Nissan to expand green cars for new Japan credits
Nissan Motor Co said on Tuesday it had improved fuel economy on seven models sold in Japan to benefit from new tax incentives that are part of the government’s efforts to jump-start car demand.
Japan’s No.3 automaker said its line-up of fuel-efficient vehicles eligible for the tax breaks would expand to 13 from six starting in late April, in a move that it hoped would help its domestic sales grow in the new business year from Wednesday.
Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co have 28 and nine models, respectively, that qualify for the varying degrees of preferential tax treatment.
The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association has said the new measures should add about 310,000 vehicles in sales in the 2009/10 fiscal year, when it expects domestic sales to fall 8 percent to 4,297,600 units — a 32-year low.
Nissan Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said he was hopeful the incentives would nudge Japanese consumers toward purchasing a car.
He added that he expected global production at Nissan to be about 10 percent higher in April-September compared with the second half of the business year ended on Tuesday.
Nissan lags Toyota and Honda in the gasoline-electric hybrid segment, which it plans to enter in 2010.
Instead, it said it had made incremental improvements in about 50 different areas and components of conventional internal combustion engines to achieve greater fuel economy at low cost.
Nissan said it had the highest ratio of cars eligible for a 75 percent tax reduction on fuel-economy standards in Japan.
It is scheduled to begin mass-marketing pure-electric cars globally in 2012.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)