Mumbai: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today announced production, sales and export figures for January 2008.

The company's global production increased by 13.8 per cent compared to the previous year. Total production stood at 316,172 units, making an all-time record for the month of January. In Japan, recent launch of three cars, which included the new X-Trail, Tiida, new export model Rogue and the new Infiniti EX contributed to an increase in domestic production by 26.1 per cent to 115,748 units, compared to the previous year

Overseas production also rose by 7.8 per cent compared to the previous year, to 200,424 units, making a record production month for plants worldwide.

In the US, the Altima coupe production increased by 5.7 per cent to 63,981 units, compared to the previous year. However production in Mexico fell by 19.3 per cent  year-on-year to 38,701 units.

Production volumes were at a high in Europe. In the UK, the Qashqai (Dualis in Japan) led a production growth of 37.6 per cent, which stood at 34,726 units. Production in Spain grew by 12.6 per cent year-on-year to 20,512 units.

Production rate was up by 24.8 per cent to 42, 504 for the year 2007 in countries such as China, Indonesia, Malayasia, Taiwan and South Africa, thanks to the customers demand for the Livina series and the Bluebird Sylphy in China, followed by the Navara in Thailand, which contributed to the upward production volume.

Sales
Nissan's registrations in Japan for the month of January were up  by 10.5 per cent from the previous year. 44,664 units  were sold, courtesy strong demand for the new X-Trail and Dualis, the Serena, the Fuga and the Note.  Domestic sales of mini-vehicles dropped to 13.0 per cent year-on-year to 10,696 units. Nissan sold 55,360 units in Japan, including mini-vehicles. The sales volume increase by 5 per cent compared to 2006.

The company's share of Japan's domestic market registrations in January was up 1.2 percentage points year-on-year, to 18.5 per cent, while the corresponding market share including mini-vehicles rose 0.5 percentage points to 14.7 per cent.

Sales of new vehicles in the US dropped to 7.3 per cent year-on-year to 76,605 units despite favorable sales of the new Rogue and Versa.

In Europe, strong performance from the Qashqai, X-Trail and Note continued to boost Nissan sales to 50,542 units, exceeding the previous year by 71.9 per cent.

Nissan's exports in January grew to 67.9 per cent  to 72,796 compared to the previous year. North American exports were up by 72.3 per cent year-on-year to 38,020 units.
Exports to Europe increased by 110.2 per to 5,249 units compared to the previous year

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