Nissan South Africa : Holding Its Own

For the last decade and a half, Nissan has been averaging just over the 4% mark for market share in the RSA. It's still around there but maintained only with the recent help of its sub-brand Datsun. As mentioned in others in this series, there is a market here for budget model cars and Nissan has been able to accommodate those customers.

In the last few years as sales in the RSA have contracted and a move to lower priced cars has emerged, the Nissan nameplate has shrunk while the new Datsun brand has flourished. The fact that the Datsun range has been until recently but one car model (Go) makes that all the more remarkable. It is now supported by a new variant (Go+) which is a MPV type vehicle.

Of the Nissan range, the Almera is a model from Asia also known as the Latio and sold as the Renault Scala in India. The two main models are the X-Trail and Qashqai SUVs, between them accounting for over 60% of Nissan brand cars.

Summary: Nissan is holding its own in a competitive and challenging market place. It's a fine line between getting it right and not doing so. So far they are walking that fine line rather well.

Nissan Passenger Car Sales : RSA
Make/Year	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Go	-	-	1,573	5,647	4,276
X-Trail	1,788	1,660	1,694	3,155	3,474
Qashqai	4,209	3,253	3,736	3,242	2,372
Almera	-	1,999	2,978	1,260	1,749
Micra	4,916	4,452	2,326	865	868
Go+	-	-	-	-	571
Juke	4,360	4,449	2,302	773	448
NV200	-	246	395	296	240
Sentra/Tiida	2,276	1,141	909	350	202
GT-R	50	46	35	55	57
Patrol	58	40	18	24	35
370Z	55	39	14	9	11
Leaf	-	34	14	35	7
Pathfinder	205	407	294	47	-
Livina	2,585	1,527	986	19	-
Murano	130	63	33	5	-
Total	20,632	19,356	17,307	15,782	14,310
Nissan Share	4.7%	4.3%	3.6%	2.5%	2.6%
Datsun Share	-	-	0.4%	1.4%	1.3%
Total Share	4.7%	4.3%	4.0%	3.9%	3.9%

Data source: Naamsa.