Nissan aiming to be a top-five seller in Aus

NISSAN Oceania vice president and managing director Andrew Humberstone is confident that the brand, which has Australia’s fifth-largest dealership network, can reach sales volumes to match the size of its retail footprint under an ambitious new strategy to leverage the Japanese car-maker’s “Australianness” in a market being rapidly disrupted by new brands, regulations and economic pressures.

To the end of August this year, Nissan sales are up 32.1 per cent, making it the fastest-growing brand in Australia’s top 10 – but its average monthly run rate of around 4000 deliveries has captured just 3.8 per cent of the total market year-to-date for a place near the bottom of the top 10 table.

During a media briefing in Melbourne this week, Mr Humberstone made it clear that reinforcing Nissan’s Australian identity and heritage is at the heart of his strategy, pointing out at that “we’re the only passenger OEM that manufactures here”, referring to the Nissan Casting Australia Plant (NCAP) in Dandenong that produces around 1.2 million components each year for 80 global markets, as well as 160,000 tow bars.

“We haven’t talked about that enough,” he said, adding that he had been surprised to discover how deeply ingrained Nissan is in Australia’s automotive history, dating back to 1934 when the first Datsuns arrived, with the first official import operation commencing in 1960.

Mr Humberstone also confirmed that Nissan will continue to work with local engineering outfit Premcar on the back of its successful Warrior range of beefed-up Navara and Patrol off-roaders, hinting at plans for an expanded partnership as Warrior sales so far this year have already surpassed 2023’s full-year total.

“We’re committed to Australia, and that message is going to come through much stronger moving forward,” he said.

“We’ve been here for decades, and yet we haven’t told that story. This is something we’re absolutely going to change.”

Asked whether this lack of messaging in the past had originated from his predecessors in the boardroom, or somewhere within Nissan’s marketing and communications agencies and departments, Mr Humberstone attributed his vision to arriving with “fresh eyes” and asking “the right questions”.

“I said, there's a story here, so why haven't we told the story? And hang on, there's something here, which actually is a missed opportunity,” he told GoAuto.

Explaining that he had learned about Nissan’s history in Australia from several sources including dealers and customers, he said the message had not “come from the top”.

“It's come from the bottom up,” he explained, saying the challenge was to understand “how do we own it as a market and make it something where there's a sense of pride”.

According to Mr Humberstone, Nissan is Australia’s third-largest automotive employer in the country, with more than 3000 staff across its national and regional headquarters, parts operations, NCAP and in-house finance division.

Since joining Nissan Oceania in April this year and touring both Australia and New Zealand to meet with dealers and other business partners, Mr Humberstone realised that a lot of the brand’s dealers “weren’t aware of some of our key strengths, like having the only Australian-based manufacturing facility in the sector”.

Mr Humberstone said his research had identified a need to clearly define what Nissan stands for and to communicate that effectively in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

“We are a strong brand, but our market share doesn’t reflect that strength,” he said.

Asked whether he expected to increase volume to meet the size of the dealership network or adjust the size of the network, Mr Humberstone said his “first objective is to increase, ideally, the volume on the back of a clear strategy that will take me to the right level of natural absorption”.

“We're more motivated to drive volume up,” he said. “We have our own bank. Others don't. We are more authentically Australian. Others are not.

“If we look at our product range or where our product technology is, the quality of our product versus some others that are even doing more (volume) than us, what have we missed?”

“I think what we've missed is largely what I shared with you today. I think if we capture what I shared with you today, our volume will increase, because we have 70 per cent representation of the TiV (total industry volume). Others don't.”

Speaking candidly about the challenges posed by the sheer number of new brands entering the Australian market, as well as economic factors that resulted in some of the world’s biggest reductions in disposable income, which have disrupted established relationships between car-makers and dealers, Mr Humberstone said he was committed to reinforcing Nissan’s partnership with its retail partners.

“For me, the dealers are my first customer,” he explained, emphasising the importance of dealer engagement to ensure that Nissan's new brand strategy resonates throughout the market.

It is a strategy that aims to position Nissan as a brand that Australian consumers can trust, particularly as competitive and economic pressures are mounting, and Mr Humberstone said Nissan’s dealership footprint, which addresses 90 per cent of the Australian population, will play a critical role in customer engagement and retention.

“We need to be crystal clear on what Nissan stands for, said Mr Humberstone. “It’s not just about selling cars, it’s about delivering a brand experience that makes Australians proud.”

He described this new direction to GoAuto as a “cultural shift” that he hopes will leave a lasting legacy.

“This is a strategy that has to live beyond me,” he said. “It’s about creating something that will sustain Nissan in Australia for the next 10, 20 years, and it’s a plan that is rooted in authenticity and commitment to the market.”

With 11 new models in the pipeline by 2027, including at least two battery electric vehicles and next-generation models of the Navara ute and Patrol off-roader, Mr Humberstone said that, with his strategy in place, Nissan is on the right track to prosper in Australia’s increasingly competitive automotive market.