SAMARA, April 04, /ITAR-TASS/. The first AVTOVAZ-made batch-produced car model Datsun, a sub-brand of the Nissan Company, will be introduced here on Friday, an official in the press service of Nissan Company in Russia told Itar-Tass.
"The Datsun car model has been developed specially for the Russian market. The start-up of the manufacture of the car model is fundamenally important for a global expansion of the brand. For the first-ever time, the Datsun brand will be officially presented in Russia," a Nissan press service official pointed out earlier.
The design of the car was devised in Japan and the development work was conducted at the local level by an international team of talented engineers who drew on the wealth of experience gained by the Nissan Motor Corporation over a 80-year period.
According to Jerome Sego, regional director of Datsun in Russia, the car's price will not be more than 400,000 roubles. The car will have a high degree of localisation.
Sego specified that the first batch-produced cars will reach dealer centres before the beginning of summer. At first, 25 dealers will tackle the sales of Datsun cars in Russia and later on the network will be extended.
In 2014, a batch production of two Datsun car models will be mastered at AVTOVAZ. However, the company will not stop at that and in subsequent years the range of car models is certain to be broadened. By 2016, the sope of Datsun car manufacture may about 100,000 cars. The possibility of the export of Datsun cars manufactured in Russia is under consideration.
"Our goal is to reach out to the scope of approximately one-third of of all Nissan cars being sold in Russia. If Nissan car sales in Russia by 2016 is about 300,000, the Datsun brand will account for 100,000 cars. AVTOVAZ has available sufficient capacities to meet all our production requirements," Sego said, emphasizing that Datsun does not intend to compete against the LADA brand. "Ours is a different positioning of the brand a different dealership network and different ambitins," Sego remarked.
Japanese cars under the trademark of Datsun were turned out in a period from 1931 to1986.
In 2012, the Japanese automotive giant Nissan (Nissan Motor Company) decided to revive the Datsun brand specially for Russian and other foreign countries. In the same year, AVTOVAZ and the Nissan Manufacturing Rus signed an agreement on the elaboration, preparation of production and assembly of Datsun brand cars, which will be turned out on the conveyor-assembly lines of LADA Granta and LADA Kalina automobiles.