Nissan Motor has launched its first crossover vehicle in China – the Qashqai, renamed locally as the Xiakoe.
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The vehicle is manufactured at the Huadu plant of Dongfeng Motor, Nissan’s local partner in China, which becomes the third facility to make it after Sunderland, UK, and a Japanese plant.
Xaioke means nomad in Chinese. Nissan said it expects to create a new vehicle category in the fast-growing market with the crossover that, it said, “bridges the gap between the hatchback and growing SUV markets”.
“Qashqai will be an iconic model for our product lineup in China, contribute significantly to our brand image and deliver something completely new to customers,” said Toshiaki Otani, managing director of Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company.
The Chinese Qashqai has a 137ps two-litre petrol engine with either a CVT or six-speed manual transmission and 2WD or 4WD.
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By GlobalDataCompared with the strong-selling European version built here in the UK for most markets, the Chinese Xiaoke variant has a beige rather than black interior, modified sunroof design and a chrome strip on the body side panels.
DFL projects sales of more than 3,000 units monthly.
The Qashqai is the sixth model built at DFL’s Huadu plant, which also manufactures the Livina Geniss, Livina, Sylphy, Tiida sedan and hatchback.
Launched in February 2007 in Europe, the Qashqai has been a global success story for Nissan. Sales in Australia, Europe, Japan, the Middle East and South Africa totalled 140,000 units for CY2007.
In January, Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) announced that its Sunderland plant, with a 200,000-unit capacity for Qashqai, would create three shifts to increase production, while the Kyushu plant in Japan began Qashqai production in December 2007 with annual capacity of 24,000 units for the vehicle.
