Sicard is hundred percent in favour of ‘Make in India' both for the domestic as well as the exports market. "We started making in India in 2010 when we opened our plant. But to me it is not just ‘Make in India' which is important but it is also ‘Engineered in India' that is important.
"We don't want India to be only assembling; we want India to be a brain country. We have 5,000 engineers working at our R&D center in Chennai making sure that we engineer, we develop, we create and we innovate in India both for Indian as well as for the world.
"So our strategy and philosophy is not just to make in India but also to engineer and develop in India," he states. For example, Nissan is working on the CMFA platform with its alliance partner Renault which has launched the Kwid in India. We will also be launching a car for the masses on the same platform under the Datsun brand in 2016. And there is a lot of Indian content in these cars and I would say there is a lot of internationalisation as well since it is a combination of Japanese, French and Indian engineering."
He has been living in India for quite some time now. How has been the experience on the personal level? A European working for a Japanese company in India? "To start with, Nissan doesn't really care for your passport. It doesn't care where you come from. It looks at your capabilities and it looks at your flexibility as well as mobility. And with regards to my experience of working in India? It has been great. What counts for me is that my family is happy and likes it. My wife and two kids enjoy being here. They love the people and they love hanging around. People are quite welcoming and we appreciate that."
His vision for the company? Sicard wants Nissan to be seen as an international company that is bringing in India the best of technology, which brings a sparkle and makes the eyes shine. "And I want Datsun to be a real breakthrough. The small car segment is 25 percent of the TIV (total industry volume). Maruti is doing 75 percent and Hyundai is doing 22 percent. We are doing three so far. There's nobody else apart from these three and no Renault is entering. I am thinking that the cake can either grow or the share of the big guy scan become smaller. But there is surely more room. I would like to see Datsun emerging as the ‘Nayi Parampara' (new tradition) in this market," he says, signing off on a positive note.
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