40% growth for Nissan Philippines in 2018

MANILA: When a brand grows by 40 % in a year, it is a big achievement. However, this achievement during a year when the whole automobile industry went down is remarkable. And Nissan has just done that.

While the automobile market accounted for a decline of 15.22 % in 2018, the Japanese automaker grew by 40 % in the Philippines. The increased taxes and fuel prices did not affect the sales for the manufacturer and it sold 34,952 units throughout the year.

A target of 8 % market share was aimed at by Nissan Philippines, Inc. (NPI) at the beginning of 2018. And to no surprise, the brand seized 8.7 % of the automobile market. Nissan Philippines president and Managing Director,

Ramesh Narasimhan, said “To change the game, we have to stick to our fundamentals. With what we have achieved last year, we can now look forward to dreaming bigger for 2019”.

Accounting for 46.2 % of the total sales, the pickup truck Navara was the top performer for the Japanese automaker. Terra, the mid-sized SUV by from brand’s stable contributed 11.9 % to the total sales. Not only the abovementioned model performed as others like Urvan and Almera also contributed heavily and brought 19.5 % and 17.5 % of the total sales.

In May 2018, Nissan launched the Terra in the region and the event was held in the Philippines. Nissan also declared that it will be bringing 370Z and NISMO packs for the Juke very soon in the market. The Navara Warrior X and a modified version of their new SUV called the Terra S were also displayed at the 2018 Philippine International Motor Show.

During the 6th Philippine EV Summit, Nicholas Thomas, the boss of the global EV business unit of Nissan, stated that in order to bring the electric vehicle acceptance rate up, the automakers along with the stakeholders and the governments should put in the required efforts effectively.

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