Nissan Motor Philippines has announced that they would be assembling three new car models in the Philippines within the next five years to expand their user base in this market where they have failed to climb up the top three spot in terms of unit sales.
NMPI president Leman Lee said that these new models would add on to their existing range of completely knocked down (CKD) models assembled in its plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. These new models would be replacement for Nissan Sentra, which will be launched late in 2007; Teana, the replacement model for the luxury sedan Nissan Cefiro by middle of next year; and a multipurpose vehicle (MPV) that is still under development.
The company currently sells the Cefiro, Sentra and popular sports utility vehicle (SUV) X-Trail in this market. They have also launched the full-sized SUV Nissan Murano in the local market. In addition, the 3.5-liter Murano is imported as a fully built vehicle from Japan.
Lee said in a statement: “Performance-wise, the Murano is comparative to the Volvo XZ90 and BMW X5, but is comparative to Mitsubishi’s Pajero in terms of pricing”. The company has overall plans to launch as many as 10 new Nissan models until 2008.