The Micra, also known as the March, is one of Nissan’s best sellers, ever. Well, the Japanese car maker has sold over 7 million units of the hatchback in the last 34 years. The latest generation Micra, introduced in 2010, has also bagged more than a million units in sales. Why, Nissan India has exported 620,000 units of the car in the last 6 years, making the Micra the most exported car from India. But sales in India have been less than 1/6th of that number, at under 100,000 units. What went wrong? We explain!
Firstly, here’s why the Micra was and is a global success for Nissan
- Great pricing that undercuts competition. For instance in the UK, the Micra is priced more than 10 % lower than the Suzuki Swift.
- The Micra brand alone is more than 3 decades old, and with a reputation for high reliability and great fuel efficiency.
- Brand Nissan is very strong in international markets, with over 50 years of operations in many developed countries.
In India though, the Micra had a bunch of challenges:
Initial pricing too close to Swift, ineffective marketing
Nissan launched the Micra in 2010, at a time when the brand was barely known in the country. Built at the Renault-Nissan joint manufacturing facility at Oragadam, the Micra was launched in petrol-only guise, with prices starting from about 4 lakh rupees.
The Figo was priced around 30,000 rupees cheaper, and the Swift and i10 were priced similar to the Micra. For a brand that was relatively unknown in India, a sharp price tag that undercut competition would have helped. Nissan chose to play the pricing game many years later, with the cut-price Micra Active. By then, it was too late.
While the Micra offered (and still offers) a bunch of segment leading features, marketing failed to convey the strengths of the car. Even today, the Micra remains a terrific city car with a bunch of strengths. Nissan, sadly, hasn’t been able to communicate this to the buyers.
Late to the ‘Diesel Party’; diesel too costly
While having already lost the initial momentum, the Micra’s diesel variant came in a good six months later, and with a high price tag that was nearly 70,000 rupees more than that of the market leader – the Swift. And guess what, the Micra wasn’t offered with ABS despite the pricing premium. At a time when diesels were ruling Indian roads due to the high petrol-diesel price differential, the high price tag and late launch cost the Micra dearly, blows that the car is yet to recover from.
Too old!
Nissan and the Micra have been big gainers of India’s low cost-high quality manufacturing expertise. While Micra exports from India have been solid, Nissan hasn’t pushed the hatchback as hard as it should have in the Indian domestic market. Why, the Micra is almost 6 years old in India, and is yet to see an all new model. The car’s contemporaries (the Swift, Figo and i10) have all had their replacements arrive here. The Micra is just too old in a rapidly changing car market.
Badge engineering
Along with the Hover fiasco, Nissan begun experimenting with badge engineering. 4 badge engineered cars (Micra-> Renault Pulse, Sunny-> Renault Scala, Evalia -> Ashok Leyland Stile and Renault Duster -> Nissan Terrano) were launched one after the other. And all of them ended up pushing down sales rather than boosting it.
While Renault and Nissan have now agreed to stop badge engineering completely, the fate of the badge-engineered cars hang in balance, further eroding buyer confidence. Badge engineered cars such as the Micra and Pulse continue to be poor sellers.
Poor after sales
Many Nissan car owners report poor after sales experiences, and this dissuades newer buyers from opting for Nissan cars. Nissan is known as a budget car brand in India, despite its top-down (Fluence->Koleos->Micra) approach towards car introductions. And budget brands cannot afford to be lax in service, especially when market leaders like Maruti and Hyundai are known for stellar performances in this crucial area. The Micra sits bang in budget car territory.
Some other things
Hover fiasco
Since Nissan was a late entrant to the Indian market, the Japanese automaker appointed Hover Automotive as its master franchise. While Hover helped Nissan establish about 100 dealerships in just 3 years, the master franchise cut into dealer profits by becoming an additional layer in the overall scheme of things.
Dealers resented this and revolted against Hover. Before Nissan decided to do away with Hover and directly deal with the dealers, the damage was done. Nissan’s dealerships were not profitable and the automaker’s sales were slipping further into the red. This cost the brand sales, and the Micra was hit hard.
Unhappy dealers
Nissan has been around in India for over 7 years now, and is 220 dealers strong. But are these dealers happy? Well, successive JD Power dealer satisfaction surveys indicate that Nissan dealers are the least satisfied lot. While Hover may be a big reason for this dissatisfaction in previous years, it’s worrying that dealers continue to have issues despite Nissan now handling distribution on its own.
With sales dipping for the past few years, and the Datsun brand not making the impact it was meant to, profitability at Nissan dealerships is taking a hit. With fewer cars sold, after sales also isn’t proving to be the money spinner for dealers. It’s a known fact that unhappy dealers don’t sell cars with the same fervour as a happy dealer. Sales naturally suffer. Nissan (0.43 %) + Datsun (1.95 %) market share in India < 2.5 %.