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Just one month into the job, new Nissan Australia boss, Dan Thompson, says his brand must grow passenger car sales if it is to prosper Down Under.
 
Thompson, who comes to the local job after a stint as the fiscal head for Nissan's GOM (General Overseas Markets -- which includes Australia), told the Carsales Network that improving the company's performance in the non-SUV and LCV marketplace was the "biggest opportunity" the local arm presented.

In his first interview with the Australian auto media, the Californian native revealed Nissan Australia was performing well and that he faced no "big fires" on arrival. However, he said rejuvenating the brand's passenger car sales was one of his first priorities.

"Getting the right product for this market has always been a challenge. So that's a daily activity -- working with head office; working with the folks in Japan on product planning. And that's [passenger vehicle] definitely our biggest opportunity. It's not a challenge, it's an opportunity," Thompson told the Carsales Network.

"The Micra has launched and been very successful, and we'll build on that. It's bringing, let's say, different people into the dealerships and the type of consumer and excitement we'd like to see in the brand," Thompson opined.

"But Tiida's an everyday challenge for us and so is Maxima, so we really need to breathe some life into the passenger vehicle side of it [the brand]. So that's one of my first priorities here," he said.

Since 2005 Nissan's total sales volume Down Under has grown from 56,032 to 60,015 in 2007. In the same period, however, passenger cars have slipped from 36.6 per cent to less than 27 per cent of the marque's total volume Down Under.

Year to date April 2008, passenger cars have accounted for an encouraging 30.3 per cent share of Nissan's volume. This compares to 45.8, 51.6 and 74.2 per cent for Mitsubishi, Toyota and Mazda respectively. All three competitive marques' April YTD stats are lineball with their full 2007 calendar year proportions.

Thompson opined that growing Nissan's passenger car penetration was more important than just volume.

"You can survive in the short term or near term [on SUV sales alone] but to build a strong brand you need passenger vehicle [sales] and you need something that feeds the younger generations into the brand. With our commercial vehicles, it's very much business-focussed and we need to penetrate deeper to build the brand into retail. And you do that through passenger vehicles, primarily."

"Micra may be the first step, in addressing a hole in the line-up. But even outside of filling a segment, we've got to do better with the cars that we have; for instance with Tiida and especially with Maxima.

"Dealers keep telling me it's [Maxima] the best kept secret. It's a fabulous car and nobody knows about it."

Nissan repositioned the front-wheel drive large car in late 2007, cutting around $5000 from its retail price. Since then Maxima, introduced in its current version in late 2003, has shown some volume improvements but it has failed to deliver consistently strong sales. The car is due for replacement in 2009.

According to Thompson, while supporting the run-out of the existing model is important, most of his team's effort will be directed towards the new Maxima. Known internationally as the Teana, the new car is already on sale in markets such as Japan and China.

"We're at the end of the life cycle for the current Maxima, so obviously our attention now, in addition to supporting obviously the run-out of the existing one, is to get the new Maxima right. And that means specification and pricing, the whole works, along with an effective marketing campaign out of the blocks," Thompson said.

"It's a matter of communicating it appropriately, re-engaging the network and the dealers in the car again."

Thompson said the new car would address the criticisms of the current car, particularly in terms of dynamics.

"Absolutely -- it's our job and the product team here at NMA's [Nissan Motor Australia] job, to make sure the product fits the consumers and customers here... At the end of the day, it's our job to get the right car here at the right time and the right price, so we'll continue to work hard on all of those facets for Maxima.

"It is an important car for the brand because it's at the top of our range, so it does have to demonstrate what we want Nissan to be known for on the passenger side of the range," Thompson opined.

Thompson revealed the new Maxima's product development team had spent time in Australia last year, benchmarking the new car against its local and imported competitors.

"I think that's one challenge we have here in Australia -- the make-up of our competitors is a bit different than the global scene. We're here, Mazda and Mitsubishi are much stronger in this market than they are globally, so there's these fine differences that we have to take upon ourselves to clearly communicate and make the product planners back in Japan understand."

Though Nissan has confirmed will add a diesel Maxima to its US line-up in 2010, Thompson stressed that car shared only its name with the local model. He said diesel for Maxima Down Under was "near term" at best.

"Everything's on the table... We're working very hard on diesel -- that's probably the growing trend, not only globally but also here, even in passsenger vehicles. So, all of that, it's been in the works for a long time. [But] It's just making the business case and making it work -- we're not going to bring something here that isn't quite right, or compromise on specification just to say we've got a diesel... Or just to say we're meeting what is sort of the flavour of the day."

Near term is also how Thompson described the likelihood of entry into the medium or C segment for Nissan in Australia.

"I think we've addressed light car and we'll continue to deliver that to the market here, but that C-segment car is definitely another one of the unmet segments, or needs, and we're working on it.

"It's not short term and it's not long term, but it is an important one... We can't be absent in these segments and  rely on commercial [vehicle volume] only."

Much store has been placed on the GTR supercar's effect on the brand's passenger car fortunes Down Under. Thompson shies away from labelling the role of the car as a 'halo' model. He says it has a job to do for Nissan but isn't a panacea for the brand's local problems.

"I think we need to interject some excitement into the brand generically and GT-R will do that. It gets Nissan to the top of mind, because we have a car that is unparallelled. So we're building all the plans now as to how we pull that off... How we [do it], either using the 'halo effect' or just interjecting life into the brand."

Thompson says the arrival of GTR doesn't necessarily affect Nissan's other model plans. He admits however that he would like more sporting models to take advantage of the GTR's marketing capital.

"Obviously [sporting cars, hot hatches, etc] that's a channel, or an opportunity, that we have today with or without the GT-R. Our brand is about performance and I think the GT-R would just supplement or give more credibility to that type of strategy.

"Nissan's heritage here, through Pulsar [SSS] and through GT-R and everything else, did have life in it, it did have a little spunk to it. We are definately looking to bring that back to the brand.

"GT-R is one part of it, new Maxima will be another and all the future products will have that DNA, or that excitement.

"We want people to be excited to buy a Nissan and proud to say they own a Nissan."

Look out for news from Nissan's global showcase 'Nissan 360', currently underway in Portugal, later this week.

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