We have the latest on the Nissan saga in the Philippines: According to a source familiar with the ongoing transition, the new company--now run by Nissan Motor Company of Japan--will be called Nissan Philippines Inc. If things go according to plan, the brand relaunch will take place in February 2014, with four vehicles already lined up for introduction.
Those four vehicles are the Sylphy/Sentra compact sedan, the Altima midsize sedan, the 1.2-liter version of the Almera, and possibly the Juke compact SUV. The NV350 van, as we reported last week, is just awaiting the run-out of the Urvan Estate inventory, while the NV200/Evalia could be delayed.
We also learned that Universal Motors Corporation will be out of the picture, while Yulon Motor (Nissan Motor Philippines) will run the manufacturing facility in Santa Rosa, Laguna. Nissan Philippines, the new company, will be responsible for the brand\'s sales, marketing and after-sales operations. Most of the existing Nissan dealers will be retained, and some will be re-evaluated.
