NISAN Announces Plans To Bring Its Low-cost Datsun Brand To Pakistan In 2019:Financial Times

LONDON, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Apr, 2018 ) :Nissan has announced plans to bring its low-cost Datsun brand to Pakistan in 2019, becoming the latest global carmaker aiming to boost sales in one of the world's fastest-growing car markets,Financial Times reported.

According to the paper, Japan's second-largest carmaker revived the Datsun, the low-budget hatchback, in 2014 after more than 30 years of absence to help expand sales emerging markets where it had previously struggled to sell its own-brand cars.

"Nissan should be there. It is an important market for us," Peyman Kargar, Nissan's senior vice-president, said. "It's good timing for us. It's not too late and it's not too soon." The Financial Times further said that the lower interest rates have made it easier for Pakistanis to borrow money, while ministers have allowed carmakers to bring in plant equipment duty-free in an effort to encourage them to set up assembly plants in the country.

It added that in 2016-2017, carmakers sold 185,781 vehicles in Pakistan, up 18 per cent from five years ago, according to the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers' Association. Of that total, Suzuki, Honda and Toyota made all but seven of the country's domestically manufactured cars.

Honda began producing motorcycles in Pakistan from the mid-1960s and vehicles from 1994, while Toyota and Suzuki entered the market in the 1970s.

Nissan expects the market to further expand to 330,000 vehicles by 2024-2025.

Nissan will produce the Datsun brand with its local partner Ghandhara, which will invest $41m over the first four years in a project that will create more than 1,800 jobs. The Japanese car group first entered into a partnership with Ghandhara in 1983 and began local production of its vehicles from 1996,the paper said.

But it halted sales of its Sunny saloon from 2004 following efficiency and quality challenges, and an attempt to restart production in 2009 ended a year later. "This agreement will introduce world-class facilities and the best of Japanese engineering technologies," Ahmed Kuli Khan Khattak, the chief executive of Ghandhara, Financial Times him said.

In addition to Nissan, others are on their way. South Korea's Hyundai recently broke ground on a new assembly plant in Faisalabad, with the first cars due to roll off the factory line in December 2019,Financial Times said. France's Renault, which has an alliance with Nissan, and Germany's Volkswagen are both planning to establish factories in Pakistan,the paper said. /kmd