Beijing show: Nissan to unwrap sedan concept
BY TIM NICHOLSON | 17th Mar 2014
The Japanese car-maker has said the new car will build on the styling of three of its most recent design concepts, including the Friend-Me lift-back from last year’s Shanghai show, the Resonance SUV from the 2013 Detroit show and the Maxima-previewing Sports Sedan concept from this year’s Detroit show.
A three-minute teaser video posted on Nissan’s YouTube account details the three previous concepts while hinting at the look of the sedan due to be unveiled at Beijing.
Likely to be a Chinese-market only vehicle, Nissan said the sedan would be a concept for the “Chinese digital lifestyle”, meaning we should expect a number of new technological advances in connectivity and possibly safety.
The sedan’s design was a collaboration between Nissan Design China and the Nissan Global Design Centre in Japan, and was led by senior vice-president and chief creative officer Shiro Nakamura.
Nissan has not released any information about the concept. However, the image at the end of the video reveals that the sedan will feature a similar arrow-like headlight design to that of the three previous concepts.
Speaking in the video, Nissan executive design director Mamoru Aoki said the company wanted to achieve some uniformity with its design while maintaining a level of individuality.
“I want very unique, same impression for every Nissan product to show the same innovative feel and same exciting feel for all the products,” he said.
“We need some consistent expression, but consistency itself has no meaning. We don’t want to make the exact same cars.” Mr Aoki said while the new sedan adapted the same aspect as the three other concept cars, it did have a different look.
Production and sales of Nissan-branded vehicles in China rose in 2013, following a soft year in 2012 affected by the republic’s dispute with Japan over sovereignty of a string of uninhabited islands in the South China Sea.
Dongfeng, Nissan’s Chinese joint-venture partner, built 1,247,249 vehicles last year, an 18 per cent increase over the previous year and a calendar-year record for the brand.
Nissan’s combined sales in the same period were up by 17.2 per cent to 1,266,167 units on the back of strong results for the Qashqai compact SUV and Teana sedan.
