Japan's Nissan Motor Co estimated its sales in China will rise 11 percent after introducing competitive new models to cover a broader range of the market.

Japan's third largest car maker has set a sales target of 500,000 units in the world's second largest car market this year including both passenger and light commercial vehicles, the company said in a statement yesterday.

As market competition heats up and this leads to lower prices, Nissan plans to launch three new models under the Nissan brand for the Chinese market this year to entice the more affluent Chinese car buyers.

The first new model will be the Qashqai sports utility vehicle made by Nissan's local venture with Dongfeng Motor Corp, which rolled off the assembly line yesterday and will begin domestic sales in March.

"In addition to the car sector, we hope to strengthen our competitiveness on the cross-over, multi-purpose and SUV vehicle segments from this year to meet the rapidly growing market demand," said Ren Yong, deputy manager of Dongfeng Nissan.

Ren's remarks came after Dongfeng Nissan forecast slower sales growth this year as the car maker faces stronger competition from rivals such as Toyota and Honda with popular new models.

Toyota Motor Corp plans to increase its sales by 43 percent to more than 700,000 units this year while Honda aims to sell 490,000 or 17 percent more vehicles this year.

Dongfeng Nissan expects its sales will rise 26 percent to 345,000 units this year. This compares with a 34-percent jump for 2007 from the 2006 level, helping it take five percent of the market share and rank seven among the top 10 best-selling car makers.

Dongguan-based Dongfeng Nissan produces the Teana mid to upper class sedan, the Tiida sedan and the Bluebird Sylphy in China. It will have a total production capacity of 450,000 units when its new plant begins operating this year.

In the luxury market, Infiniti enhances its appeal for Chinese customers by expanding its product line-up and sales network. The first new model of this year, M35, was launched in January.

(Shanghai Daily, February 26, 2008)