Nissan unveils new minivan, profit hopes high

TOKYO, May 21 Reuters reported that Carlos Ghosn, president of rejuvenated Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co, unveiled on Tuesday the firm's first new model of the business year, setting the stage for growth led by new products rather than cost cuts.

The redesigned "Elgrand" minivan, sporting a bigger interior and high-tech navigation options, will go on sale in Japan on May 25 with a monthly sales target of 3,300 vehicles.

That would represent about a third of the profitable domestic minivan sector, but Ghosn said there were no plans to export the new Elgrand.

"All the main competitors for this car are coming up for renewals soon so you're going to expect fierce competition,". Ghosn told reporters at the official launch in Tokyo.

"It's still an important section of the market, I think you're talking about a section that represents about 10,000 units on a monthly basis."

Leaving behind two years dominated by plant closures, 22,900 job cuts and the halving of its supplier base, the automaker is looking at this year as the first of three years of aggressive product-driven growth.

It is forecasting a jump to 553 billion yen ($4.4 billion) in operating profit and 380 billion yen in net profit for this year.

Over the three years, Nissan is looking to increase global sales by an extra one million vehicles -- taking annual unit sales to around 3.5 million, with zero debt for its automotive operations and an eight percent operating margin.

But Ghosn said the sales growth would not be linear, expecting a "substantial" increase in the current 2002 business year followed by bigger rises in 2003 and 2004.

The main fruit of Nissan's investment in new production would come in 2003 and 2004, he said.

Nissan plans to launch 28 new vehicles over the three-year period, 12 in the current business year, for which it is projecting a 7.5 percent rise in vehicle sales to 2.792 million units, including minivehicles.