A slowing United States economy, the fall-out from the sub-prime lending crisis and a stronger yen are going to make selling cars there difficult in 2008, a top Nissan executive has said.
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At the start of a year in which industry pundits are picking 16m-or-less sales in the US, the lowest in a decade, Nissan Motor’s chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Tokyo he was still hopeful that Nissan’s new products would attract customers.
Nissan’s recent offerings in the US, including the Altima sedan, were proving popular, and the automaker still had a chance to keep the “momentum” going in U.S. sales, he said, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.
Growth in other overseas markets, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, was helping offset any decline in the US.
“It is quite difficult to take an optimistic attitude toward the US market,” Shiga said, according to AP.
Nissan’s US sales were up 4.5% to 1.07m last year.
The Associated Press said Shiga also noted he was pessimistic about the domestic market and further efforts were needed to cut costs in Japan, grow more sensitive to customer needs and make cars that can be sold both in Japan and in export markets.
