Japan's automotive giant, Nissan, plans to almost double its annual sales in China by 2015 through Dongfeng.
Dongfeng Motor Co., Nissan's joint venture in China, has announced plans to increase annual sales from 1.3 million units in 2010 to 2.3 million units by 2015. The company will invest 50 million RMB ($7.8m USD) in increasing production capacity, building new plants, and introducing 30 new models within the next 4 years.
Nissan's CEO Carlos Ghosn hopes the new plan will ensure China will continue to be it's largest market. Currently, around a quarter of Nissan's global sales are generated from China.
Dongfeng Motor will expand its assembly plants in Guangdong and Henan, build new plants in Hebei and Jiangsu and aims to localise all production of components for domestically manufactured vehicles. The overall outcome of these plans will be an increased production capacity to 2.3 million units by 2015.
The company will also launch five new models under the newly created Venucia brand, one of which will be an electric car, and expects its sales to reach 300,000 units by 2015. The first Venucia model will be a compact car available next year. In the first half of 2011, Dongfeng sold 734,000 vehicles, up 13% year-on-year, including 374,000 Nissan-brand passenger vehicles.
Nissans' announcement comes as State researchers predict an uplifit in the country's automotive growth cycle.