Japanese car maker’s decision to enter the Indian market with a low cost brand (Datsun) was a smart one, given the kind of demand and sales opportunities that exist here. However, merely manufacturing and putting a hatchback in the showroom does not guarantee success, something that is testified by the performance of the GO model. In fact, Datsun GO+ performed much better than the GO and there are pretty solid reasons behind the same.
Datsun GO was launched in 2014 at a starting price of around Rs. 3.12 lakh and was meant to give competition to the likes of Maruti Suzuki Alto 800 and Hyundai Eon. However, competing with the best in the business is not easy and Datsun was not able to appease a large part of Indian buyers, who decided to stick with models from trusted brands Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai. The biggest reason for Datsun GO’s average performance in India is its inability to provide anything different from its rivals. One area where GO could have trumped other models was safety but it since it was a low-cost car, providing safety features would not have been feasible. New car buyers decided to buy an Alto 800 or Eon due to the GO’s lack of offering anything different.
Surprisingly, Datsun GO+ succeeded where the GO hatchback failed and gave the Indian buyer something extra for a less amount of money. For a large number of buyers in the country, owning an MPV is a luxury due to high prices and maintenance costs. Doing something not done by Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai, Datsun launched GO+, a car with three rows of seating, at a price below Rs. 4 lakh, thereby giving customers an incentive to purchase the vehicle. Despite being exorbitantly similar to the GO hatchback in its appearance, the GO+ clicked with customers to a certain extent. Producing a sub-compact MPV is something no manufacturer has done in India and Datsun trumped other brands with its GO+ brand. Also, Datsun GO hatchback’s failure in the NCAP test proved to be a great deterrent and the side airbag offered in the GO+ did the trick for Nissan and Datsun.
