Nissan bets high on Kicks with global sales down 2.6% in Q3 FY19

Nissan Motor Company announced that its global retail sales volume for Q3 FY19 decreased by 2.6 percent with 1,340 units as against 1,375 units in Q3 FY18. In the nine months of FY19, its global market share dropped to 5.9 percent with 4,023 units as compared to the same period in FY18. Its global YoY sales in these nine months also decreased by 2.1 percent. Sales in India and Indonesia is said to have decreased, but is set for a strong comeback with the launch of the new Kicks SUV.

Nissan addressed several challenging conditions across the globe. In Japan, in the nine-month period, its sales rose 8.4 percent with 410,000 units as against 378,000 units in 9M FY18.

Hiroto Saikawa, President and CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation

In Japan, its market share rose to 11 percent. Nissan revealed that its sales in China rose by 7.4 percent in the period of April- December 2018 as compared to the same period in 2017. This is attributed to the strong sales of its Sylphy (EV), Kicks and X-Trail model. For the full year of 2018, Nissan sold a total of 1,564,000 units, up by 2.9 percent over 2017.

In the US, due to the shift in the trend towards pickup trucks from sedans, Nissan saw a drop in sales in the April-December 2018 period to 1,078 units from 1,177 from FY2018. Similarly, due to new environmental regulations (WLTP), Nissan suffered a YoY 15.8 percent decrease in sales from the European markets, excluding Russia where it saw a 1.9 percent increase, during the nine-month period.

While its sales increased significantly during the nine months of FY19 in Thailand and Philippines by 22 percent and 48 percent respectively, the decrease in sales from India and Indonesian markets pushed the overall sales from Asia and Oceania down to 3.3 percent with a total of 240,000 units.

As per its financial results which were presented under the equity accounting method for its joint venture in China, the net income from the nine months stood at 316.7 billion yen. This significant decrease of 45.2 percent in the net income is attributed to the US tax reforms.

During the presentation, Nissan conveyed its regrets to its shareholders in regards to its ex-chairman. It has even set up a special committee to improve the governance which includes four outside committee members and three independent directors who would provide recommendations to the company by the end of FY2019. Nissan is looking to strengthen its governance and regain the respect of its stakeholders.