While Honda was SCUBA diving last year to find its assembled Brios and Mitsubishi was trying to find the Mirage in the desert, Nissan was making a killing with its March eco-car. The demand was there and Nissan was the only company to fill that demand.
So, spurred on with their success so far, Nissan has upped the ante with the news of their new assembly plant at Samut Prakan, which will come on stream in 2014. This plant will produce 100,000 cars a year initially and is projected to increase this to 200,000. With the existing plant producing almost another 200,000, Nissan is banking on doubling its output by 2016. This would give Nissan 15 percent of the marketplace.
Next year’s Nissan March?
It now remains to be seen just what Honda and Mitsubishi will do now in response, but they may be too late. Nissan has seemingly collared the market with the March and now the Almera as well.
To keep abreast of all the Thai developments I recommend anyone to get a copy of the Thai Auto Book, edited by the Automotive Focus Group president Uli Kaiser ([email protected]).
