NISSAN’S budget Datsun brand will not be arriving in the UK anytime soon the firm’s executive vice president chief, Andy Palmer, has said.
The Brit told Car Dealer the Datsun brand will only be available in India and not in Europe as widely rumoured.
There was speculation the Japanese giant would bring back the Datsun name in Europe for a range of budget cars – just like alliance partner Renault has successfully managed with Dacia.
But there are no plans to follow Renault’s lead, Palmer told us.
‘The idea behind Datsun is to keep it solely in India – 100 per cent local production; 100 per cent for local people’ he explained. ‘For this reason we have no intention to bring it to Europe.
‘Datsun will be positioned as a budget offering and will be marketed towards Indian customers who currently use motorcycles.’
Datsun will form another part of Nissan’s new product strategy. The firm will be producing a budget version of the Nissan Micra which will be badged as a Nissan for emerging markets. ‘It’ll be a challenge to prevent this car putting pressure on Datsun’s raison d’être, but we’re confident this will not be a problem,’ Palmer added.
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