Motoring 2014: Nissan revamps roster of car models, welcomes new president

Nissan PH President Antonio “Toti” Zara with the new Nissan Navarra at the Thailand plant

NISSAN Philippines, Inc. (NPI) has had a rather busy and exciting year. Since March (when NPI became the national sales company of Nissan in the Philippines), the car company had managed to revamp its roster of car models, launching sleeker and much sexier car models. The move has worked wonders.

NPI earlier this year also welcomed its new president and managing director, Antonio Zara. In an exclusive interview with Inquirer Motoring in September, Zara said that now may be the best time to live in the Philippines because the country is “on the verge of motorization.”

“We want to provide the products that the middle class wants,” he said, aware of the vast potential for motorization not only in Metro Manila but in the provinces.

In October, Nissan launched the all-new Nissan X-Trail compact sports utility vehicle (SUV), one of the vehicles that NPI hopes will brings more attention to its brand.

The third-generation X-Trail has “a sleeker look compared to its boxy predecessor, an engine that is fuel efficient yet powerful, a comfortable cabin, and enough techy features inside and out to make it one of the best all-around compact SUVs that is ready for any action on the road,” according to an Inquirer Motoring article.

Passenger cars

Aside from the X-Trail, NPI also launched the Sylphy and Altima, which they unveiled during the company’s grand launch earlier this year. The introduction of these two new global sedans signaled the beginning of Nissan’s plan of launching more car models in the coming years. The Nissan Sylphy is a best-in-class compact car, while the Nissan Altima is a mid-size sedan.

“Nissan has been known here for light commercial vehicles, so introducing the Altima and the Sylphy shows that we have a full line, and our strength in passenger cars. Sylphy is unknown to Filipinos, so my job is to make people realize that Nissan has a Sylphy to replace the Sentra in the Car C market, and offers a better choice than the Civic and the Altis,” Zara said.

NPI continues to build cars at the Nissan Technopark in Santa Rosa, Laguna. Among cars manufactured there are the Navara pickup truck, Urvan, Patrol Safari SUV, and Almera sedan (B Car class).

With December sales figures yet to be tallied, it looks like NPI would be hitting its 16 percent year-over-year target, which should result in 8,900 units sold in fiscal year 2014 (2014 April to 2015 March).

“NPI’s sales performance since its inception has been in line with our internal target. With the numbers we’ve gotten so far, we believe we can achieve our whole year target for fiscal year 2014,” said Dax Avenido, the company’s marketing manager.