Datsun enters Russian market with all-new On-Do sedan

Nissan has launched the Datsun brand in Russia with the introduction of the On-Do sedan. With this, Russia becomes the first market where all of Nissan’s three brands – Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun – will be sold. The On-Do (‘On’ signifies ‘way’ in Japanese and ‘Do’ means male in Russian) will be built in at the AVTOVAZ plant in Togliatti, Russia. AVTOVAZ is a Renault-Nissan Alliance partner.

The four-door, five-seater On-Do is 4337mm long, 1700mm wide and 1500mm tall, with boot space of 530 litres. The sedan sees a mix of global and local inputs. According to Nissan, the car’s styling was done at the company’s advanced Global Design Center in Japan. The vehicle’s development and engineering was carried out in Russia by an international team of engineers at AVTOVAZ, backed by quality and technical assurance from Nissan.

Power will come from a proven 1.6-litre, petrol engine which develops 87bhp.

Sales for the On-Do, which will be priced below 400 000 Roubles, are slated to start in mid-2014. The car will initially be sold through a network of 25 fully-branded dealerships supported by Nissan dealer investors. Located in key regions, they will be joined by further 75 outlets over the next two years.

Speaking at the launch on April 4, Carlos Ghosn, Nissan Motor president and CEO, said; “Today, Russia is our company’s fifth largest market in the world. In the next three years, we are aiming to triple our sales here with the goal of doubling market share.  And we expect the Datsun brand to contribute as much as one third of total sales.”

Vincent Cobee, corporate VP and global head of Datsun, said: “In markets where Datsun has been introduced so far (India and Indonesia), the brand represents modern, attractive, practical and reliable new cars as symbols of freedom and of a newly-found status. The Datsun models are new, no-compromise designs that bring modern levels of engineering, styling and ability within the reach of a new generation of car buyers. We have thoroughly researched our customers’ needs and aspirations and worked hard to develop cars that are well adapted to the local environment in each market where they will be offered. The result is Datsun models which will bring a refreshing combination of accessible, reliable and enjoyable car ownership attributes to a new generation of up-and-coming customers, whom we call ‘risers’.”