Nissan South Africa has announced that the Datsun Brand will be re-introduced to the South African market by as early as 2014. The first model to be introduced will be a new passenger vehicle that will be launched by the end of 2014.
The re-introduction of the Datsun brand globally forms part of Nissan Power 88 mid-term plan to achieve 8% of the global market share and 8% operating profit by fiscal year 2016. The official public announcement was made last year April by Carlos Ghosn (check out our previous story)
The main focus for the sale of the new passenger car from Datsun will be on emerging markets, namely India, Indonesia, South Africa and Russia. Nissan South African must have done some work in motivating for the re-introduction of Datsun in South Africa, as South Africa did not feature as a possible market in last year’s press release from Nissan Global.
The Datsun brand was phased out in 1981 when it was integrated with Nissan branding as the company expanded globally. Datsun is to be re-established with a strong independent brand identity, alongside the Nissan and Infiniti brands.
“Datsun enjoyed a proud heritage in the country after the Bluebird made its debut at the Pretoria Show in 1958, the 120Y and SSS models were household names, before going on to become the number one brand between 1976 and 1978,” said Mike Whitfield, managing Director of Nissan South Arica.
While NSA currently plans to initiate Datsun brand sales with one passenger vehicle model, it is anticipated that a broader range of Datsun vehicles will be available in the future.