Go+ Will Also Get Driver Airbag, Confirms Datsun’s Boss; Says India is Tough

With the recently revived Datsun brand, Nissan intended to have a low cost brand which would help them increase their market share and at the same time not affect their prime brand image. They wanted to have modern aspirational locally made products with a global brand backing its development and services. However, one year since its launch, it is lagging behind in terms of sales in India but the global trend is pretty different.

The global head of Datsun brand, Vincent Cobee, recently spoke to the Times of India and shared that Datsun has emerged as number one in the entry level car segment in South Africa. They say that they have achieved this feat in just five months of sales. In Indonesia too they have been registering a pretty decent response. They have managed to get hold of 18 to 19 per cent market share in the low cost green car segment. Russia, where it entered with sedans, Datsun has become one of the top 10 brands in the segment in just eight weeks.

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The scenario here in India is completely reverse of it, however, their Go+ compact MPV is doing a better job than the hatchback. To give you an idea, Go+ registered a movement of 816 units in January 2015, 764 unit in February 2015 and 1,406 units in March 2015 (data sourced from TeamBHP). These may not be sky-rocketing figures but better than what Datsun has so far got for the Go.

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Mr Cobee also accepts that the Indian car bazaar is a tough nut to crack and the figures which we just talked about, clearly highlight the same. Both the Go and the Go+ are wonderful cars in the entry level small car segments. The company now intends to increase their touch points so that the more and more people can recognize the brand while at the same time bring in newer products to help grow into newer dimensions.

They also intend to launch the RediGo (pictured above) in 18 months. In this conversation, Vincent also confirmed that they will soon introduce driver airbags on both the Go and Go+ in India soon.

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