Just a year after its return, the reborn Datsun brand – Nissan's budget brand for emerging markets – is looking at possible expansion in new high growth markets such as Africa, Middle East, South East Asia and beyond.
The announcement made during a special event at Nissan Global Headquarters coincided with the first anniversary of the start of sales in South Africa, the fourth of the brand's initial launch markets. The event also highlighted Datsun's presentation of the Story of the brand's return to international media visiting the Tokyo Motor Show.
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Nearly three decades after the name was last used, Datsun's return was announced in 2012 and its first cars went on sale in India in March 2014. Since then, more than 100,000 new Datsuns have been sold in total in India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa.
Vincent Cobee, global head of Datsun, said: "This is a significant day for Datsun. We have successfully completed the first phase of our return, and feel proud that through our vehicles more than 100,000 customers have been able to make their dream of personal mobility a reality. In fact, the latest figure of cars sold since Datsun GO was launched in India in March 2014 now stands at 114,000 units."
"Our expansion plans include the continued growth of sales and service networks in our four existing markets, while expanding our offering to three models in India. There, we will launch a totally new model at the beginning of 2016, which will be the first Nissan Motor model based on the new Renault-Nissan Alliance CMF-A architecture."
"We are also studying further business expansion possibilities in other high-growth markets around the world, including Africa," said Cobee.
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By GlobalDataHe added: "Whatever happens next, the Datsun core values of 'Dream, Access and Trust' will continue to influence the next phase of our brand's journey."
