Nissan plans regional centres to distribute spare parts.

Nissan Motor India Pvt Ltd plans to establish regional centres for distribution of spare parts. Arun Malhotra, MD of Nissan Motor India, told reporters here that the Japanese carmaker would open one such centre at Manesar in Haryana this week to serve the northern market.

“This would be the first outside Chennai and save nine days of transfer timing from South to North,” Malhotra said. Regional centres in the East and the West would soon follow, he added.

Nissan Motor is also looking at higher capacity utilisation at its plant in Chennai. Malhotra said that the plant, which can produce 4 lakh vehicles a year, was running at 70 per cent capacity.

More facilities
“This is extendable to 4.8 lakh units. We have 600 acres of land. Much of the land, not used at present, could be used to set up additional facilities,” Nissan Motor India’s MD explained. There was a possibility of ramping up utilisation this year, he indicated.

In 2014-15, Nissan Motor India exported over one lakh units and sold around 49,000 units in the domestic market.

Nissan exported mainly Micra to Western Europe and Sunny to West Asia. He did not see much of a problem for exports to Europe despite current uneasy situation in the Euro Zone. “We mostly export to western European market such as UK, France and Germany, which are in a relatively stable situation,” he said.

Focus on market share
Meanwhile, Nissan Motor India is pursuing a target of increasing its market share in India to around five per cent from the current level of less than two per cent over the next three-four years. The R&D centre is geared to expand its presence in the country, he said.

Nissan Motor India is sticking to its plan to launch the Datsun branded low-cost small car by March next year, Malhotra said.

HBL