The Kingdom of Dreams was a massive entertainment complex in the heart of Gurugram’s Leisure Valley, famous for its Bollywood-inspired stage musical shows. In 2014, it was the venue where legendary automotive executive Carlos Ghosn took the stage to introduce Datsun. This Japanese automotive brand was the original name of Nissan, the company where Ghosn was the CEO at the time. It was launched in India because Nissan wanted to make its vehicles even more affordable.
Datsun proceeded to launch several vehicles under its ‘Go’ platform, including the small ‘Redi-GO’ and signed up Sakshi Malik, fresh off her 2016 Olympics Bronze medal winning exploits. Nissan was on a high globally, its Leaf electric vehicle being one of the early movers in that space. The Nissan Kicks C-segment SUV came into India with a host of features that were first-in-segment, including a 360-degree camera and a powerful turbocharged petrol engine.
And then it all came crashing down.
Ghosn was deposed in a corporate coup d’etat and spent a year in a tiny Japanese prison cell before a daring escape in a box designed for an orchestral instrument. A lot of Ghosn’s initiatives were shuttered by the new management team at Nissan, including Datsun and Nissan’s India operations found themselves meandering directionless.
Heck, even the Kingdom of Dreams was sealed for not paying its rentals.
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The hope of Magnite
In late 2020, Nissan India launched their first new car in a while, the Magnite. The company’s new managing director, Rakesh Srivastava, a former executive at the country’s two leading carmakers Maruti-Suzuki and Hyundai was very bullish. But despite some initial success, and being present in the popular B-segment of the SUV market in India, the Magnite’s sales have stalled. According to data released by the Society of Indian Automotive Manufacturers (SIAM), Nissan India’s domestic sales between April and August 2023 was just 12,197 units — all of the Magnite.
Recently, however, Nissan India launched a couple of new editions of the Magnite. As a global partner of the International Cricket Council (ICC), the company was determined to make some noise at the ongoing cricket world cup. And I found myself in Chennai driving the new Magnite ‘E-Z Shift’, the car is an automated manual transmission (AMT), a relatively affordable solution to removing the clutch pedal variant of the car’s naturally aspirated 1-litre petrol engine. Nissan is offering the AMT from the base specification of the car with prices starting at R 6.49 lakh.
Like all AMT cars, including those from Maruti-Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors, the gear changes are dull and slow. But cars in India are geared for fuel efficiency above all else and ‘fun’ is an afterthought. Driving down the East Coast Road south of Chennai towards the Pallava-era monuments at Mamallapuram, the E-Z Shift returned superb fuel efficiency and would be an ideal vehicle for someone looking to give their left leg a break from pressing the clutch but is on a budget.
After the drive, I spent time with Srivastava who is extremely bullish on India. “Over the past 15 years, between us and our alliance partner (Renault) we have spent over $1.8 billion in cumulative investments. India is a major hub for production and exports for both our companies.” He has a point. According to SIAM data in the last financial year (April 2022 to March 2023), Nissan had domestic wholesales of 33,611 vehicles but exports of 60,637 vehicles. In fact, it was the fourth-largest vehicle exporter in the country last year after Maruti-Suzuki, Hyundai and Kia.
Before the success of Magnite, many had believed that the company would shut shop in India much like General Motors and Ford. But Srivastava is not having any of it. “We are recommitting ourselves to India,” he told me, “with a new investment of Rs 5,300 crore over the next few years. This will be an investment in developing new products for the Indian market and exporting from India. Investments in sales and marketing as well as the finance function. We are going nowhere.” Indeed, Nissan India has lined up a bevy of international models — the X-Trail, Qashqai and Juke — that are undergoing testing in India and should be launched within “the next few months”. But the real investments are going towards three new Made in India vehicles. “These will be a new C-segment SUV, a C+ segment SUV and an electric vehicle,” he told me.
The question is, even with such investments, can Nissan India survive the increasingly competitive landscape in the Indian automotive market? Things have changed dramatically since Ghosn’s launch of Datsun in India — Indians want ‘bigger and better’ cars. Domestic carmakers such as Mahindra and Tata Motors have gotten their act together and are rocketing up the desirability and sales charts. Maruti-Suzuki and Toyota are partnering towards their electric vehicle range, so are Hyundai and Kia and should have products in the market within the next 12-18 months.
But Srivastava expects that Nissan will not suffer the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ crisis that other carmakers have faced in India. All thanks to their global partnership with the ICC. A special Nissan Magnite is on display at many stadia hosting cricket matches this time round. However, will that be enough to get Indians excited about Nissan once again? That remains to be seen, because without products and limited dealerships, the company is what the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) would describe as ‘Vulnerable’. But, there is a catch, animals evolve as do cars.
The Magnite, well, it is actually a Datsun, look at the grille, it is the signature Datsun grille, because it was supposed to be the Datsun ‘GO-Cross’. Survival you see, isn’t always of the ‘fittest’ but the most adaptable, be it nature or the automotive industry.
@kushanmitra is an automotive journalist based in New Delhi. Views are personal.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)