Nissan rolls out new Sylphy sedan
Compact car, which replaces Tiida, comes with 'spacious interior, extremely low cabin noise' and 2 engine sizes
Nissan has officially launched the new Sylphy compact car, one of the company’s major vehicles that is expected to help it achieve midterm business goals.
The Sylphy, a global model that was first unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show earlier this year, replaces the ageing Tiida, which hasn’t been too successful for Nissan in the highly competitive Thai compact-car market dominated by the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic.
Nissan COO Toshiyuki Shiga presided over the launch of the new model yesterday.
“Nissan Motor announced the ‘Nissan Power 88’ midterm business plan that was targeted at increasing the company’s global market share to 8 per cent and increasing our corporate operating profit to a sustainable 8 per cent. This business growth will be achieved by developing innovative vehicles and services, including clean-energy automobiles that are affordable for customers around the world. This would be in harmony with the challenges in energy and environment in the 21st century,” he said.
“The introduction of the new Sylphy, which is a global sedan from Nissan, is part of this strategy. It was first unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show in China not long ago, and Thailand is the second country in the world to get the Sylphy, just a few months after China,” Shiga said, adding that the Kingdom will also serve as a regional production base for this important new model.
Nissan executives say the highlights of the Sylphy include a spacious interior and extremely low cabin noise.
The Sylphy is powered by newly developed 1.6- and 1.8-litre engines (with six trim levels) featuring dual injection for the first time in this segment. The engines are mated to continuously variable transmissions that are well known for swift response and low fuel economy. The car is priced between Bt746,000 and Bt931,000.
Nissan president Takayuki Kimura said: “The launch of the new Sylphy is in accordance with the ‘Nissan Power Up 2016’ business plan for Thailand announced last year, with a sales target of 120,000 sedans and a 10-per-cent market share for fiscal 2012.
“Although competition in the Thai compact car market is intense and there are very strong players, Nissan believes that with the outstanding exterior and interior design, along with excellent performance and class-leading standard features plus technology, the Sylphy will represent a high- value choice for consumers.”
Nissan hopes to sell as many as 20,000 Sylphys per year, while global sales of the car is expected to reach 550,000 per year.
