Just before Christmas, I had the chance to sit down in a one-on-one interview with Pierre Loing of Nissan. Loing is the Vice President of Product Planning for Nissan and I wanted to talk with him about why they are keeping the old (2013 model year) Rogue on board alongside the all-new 2014 model and doing the same with the Infiniti G37 sedan alongside it’s new 2014 Infiniti Q60.
The interview, done on behalf of Torque News, turned out to be the most ground-breaking interview done recently. I was later to find out that so far, I have been the only reporter known to have asked Nissan why they were doing this. When someone at Nissan told me this, I thought “Great, must be because I’m too stupid to just know it.” The reality? I was the only one to really notice.
The interview was published on December 17. You can read it by clicking here.
Out of all of the automakers right now, Nissan is the only one poised to not only take advantage of their highly flexible manufacturing base like this, but is also the only one that has been aggressively promoting a growth strategy that has lowered their bottom line (profits) for the near-term while paying off in highly valuable flexibility and future growth for the longer term.
At 80 years old, Nissan is moving forward as one of the most forward-thinking automakers in the world and is poised to make huge gains in market share as they aggressively revamp their product lines.
