"Made for Brics"

In 2014, the Japanese company Nissan plans to start the production of budget cars under the Datsun trademark in Russia, the head of the Russian representative office of Nissan said on March 22. According to the plans, their release can be organized on the production facilities of the French-Japanese alliance Renault-Nissan and the Russian AvtoVAZ in Togliatti and Izhevsk, but not at the Nissan factory in St. Petersburg.

Cars under the Datsun brand first appeared in Japan in 1932 and were produced for half a century. In 1981, Nissan refused to use the brand in order to unify its model range.

The head of the Renault and Nissan companies Carlos Gon said on March 22 that cars under a revived Datsun brand will be intended for markets of developing countries, it is not supposed to sell them in the most industrialized countries of the world.

Similar plans are discussed in Volkswagen, judging by an interview with one of the company managers, published in the next issue of a German specialized magazine.

In the case of Nissan, new cars, according to Carlos Gon, are planned to be sold, for example, in India for about 8 thousand dollars, in Indonesia their estimated price will be about 10 thousand dollars. For Russia, this is about 25-30% less than the Renault Logan budget model costs today. But the price of future Datsun in Russia may be higher than in Indonesia. And it is unlikely that Renault-Nissan will go to internal competition-with his own models.

The Datsun brand, apparently, will be displayed into a lower price category than Logan, suggests an analyst with VTB Capital Bank Vladimir Bespalov . And in the Russian market, in particular, he most likely represents the traditional "classics" and other "budget" AvtoVAZ cars:

-It is possible that Datsun models will develop on the same platform as, for example, the updated “viburnum” or “Lada Grand”. In addition, such a large consortium as Renault-Nissan will surely offer several models in this segment, Bespalov believes.

In general, the share of new cars worth up to 15 thousand dollars or a little higher today accounts for at least 50% of the Russian market, of which half are on the AvtoVAZ model, the analyst of the Troika Dialogue investment company Mikhail Ganelin .

Until 2008, the share of more expensive cars grew steadily due to the availability of car loans, but the crisis changed everything. The state in the post-crisis years in every possible way supported the purchase of budget machines, so their share in 2008-2010 increased significantly:

- Now the situation has stabilized. On the one hand, many people can again afford to buy more expensive cars, and on the other hand, in Russia there are more and more high -quality, but at the same time, budget models. As a result, those who have never bought cars in their lives can now do this, ”says Ganelin.

The cheapest mass car in the world is the Nano model produced by the Indian company Tata Motors. It was represented two and a half years ago as the world's first car is cheaper than 3 thousand dollars. However, the real sales of Tata Nano and in India itself were significantly less expected.

A car worth 3 thousand dollars involves a minimum level of comfort, like a set of options, and for the buyer this is not always an acceptable option, Vladimir Bespalov explains:

“Nevertheless, in the Russian market, in the segment in which future Datsun models may be, subject to a certain set of options for them, I think the demand will be,” the analyst predicts.

Most of the large automobile companies in the world have rushed to the markets of developing countries in recent years - especially the largest ones, since in Western countries, sales growth rates are minimal. And in Europe, for example, against the background of a long crisis, they have been reduced for eight months in a row. In February, the decline to last year's level was almost 10%.

The desire of automobile companies to expand the total volumes of sales due to precisely developing markets, where the growth of demand is much higher, not the first year has been observed, Mikhail Ganelin recalls:

-Now such a desire is manifested especially clearly because of the economic situation in Europe. Auto manufacturers create new and cheaper models so that as many people as possible can buy them ...

However, not all major automobile companies are supported by the idea of producing "the most budget" models. The head of the Japanese Toyota Akio Toyoda said on March 22 that for his company it is hardly possible to produce cars at a price, for example, about 6 thousand dollars. The cheapest Toyota model for the India market - ETIOS is sold here from $ 7800, although, according to experts, and this price is too high for those for whom the model is designed.

Akio Toyoda says that Toyota will rather focus on creating new models of the middle price category and higher - even though the volumes of their sales in developing markets will be limited.