Nissan's leader sees room for growth in new-energy vehicles

Nissan's China sales are expected to increase 6 percent year-on-year in 2015, the company's chairman and CEO said in an exclusive interview during the ongoing Shanghai auto show.

Carlos Ghosn, who also is chairman and CEO of Renault-Nissan Alliance, said that in the first three months of this year, Nissan's passenger vehicle sales increased 15 percent year-on-year, above the market average of 11 percent.

Nissan sold 296,200 units in the period, increasing 4.7 percent year-on- year. It plans to sell over 1.3 million units, including passenger cars, micro commercial vehicles and imported vehicles, in 2015.

Nissan's joint venture, Dongfeng Nissan, sold 245,000 units in the period, a year-on-year increase of 15.1 percent. It hopes to sell over 1 million vehicles.

"I have confidence in the Chinese market," Ghosn said.

New energy

During the auto show, Nissan premiered the Murano, a crossover utility vehicle, showing the automaker's ambitions in new-energy products.

The Murano's hybrid powertrain system includes both a turbocharged gasoline engine, the QR25DER, and an electric motor, providing excellent performance and good fuel economy.

The Murano will hit the Chinese market this summer.

Besides hybrid technology, Nissan's pure electric technology has been applied to the Venucia brand developed at Dongfeng Nissan.

Ghosn said that vehicles that run solely on electric power do not sell well in China. He said it's a problem common to almost all automakers.

"The challenge now is to motivate the Chinese customers and persuade them to buy pure electrics," he said.

"Before bringing in more technologies and models to China, what we need to do is jointly working with the government and our dealers to help Chinese customers build confidence in electric vehicles," he added.

Another vehicle that Nissan premiered at the Shanghai auto show is the all-new Lannia, the first model that Nissan has tailored to young Chinese customers. Besides showcasing the automaker's latest world design, it also has the automaker's latest "safety shield" and the environmentally friendly "pure drive" technology.

"Technology makes more intelligent vehicles that feature zero emissions, car networking and autonomous driving. Nissan will develop more technologies to set the trend of intelligent automobiles," Ghosn said.

He said the automaker has planned three stages to promote the car networking and "autonomous" technologies.

The first stage will be in 2016, when Nissan will provide autonomous driving products for use on expressways and congested traffic. In 2018, the focus will turn to vehicles that can change traffic lanes themselves. In 2020, Nissan will achieve intelligent driving on normal urban roads, Ghosn told reporters.

"The Chinese auto market is becoming more and more competitive, and this is normal because China is the world's largest auto market where both local and foreign automakers are devoted to becoming better," Ghosn said.

"Automakers will place more emphasis on design and technology to further cater to the demands of Chinese customers. We foresaw this and accept the challenge," he added.

Ghosn also said that Nissan has sent some experts experienced in dealer management and expansion to China to support the local teams.

"This is the company's working style across the globe: When a market has a challenge, we send our global experts there," he said.

Ghosn anticipates rapid development in compact crossover vehicles not only in China, but also globally.

He said that bringing in crossover vehicles to China and making them smaller and more high-end will be a goal for the next two to three years.

Catering to the trend, the all new QX50, the second locally made model at Dongfeng Infiniti - a joint venture between Dongfeng Motor and Nissan's luxury brand - has gone on sale in China.

Now Renault is building its first plant in the country and Nissan has a production capacity of 1.3 million units. Ghosn said that overcapacity will not be a problem of the company.

"In the next two years, the production capacity will be fully used," he said.

xuxiao@chinadaily.com.cn

Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of Renault-Nissan Alliance

The Nissan Murano and Lannia make their global premiere at the Auto Shanghai 2015.

(China Daily 04/27/2015 page18)