Nissan confident in China as sales recover

Japanese carmaker Nissan achieved a sales recovery and saw a year-on-year increase for four consecutive months in the world's largest auto market despite COVID-19.

In July, it sold 120,945 units in China, up 11.6 percent year-on-year, setting the best sales record of that month. In the first seven months of 2020, Nissan sold 717,287 vehicles in China.

Shohei Yamazaki, senior vice-president of Nissan and chairman of the management committee of Nissan China, said: "As COVID-19 is spreading worldwide, there is still much uncertainty in auto market in the second half of the year, but Nissan remains confident in China."

Dongfeng Motor, Nissan's joint venture partner, has a system of coordinated operations, which offered resilience to deal with risks during the pandemic and laid a solid foundation for the sales recovery, he said.

Nissan will continue to enhance its cooperation with dealers and partners to provide products and technologies that meet the demands of Chinese customers, he added.

In May, the carmaker released its new development plan saying that China is one of its three core markets and Nissan was tasked with growing its share in that market.

The carmaker plans to launch seven pure electric vehicles in China by 2023. The sales of electric vehicles are expected to account for 23 percent of Nissan's total in China.

Nissan China will also increase the proportion of vehicles featuring an intelligent connected system from 75 percent to 90 percent by 2023.

Last month, Nissan unveiled its first all-electric crossover Ariya after it released the new development plan. The model is expected to hit Chinese market in 2021.