The Nissan brand used to have excellent sales in Southeast Asia, but after 2010, the company seems to have focused on Europe, the US and China, and has been slow to invest in Southeast Asia.
Prior to 2010, Nissan Indonesia was very committed to the Southeast Asian market, with many of its cars such as the Grand Livina, Latio, Sentra, X-Trail, etc. all selling well in the Southeast Asian market, but after 2010 it became clear that Nissan’s investment in the Southeast Asian market was minimal. The Livina was sold from 2006 until 2018, when it was replaced by the Mitsubishi Xpander, but sales have been lukewarm since then, leading Nissan to announce in 2020 that it will cease production in Indonesia, one of the top three car markets in Southeast Asia. However, the company is still selling new cars in Indonesia and has introduced the Magnite, a small SUV).
Thailand, known as the Detroit of the East, is an important automotive town in South East Asia and a relatively important market for Nissan, but Nissan is still slow to move in this market. The B-Segment SUV market is almost dominated by other models, and the Kicks Thailand is powered by a hybrid engine that is less accepted in Southeast Asia. According to the latest sales results in Thailand, the number one B-Segment SUV is the Corolla Cross with 4,903 units sold, while the Kicks is in seventh place with only 310 units, a huge sales gap.
The above are just some examples, for example, the Teana’s minor facelift was actually released back in 2016, but the minor facelift only arrived in Thailand in November 2018, when the US-spec Teana (Altima) major facelift was actually released, so naturally the sales results speak for themselves.
In China, the situation is actually similar to that of Thailand, with the introduction of new products being very slow over the past few years, for example, the Almera has been on sale since 2012 and will only be overhauled in 2020, so the remaining models are already very uncompetitive, leading to a decline in sales. Recently, however, it has become clear that the introduction of new products from the original manufacturer has become faster, for example, the Navara was introduced in China within a year of its world premiere, so you can see that they are really trying to save the day.
Of course, some consumers may be angry with the agents over these issues, but in reality, the agents are just agents, they are not involved in the development of the products, like in the case of Almera, where the original manufacturer is slow to change and even if the agent wanted to introduce new products, there are no new products to introduce, and the same goes for Kicks, if the original manufacturer has already prepared the right If the original manufacturer had prepared a right-hand drive model at the beginning of the launch, then we would have seen this car in 2017, but the lack of a right-hand drive model has led to a situation where our SUVs are already very popular, but the local Nissan can’t come up with a new product to “rub it in”, which is a real crime. The only new product we have been able to keep up with is the 2018 Serena.
In 2020, Nissan has announced a new strategy for Thailand, where they are reorganising, with models such as the Sylphy and X-Trail being discontinued and Nissan’s main focus in Thailand being on electric cars, commercial vehicles and ECO cars (such as the Almera and Kicks), to name but a few. This is in line with the Thai government’s response over the past few years, but the question is whether electric vehicle technology can be developed in Thailand in just a few years. Will Southeast Asian consumers be able to accept electric or hybrid vehicles? If successful, Nissan could become the leading electric car manufacturer in Southeast Asia, but if something goes wrong, the original manufacturer will be in a much more difficult position.
According to previous announcements, they will not give up on the South East Asian market, but will gradually cede it to alliance partner Mitsubishi, although it is reported that the fate of our country will be slightly better than Thailand and Indonesia, because although Thailand will no longer sell the new generation X-Trail, it will still be introduced in China, but when it will be introduced is another question. As consumers, we hope that the original manufacturer will focus more on the local market, after all, it is the blessing of consumers to have a wide range of flowers, as for the agents, there is nothing they can do in many cases, but I believe they will still make every effort to introduce new products in China, but it depends on the original manufacturer to arrange whether the new products can meet our national conditions.
