Nissan puts brakes on Evalia production

In the past six months, Nissan sold around 200 Evalias only

In May, Ashok Leyland, the partner of Nissan in their light commercial vehicle (LCV) venture, had stopped production of its commercial passenger vehicle, the STILE. Ashok Leyland decided to write down an investment of Rs 224 crore in joint the venture, which reported a loss of Rs 791 crore (Rs 7.91 billion) in 2014-15.

The venture was announced in 2007, to develop and manufacture LCVs under both the Ashok Leyland and Nissan brands, in the 2.5-7.5 tonne segment.

“The Evalia’s design and styling is unconventional and, unfortunately, it has not met our sales expectations with Indian customers. We continue to promote the vehicle with our target customers,” said a Nissan spokesperson.

In the past six months, Nissan sold around 200 Evalias; it has cumulatively sold 2,455 since launch in September 2012. The model was mainly competing with Toyota's Innova and the Mahindra Xylo.

The joint venture company is called Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles, in which Leyland holds 51 per cent. The venture had developed the STILE, as also the Evalia. “We have stopped production (of STILE), since the product was not successful. We will stick to only commercial vehicles,” Vinod K Dasari, managing director of Ashok Leyland, had said during the annual press conference.

The STILE was launched in 2013, to address various applications like multi-people seating transport, hotel shuttles, taxi services, ambulances, panel vans, courier services and the like.

Queried on whether Nissan would continue to launch products and whether it had written off any money in the JV, the company's spokesperson said she could not comment. Adding: “Ashok Leyland is a strategic partner for Nissan and we will continue to work with them to improve the situation. We have no further comments on the subject.”

Leyland had said it would launch variants of the Dost, the first product from the joint venture. Leyland had reported a six per cent drop in overall LCV sales in 2014-15, while it managed to push market share to 16 per cent from 14 per cent last year. Leyland's 2014-15 annual report showed the venture's loss after taxation was Rs 791.2 crore in 2014-15 as compared to Rs 174.5 crore (Rs 1.75 billion) a year before. Turnover dropped to Rs 1,030 crore (Rs 10.30 billlion) in 2014-15 from Rs 1,052 crore (Rs 10.52 billion) in 2013-14.

Brakes on

• In May, Ashok Leyland, Nissan’s partner in light commercial vehicle venture, stopped production of STILE, since the product was not successful
• The venture had developed the STILE, as also the Evalia. Nissan said Thursday it planned to temporarily stop production of Evalia, due to excess stock