Carlos Ghosn
President and Chief Executive Officer
Nissan Power 88
Nissan's new mid-term plan builds upon all the lessons learned, synergies developed and investments made since 1999. Then, Nissan was lacking a shared vision and plagued by a lack of focus on the crucial needs of its stakeholders. Today, Nissan has a clear, global vision, an established presence in all major markets and segments, and the resources and the will to achieve its challenging objectives and accelerate Nissan's growth.The name of our new mid-term plan?Nissan Power 88?underscores our engagement to achieve our corporate goals. "Power" derives its significance from the strengths and efforts we will apply to our brands and sales. Our commitment is to renew our focus on the overall customer experience, elevating Nissan's brand power and ensuring quality excellence for every person who buys a Nissan or Infiniti vehicle. The measurable rewards from achieving our plan are denoted by "88." We aim to achieve a global market share of 8% and increase our corporate operating profit margin to a sustainable 8%.
As a six-year plan, Nissan Power 88 allows the benefit of long-term strategic planning and continuity in operational decisions. The plan's midpoint allows us to define measurable and precise priorities for the next three years, as we chart our progress. The key contents of our plan focus on developing leadership and profitability in growth markets worldwide, actively cultivating sustainable mobility through electric vehicles and technologies that reduce emissions, and advancing mobility for all.
An Extensive Product Plan
Nissan's product plan will deliver one new vehicle every six weeks, on average, during the next six years. We are broadening our range of models for both the Nissan and Infiniti brands and eliminating product overlaps. More dedicated vehicles for key growth markets, such as China, Brazil, Russia, India and Indonesia, will allow personal mobility to become more accessible to those consumers who need it.Nissan's global product lineup is already wide and deep. During Nissan Power 88, we will launch a total of 51 new models. In 1999, Nissan had 49 vehicles in its global product range, covering 77% of markets and segments. Today we have 64 vehicles covering 80% of markets and segments. By 2016, Nissan will have 66 Nissan and Infiniti vehicles in its global portfolio, covering 92% of segments and markets worldwide. We will consolidate some models and add others. Our plan will also include the development of more than 90 new advanced technologies, averaging 15 per year.
We will deliver a complete renewal of our popular global growth models.
We will widen our portfolio of Infiniti products.
We will address specific needs of Chinese customers by offering a broader range of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles, and we are firm in our resolve to reach 10% market share in China.
Our versatile V-platform was designed to deliver stylish, high-quality, affordable vehicles to the global marketplace. We will expand our V-platform range of global products to three models to help us reach more than 1 million units from this platform in 2016.
We are focusing more attention on the price-entry segment to serve a growing number of customers in the emerging markets, such as the BRICs and Indonesia.
Nissan's longstanding presence in the commercial vehicle segment is also gaining momentum. By fiscal 2016, Nissan will be the world's leading light commercial vehicle manufacturer.
Clear Strategic Direction
Nissan Power 88 identifies six strategies as levers we will use to achieve results according to plan.Pillar 1: Brand power
To strengthen Nissan's brand power, we will expand our strengths in engineering and production to the sales, marketing and ownership experience. We will also raise the level of interaction with our customers to create a world-class standard of service that will help us build lasting relationships with every Nissan and Infiniti vehicle customer. We recognize that having a stronger brand will help close gaps with our top competitors in every measurable area, from revenue generation to overall opinion and purchase intention.
Pillar 2: Sales power
Sales power in the mid-term plan refers to fully grasping the needs of customers in each market and drastically raising sales volume and market share. Nissan currently has 6,000 major points of sales globally. We will expand our retail network to 7,500 outlets in the mid-term plan period.
Nissan is now the leading Japanese brand in China, Russia and Mexico and is on track to become the largest volume Asian brand in Europe by fiscal 2016. We are focusing our efforts to boost sales power in Japan and the United States, as well as in the ASEAN region.
Pillar 3: Enhancing quality
Nissan aims to make steady progress in improving product quality. During Nissan Power 88, our aim is to raise Nissan into the top group of global automakers in product quality and to elevate Infiniti to leadership status among peer luxury products by fiscal 2016.
Pillar 4: Zero-emission leadership
No other global automaker is as engaged in comprehensive activities to advance the entire system needed to make sustainable mobility a reality. Nissan is taking a leadership role in every aspect, from the development of batteries, chargers and a vehicle lineup to electric grid studies, battery recycling and the use of batteries for energy storage.
In 2011, Nissan will take the lead as the all-time volume leader in dedicated electric vehicle sales.
The Renault-Nissan Alliance is bringing seven more all-electric models to follow the successful launch of the Nissan LEAF. The Alliance intends to put 1.5 million electric vehicles on roads worldwide by 2016.
Nissan's emphasis on sustainable mobility also encompasses the range of low-carbon and lowemission technologies that support PURE DRIVE. For example, our proprietary hybrid technology will be tailored to future Nissan and Infiniti models, and our next-generation Xtronic Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) will increase fuel efficiency in future Nissan vehicles and maintain our status as the global leader in CVT technology.
Pillar 5: Business expansion
In 1999, Nissan's global market share was 4.6%. In 2010, Nissan achieved a record 5.8%. For fiscal 2016, we are targeting a global share of 8%, supported by a steady tempo of a new product launch on average every six weeks, a continued focus on growth markets, and the expansion of our Infiniti and light commercial vehicle businesses.
We will concentrate on increasing our presence in Brazil, India and Russia, as well as in the next wave of emerging markets, including the ASEAN 5?Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Nissan is the top Japanese car maker in China with a 6.2% market share, and China will continue to be Nissan's largest single global market into the plan. In 2012, we will have nearly doubled our production capacity, to 1.2 million units, and we will further increase our capacity to be in line with our goal of 10% market share. With our partner Dong Feng, we will continue to invest in more products and dealers and together build our new local brand, Venucia.
In North America, we will invest to expand our manufacturing capacity and retain our number-one position in Mexico, where Nissan leads the market with a 23.1% share.
In Brazil, where we have 1.2% market share, we target a minimum of 5% market share. We will build a new plant in Brazil, with a capacity of 200,000 units as a first step.
In Europe, Nissan will become the largest volume Asian brand. In Russia, we aim to increase Nissan's market share to 7% by 2016.
In India, we will add five new models to be built in the new Alliance plant in Chennai, and we will continue to expand our dealer network.
In ASEAN, Nissan Motor Thailand now serves as a strategic industrial base and export hub, and we are concentrating on growth in Indonesia. We are increasing the annual production capacity of our plant near Jakarta from 50,000 to 100,000 units to meet local demand. We aim to increase our share in the ASEAN 5 from 5% today to 15% by 2016.
Pillar 6: Cost leadership
Since we implemented the Nissan Revival Plan, we have been successful in reducing costs by 5% annually, due mainly to cross-functional monozukuri activities involving our supplier base. As our production footprint is increasingly global, we will maintain this pace by enhancing and deepening these activities in every Nissan production base across the regions, particularly in North America, China, India and Russia.
By increasing the use of carry-over/carry-across parts and systems, we will further boost overall platform efficiency. Platform and product synergies will be developed with all our partners, especially in small and medium vehicle segments. And with the additional growth in volume, we expect to realize greater cost efficiency. Evaluating not only purchased parts but also logistics and in-house costs, we have set an objective to reduce the total cost by 5% each year.
In Japan, we will raise our yen revenue through increased vehicle sales and reduce our yen-based costs through greater localization of parts supply to overseas plants. Enhancing our monozukuri activities in Japan and across the regions is key to our cost-reduction efforts. Through these activities, we will maintain our commitment to produce 1 million vehicles per year in Japan.
Leveraging Partner Strengths
Nissan's performance will be enhanced by leveraging 12 years of successful collaboration within the Renault-Nissan Alliance and its five established and productive partnerships. Through the Alliance's strategic cooperation with Daimler, Nissan will benefit from diesel engine and power train technologies, including a supply of Mercedes-Benz engines for Infiniti vehicles. With AvtoVAZ in Russia, the Alliance will take a 40% share in the Russian market, with investments in products and localized manufacturing and sourcing. Our partnership with Dong Feng is critical to our reaching 10% market share in China.With Ashok-Leyland in India, Nissan has a partner in the development and manufacture of light commercial vehicles. And with Mitsubishi, we expanded the scope of our cooperation to develop a new mini car joint venture.
The Right Plan for Nissan's Future
In the global automotive industry, Nissan leads in zero-emission mobility, we lead in many emerging markets and we lead in the number of stable, productive partnerships we have established to improve our competitive position. Going forward, our aim is to enhance our brand power, sales power and the quality of our products and services and to continue to lead the way in advancing sustainable mobility and mobility for all. This is what Nissan Power 88 is about, and we are eager to get started and to deliver the full potential of this company.
