While Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen are all publicly expressing concern about the situation in Russia, it would seem that Nissan is forging ahead in this key car market.
Ford has announced that it will trim both production and headcount in its Russian operations, partially as a result of the tensions over Crimea and Ukraine, but also because of a fall in the value of the rouble – one of the key knock-on effects of the crisis.
GM and VW have both expressed similar worries over their Russian operations, but under boss Carlos Ghosn Nissan is continuing to see a great deal of potential value in the Russian car market. Describing the political situation there as "bumpy but not long-lasting", Ghosn was launching the revived Datsun brand and its first model, the on-Do saloon.
Datsun is now following the established path of Dacia and, like its Renault cousins, is acting as an affordable budget brand to Nissan's more established market position. While the Russian car market has often been touted as having similar potential to the Chinese market (a burgeoning middle class starting from a low base of car ownership), sales there actually fell by five per cent last year due to a weakening in the economy.
Nonetheless, Ghosn is taking the long view and said at the launch that “I’m bullish on the market. I recognise the fact the market declined last year and will probably decline this year, but when we invest, we engage not for this year but five, 10, 20 years down the road.”
Datsun claims that the on-Do was specifically engineered and designed for Russia.
