Nissan to boost global market share to 8% in FY

TOKYO: Japanese auto giant Nissan Motor on Monday said it would aim to achieve a global market share of eight percent by the end of fiscal 2016 as it unveiled a six-year business plan.

Nissan, which is 44.3 percent owned by French partner Renault, also said it aimed to lift its operating profit margin to eight percent in that period under its "Nissan Power 88" growth plan.

"We are definitely on the offensive," company president and CEO Carlos Ghosn told reporters. Japan's second-biggest auto maker by volume, after Toyota, had a 5.8 percent global market share last year.

The plan will see the Nissan-Renault alliance aim for cumulative electric vehicle sales of 1.5 million units in that time. Nissan last year began selling its all-electric Leaf car in Japan, the United States and parts of Europe.

It said it would also aim for a 10 percent share of the Chinese market while boosting its presence in economies such as India and Brazil, where it will build a new factory producing 200,000 vehicles per year. Nissan currently has a 6.2 percent market share in China.

"In 2012, we will have nearly doubled our production capacity to 1.2 million units," in China, Ghosn said. "We will further increase our capacity to be in line with our goal of 10 percent market share," he said.

In Russia, Nissan and its partner Renault are in talks to take a combined more than 50 percent stake in major Russian auto maker AvtoVAZ, which sells the Lada brand.

Yokohama-based Nissan will continue to focus on zero-emission vehicles and low-emission technologies while also aiming for a 10 percent share of the global luxury market with its Infiniti brand.

Nissan aims to expand its sale network to 7,500 major points of sale globally, from the current 6,000. The automaker last week said annual net profit this fiscal year will fall 15 percent year-on-year after Japan's March 11 earthquake hit output, while it also struggles with high raw material costs and a strong yen.

But despite lower profits, it expects global sales to rise 9.9 percent in the year to a record 4.6 million units, with full production returning in October after parts shortages caused by the quake.

The 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami destroyed entire towns, left 23,000 dead or missing and crippled electricity-generating facilities, including a nuclear power plant at the centre of an ongoing atomic crisis.

Japanese firms were hit hard by power and chronic parts supply shortages, with the likes of Nissan, Toyota and Honda having to sharply cut production and shut plants due to a lack of crucial components. Nissan shares closed up 0.11 percent at 845 yen ahead of the announcement.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011