the disastrous rescue by the french auto giants.The tie ups got worse with CARLOS ,a seemingly con ceo who darted to lebanon.
The longer the tieups exist,the deeper the money pits.There seem to be no way out for poor Nissan,compared to Toyota which has overcome covid,on the way to profits.
Is why. U cannot simply put your money into something that looks GOOD only but no-aftersale guarantee…
Without french rescue, Nissan would be history now.
This brand still recovering, so Nissan will not going into history and going to bankrupt yet
You might not know that Nissan will recover anytime.
“Recovered from the rescue”?
You’re aware that Nissan was nearly bankrupt already then?
(YB Albert) You got it totally wrong there. Nissan was almost bankrupt during the Asian Economic crisis from 1998. Renault came to the rescue and brought Carlos Ghosn. He engineered Nissan’s return to profitability and competitiveness around the world. They restarted selling cars in the US and extended their lead in the UK and parts of Europe. Nissan is in bad shape now because they got rid of Carlos and got the old fashioned Japanese management back on board. Now Nissan is back to being the laggard it was pre-1998 when it was a company heading towards bankruptcy. No thanks to the poor Japanese management.
YB TAN ,The FRENCH came to the rescue of nissan,no doubt.Even if it was bankrupted without the french,another auto giant would have stepped in ,bought the assets at low prices and restarted manufacturing.
The FRENCH seemingly turned it around,but at whose expense?And look at the savior turned conman Carlos,who helped himself to a big loot.You think the French are that straight forward?look at the 2 submarines a country called Bolehland bought.In short,the rescue/partnership never worked properly because the CEO was corrupted to the core.
Another might’ve bought over Nissan but what’s next? Could other brands have turned around Nissan as spectacularly as Ghosn did? Ford tried to turn around Volvo but failed. TATA trying to do likewise with JLR but today heading for bankruptcy, Mitsubishi boughtover by Nissan still facing cash problems, so its not so straightforward. Ghosn have turned other Renault subs around so he was the right person for the job. What he didn’t expect was backstabbing by his Japanese downlines. Just like another leader implicated even though he didn’t do anything of that sort, there will always be envy and jealousy from lesser human beings.
all these fugitives slump to the level of pariah
Habislah Thailand! Their crown as Detroit of Asia will be gone soon. This is caused by their incompetent gomen, they should come and see how our national carmakers are doing so well and so popular until Africa also buys our cars. Thailand has a lot to learn.
This brand is still recovering but not bankrupt.
They need to take USD$6.7B loan with Gomen as guarantor. If Abe didn’t rescue them, Nissan would be bankrupt kaw-kaw today.
Despite it is sad that these three beautiful cars, Teana, Slyphy and X-Trail will be phased out in Thailand, luckily beautiful Slyphy will going to locally here. So nothing to affect ours. Also very sure, Beautiful SUV, X-Trail, will continue to assemble here. Why not also bring beautiful Teana here
ETCM are still selling the preFacelifted version of the last generation Teana! This is how long ETCM had been sleeping and continue to blame Proton for their self-inflicted miseries.
All the discontinued Nissan models are ultra low sales volume vehicles at Thailand.
It’s better to halt the production amid covid19 bad sales period.
Thailand policy 100,000 baht rebate for covid19 sales boost also not yet finalized.
Bright side, they should introduce Nissan Magnite 1.0Turbo soon
https://paultan.org/2020/08/06/nissan-magnite-concept-b-suvs-interior-revealed/
But Nissan able to catch up in order to save their company in future and also by producing new more models
Disapointed they discontinue Sylphy model i ve bouth in 2012 as newcommer in Thailand. It was a good car drived well has a lot of space and was comfortable on long haulage. The car was the best of his compititors but nissan did not do antthing promote this model at dealers showroom.I was waiting for the new Sylphy which could beat toyota and honda in comfort and all extra s it offers.I think it is a bad move from idiots at the top