Top level changes at Nissan India, Renault Nissan

Chennai, March 23 (IANS) Japanese automobile maker Nissan Motor Ltd Friday announced appointment of Takayuki Ishida as the managing director of its Indian subsidiary Nissan Motor India Pvt Ltd, while Toshihiko Sana will be the new head of the Renault Nissan Automotive India Pvt Ltd.

Ishida, currently general manager (India) at Nissan Motor, will replace Kiminobu Tokuyama who will return to Japan to take up an executive position with the Yorozu Corporation, a component supplier to Nissan Motor.

As head of Nissan Motor India, Ishida will be responsible for Nissan's continued expansion within the high-growth Indian market including product introduction, sales and network development, according to a company statement issued here.

Similarly top level changes have been announced at Renault Nissan, a Franco-Japanese vehicle manufacturing joint venture.

According to the statement, Sano, currently general manager, vehicle production engineering at Nissan Motor in Japan, will take over as managing director, Renault Nissan.

He will replace Kou Kimura, who will return back to Japan to take a senior position withing Nissan Motor's manufacturing and industrial engineering division.

Sano has over 30 years experience with Nissan Motor working in several production facilities in Japan, Indonesia and North America in a range of key engineering roles, including new model launch preparation.

One of his responsibilities at RNAIPL will be to manage the continued development of the Chennai plant, which recently doubled its production capacity to 400,000 units per year.

Toru Hasegawa, currently president, Nissan Motor Asia Pacific Co Ltd (NMAP) and Nissan Motor (Thailand) Co Ltd and regional vice president, Asia & Oceania Operations, has been appointed corporate vice president, Africa, Middle East and India (AMI).

Commenting about the Indian operations, Hasegawa said: "Nissan is becoming an increasingly significant presence in India. We recently added to our already broad product range with the popular Sunny sedan and announced that the all-new Evalia will go into production in Chennai this summer."

"We are targeting 1 lakh vehicle sales in India by FY2013 supported by a tripling of our retail network. And, from 2014, we will introduce the Datsun brand focusing on quality-driven products that are relevant to our Indian customers," Hasegawa was quoted in the statement.