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The Tiida nameplate will be shelved in Australia from next year, and replaced with better known and better regarded Pulsar. Nissan Australia CEO Dan Thompson has been name-checking Pulsar for months when referring to the company’s next small car, due in late 2012, but it’s only now, during a visit to Japan for the Tokyo motor show, that he’s been able to officially confirm the change.
The decision will be greeted with a chorus of “I told you so,” from journalists and other armchair experts who were scathing of the decision to drop the well regarded Pulsar name and replace it with the anonymous Tiida in 2006.
Adoption of the Tiida nameplate for Nissan’s C-segment small car was a worldwide directive from Nissan’s Japanese HQ. Despite misgivings, Nissan Australia towed the line, only to discover later that other markets including the USA had refused to do likewise.
“We went with the global direction on the last generation C-segment car which was Tiida. At the time Australia was launching that was the global position (but) it turned out afterwards there were several other markets that went with an alternative name including the US. By that time it was a bit too late for us to change course, we were already out marketing Tiida. So once the US went with their own name (Versa) it really opened up the chance for us with the next generation to move away from a global one name policy,” says Thompson.
The Nissan CEO is bullish about the prospects for the reborn Pulsar and expects it to quickly establish itself as a top-three contender in the small car class. But it has an enormous amount of ground to make up. The Tiida's tragic 2970 sales year-to-date give it a 1.5 per cent share of the small car segment, compared to the 8.2 per cent share and 17,643 sales Pulsar enjoyed in 2005, it’s last full year on sale.
The market leading Mazda3 has 34,624 sales so far this year for a 17.7 per cent share, so to become a serious three contender Pulsar will need to deliver in excess of 34,000 sales per annum.
One thing that may help is the news, also confirmed by Thompson this week, that the door may also be open for a return of the iconic SSS badge on Pulsar. The Pulsar SSS was a sporty four-cylinder hatch much-loved by enthusiasts in the days before the turbocharged Subaru WRX stole the limelight. Its return would add some much needed spice to the more affordable end of Nissan’s range, although Thomson cautioned it would not be in the line up at launch.
“The policy for us on Pulsar across both body styles, hatch and sedan, is to have staggered launches for body style and power train,” he says.
Thompson indicated there would be an 18-month trickle-down of the various models in the Pulsar range, starting with the launch of the sedan in late 2012, followed three to six month later by the hatch.
