Record Global Sales in May - Again

YOKOHAMA, Japan - EVP for Global Sales Takao Katagiri discusses the reasons for record highs in market share and sales in May, including Qashqai's success in China and Russia.

Q1: Nissan is on track for record global growth. How would you characterize sales in May?

Takao Katagiri EVP: In the month of May, Nissan again made sales volume records with very strong momentum. Specifically, sales volume ended up at 405,000 units, which is a 17.4% increase over the year before. In terms of market share, Nissan made 6.0%, which is again a record market share with an increase of 0.3 percentage points over the past year.

Nissan made sales records in many markets. For example, in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, Chile and India, we made May sales records. And, also, for market share in China, Indonesia, Brazil, France and India.

Q2: Can you describe the regional breakdown, particularly the growth in China and Russia?

EVP: For example, in China, both sales and market share were the best for May ever. Specifically, market TIV (total industry volume) was 1.5 million units which is a 19.4% increase against the year before. That is very strong.

But in the southern regions of China there was some slowdown. On the other hand, Nissan made 112,000 units, which is 20.1% over the year before and kept the No. 3 position in China. So Nissan has, proportionally, done a better job.

Obviously, many models such as Tiida or Qashqai kept up good sales. Also, we've just launched Venucia in April and it is growing month by month. Still, we should do many things, such as preparation for the network or increase awareness, but we've made a very good start.

Sales in Russia increased even though the total of European sales has decreased. TIV in Russia ended up at 261,000 units, which is a 10.9% increase over the previous year. So the market is growing, even though the total European TIV decreased.

In the case of Nissan, we made an increase of 1.1% against last year, which seems to be a little lower than the rest of the market, but that is due to the limitation of supply.

Our order-taking momentum is strong and we're going to come back in the month of June. Especially, sales of the SUV models, such as Juke. Qashqai and X-TRAIL, were very, very strong.

In case of the US, for example, both TIV and Nissan sales increased over 20% from last year. So, again, both have been very strong. Our sales ended up with 92,000 units, which is a 20.5% increase over last year. The Versa saw an increase of 80.3%, keeping the No. 1 position in the segment. And the Altima is almost at the end of its life-cycle but it is still keeping very strong momentum.

In the case of Western Europe, Nissan sales decreased from the past year mainly due to TIV deterioration. Total industry volume ended up with 1.6 million units, which is down 6.6% against last year. The southern part of Europe is struggling in particular.

On the other hand, in the case of Nissan, we ended up with 52,000 units in sales, which is a decrease of 10.8% over last year. Still, our sales in the UK and Germany are stronger. So, I think June sales for Nissan will not be so pessimistic.

In the case of Japan, TIV increased dramatically, thanks to the eco-car incentives by the government. And Nissan enjoyed that increase, with 44,000 unit sales, which is up 16.7% from last year.

Q3: What models have led growth in those countries?

EVP: I would say that the competitiveness of the models was one of the main contributors, particularly of the Qashqai. It made a great contribution to markets in Russia and China.

In the case of China, 9,000 units were sold; in the case of Europe, it was 20,000 units in the single month of May. In Europe, for fiscal year 2011, over 250,000 units were sold, including more than 36,000 units in Russia.

Also, sales in China were over 110,000 units in the calendar year 2011. Qashqai remained No. 1 in sales in Europe in the "C-crossover segment", which is by far the number one model in the segment. Obviously that contributed a lot to European sales.
In China, for January through May - five months - we sold 55,000 units, which is an increase of more than 50% over last year.

 *"Qashqai" takes the model name "Dualis" in Japan, as seen in the above report.

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