On Wednesday, Ghandhara Nissan held an event where the company officially confirmed its re-entry to Pakistan. The company has a massive and aggressive localization and indigenization program for Pakistan. Nissan plans to launch its first vehicle by 2019, making use of at least 20 percent of parts that have been locally manufactured.
The official announcement confirms ProPakistani’s reports from February where it was detailed that the company plans to launch Datsun Go cars in Pakistan by 2019.
At the event in a local hotel Karachi, an agreement was signed between Ghandhara Nissan Ltd Pakistan and Nissan Motor Co. Japan. This agreement allows Ghandhara Nissan Ltd to manufacture vehicles as Nissan Motor Japan’s partner in Pakistan.
Nissan’s senior vice president, Peyman Kargar, and CEO of Ghandhara Nissan, Ahmed Kuli Khan Khattak and General Ali Kuli Kahn Khattak signed the agreement.
Ahmed Kuli Khan told the media that Ghandhara Nissan will invest Rs. 4.5 billion in the brownfield project and Nissan Motors will provide technical and non-financial services. This investment has been made under the government’s Auto Policy 2016-21.
“This policy doesn’t bind the manufacturer to localization the manufacturing process but Ghandhara plans to enter with 20 percent locally produced parts. And within 3 years, Ghandhrara plans to use local parts like the current local car assemblers,” Ahmed Kuli Khan added.
Peyman Kargar said that for the locally produced Datsun cars, Nissan is also looking for more local options. Nissan’s technical team is visiting the local parts suppliers and assessing their technical abilities. Currently, these suppliers deliver parts to Nissan’s local competitors and so the company has some concerns over quality issues.
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“Nissan, after the evaluation, will work with the suppliers to upgrade their manufacturing facilities and improve the quality of parts. Currently, their parts are not up to Nissan’s standards,” Peyman Kargar added.
On the question of the devaluation of rupee and impact on the auto industry, Peyman Kargar said that the devaluation will encourage auto assemblers to focus on localization of parts, however, it will take time to achieve the capacity.
Media personnel also asked what type of car Nissan plans to launch in 2019. Despite multiple questions and concerns over Ghandhrara’s target market, Ahmed Kuli Khan and Peyman Kargar refused to answer the question stating, “We are not able to tell you at this point in time.”
Great news !!!, seems like we will ultimately have an alternate for Mehran in the future,,,
I suggest not to compare Nissan with Suzuki. Nissan have great reputation.
it’s unlikely they will go for the low end of the market when starting out. they will make sedans to compete with corolla and civic/city.
Look towards Sazgar’s venture for that. I think only they can take the Mehran behemoth head on.
starting price will be 16 lac min.
I’m a NISSAN user. My attachment to DATSUN is special. My 1st self that I ever gave to a car was DATSUN when I was 7 years old. Pakistani automakers are least familiar about quality. Like SUZUKI which is a good company but when its PAK-SUZUKI things turn to 180 degrees. Ghandhara Nissan need to be very vigilant on quality control especially for local manufactured parts.
Nissan will have a tough time breaking the mindset of people. Great cars, ruined by the fact that people don’t buy them for quality, but for market value. Same is true for Toyota and Honda.
Not expecting low end cars from nissan, datsun/united/sazgar/kia/hyundai might roll out something for the general public, we seriously need to get rid of Mehran, united is so close, it seems like they will be the first one to take on against napak suzuki’s mehran