Nissan Expansion: Automaker to expand into Sub-Saharan countries

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Meanwhile, the Nissan group in South Africa says that it will expand its offering into several sub-Saharan countries over the next couple of months. Angelo Coppola has the story from Johannesburg.

The reason for the strategy change is because of a stagnant South African market, despite Nissan growing its market share here by 25%.

MIKE WHITFIELD, MANAGING DIRECTOR NISSAN SOUTH AFRICA "If we start looking at sub-Saharan Africa, where today the market is only 100 thousand, mainly because there's a flood of nearly new and grey imports coming in, the market, where potentially over by 2030 you've got 240 odd million middle class, it's massive massive opportunities for growth."

There's also a move away from using smaller single country distributors to developing hubs and using big distributors.

XAVIER GOBILLE, SALES & MARKETING MD NISSAN SOUTH AFRICA "With these hubs you can actually see the scale and when one country goes down, then the other country goes up. And you can limit the risk. So both for scale and skill, we are trying to move from individual partner to group that can handle multiple countries."

The group wants to increase its presence in Central Africa.

XAVIER GOBILLE, SALES & MARKETING MD NISSAN SOUTH AFRICA "We are currently working, as I talk to you, to actually find another, to have another partner. We are finalizing a contract with a new partner, to handle the central Africa, which is a massive hub."

The group has a presence in Nigeria, it's got a population of 180 million people and doesn't have an automotive policy.

MIKE WHITFIELD, MANAGING DIRECTOR NISSAN SOUTH AFRICA "Today the market for new vehicles is 10 thousand, the grey market is 500 thousand. So huge opportunities to grow in Nigeria, specifically. And if we take the ECOWAS region, ECOWAS, 350 million people, bigger than North America."

ANGELO COPPOLA JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA You're not going to find this car in Africa, much, except if it's in a rally, or it's messing around in the dunes of Dubai, for example, but Nissan has huge plans for development and expansion into the African continent. I'm Angelo Coppola for CGTN at the Gerotek test range.