Nissan, Renault aim for combined 10 m unit sales

Reuters: Nissan Motor Co and its alliance partner Renault SA aim for annual auto sales of more than 10 million units in three to five years, the Mainichi newspaper quoted Carlos Ghosn, Chief Executive of both companies, as saying.

That would be up from 7.3 million units the Japanese and French companies sold in 2010 to become the world’s third-largest auto-manufacturing group behind Toyota Motor Corp and General Motors, the paper said on Saturday.

Nissan’s earthquake-stricken factory in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture will soon resume full operations, Ghosn was also quoted by the Nikkei business daily as saying.

The disaster will not stop the company from attempting to meet its target of record global sales volume for a second year in a row, in fiscal 2011, the report quoted him as saying.

The Fukushima plant, which supplies engines to Nissan’s manufacturing units in Japan and abroad, suffered the worst damage among the carmaker’s facilities due to its relatively close proximity to the focus of the 11 March earthquake, it said.

The factory is expected to be back to its normal two shifts next week, the Nikkei said.

Nissan is expected to resume normal operations at all of its plants worldwide in October, ahead of Honda Motor Co and other rivals, helped by localised parts procurement, the daily reported citing Ghosn.