Japan's Nissan to launch flagship GTR sports car in December - UPDATE |
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Wed, 24 Oct 2007 10:13
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TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Nissan Motor Co Ltd, Japan's third-largest automaker, will launch its new GTR sports car in Japan in December and in the US in June, chief executive Carlos Ghosn said Wednesday.Unveiling the company's long-awaited flagship sports model at the Tokyo Motor Show, Ghosn said it will debut elsewhere in the world in the fiscal year ending March 2009.'The new GTR is up for any competitive challenge -- anywhere, anytime,' he said.The car can accelerate from nought to 100kph in 3.6 seconds and features fuel efficiency that is '30 percent better than any comparable car,' Ghosn said.The company aims to sell 1,000 GTRs a month globally, including 200 units in Japan, he said.Nissan can only roll out 1,000 units of the new GTR each month due to production constraints, and it expects to use up the capacity due to strong demand.'The amount equivalent to three-month production is already sold (in orders) in Japan, and we have massive orders from Russia... This car is gonna be doing a lot of good things for Nissan,' the company president said.By comparison, Nissan sold a total 72,000 units of the GTR's predecessor products, including Skyline GTR32, GTR33 and GTR34, during the 13-year period between 1989 and 2002. The company revived its then-flagship sports model in 1989 and ended production of the series in 2002.On product plans for the hotly-contested emerging markets, Ghosn, who also heads Nissan's French alliance partner Renault SA, said the two carmakers aim to introduce what he called a 2,500 dollar car, made by an Indian manufacturer, in India in 2010 and to export the car to other countries at a later date.Nissan and Renault have been in talks with Indian motorcycle maker Bajaj Auto Ltd on a project to build a so-called 3,000 dollar small car.Turning to environmentally-friendly technologies, Ghosn said Nissan and Renault aim to start mass marketing electric vehicles in 2012 while they will continue developing other technologies including clean diesel and hybrid systems.Ghosn played down speculation that the Japanese-French car group may be seeking an alliance partner in the world's largest car market, the US.'We are not actively seeking anything for the moment,' he said.(1 US dollar = 114.39 yen)yumiko.nishitani@thomson.comyn/cl-yas/jm/zr/yas/clCOPYRIGHTCopyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
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Japan's Nissan to launch flagship GTR sports car in December 