Nissan says it has had to weather COVID-related shortages that have been a little harsher than most and has hit on an idea from other world markets where it is putting ‘pilot build’ cars to work in dealer showroom events. 

While supply has been mostly reliable for the Navara, which is currently the brand’s top-selling nameplate by a wide margin, sales of Nissan’s two traditional core models, the X-Trail and Qashqai, are suffering as long delays for new-generation product pushed their local debuts to the final quarter of this year. 

Just nine Qashqais have been sold in 2022 thus far, with supply of Nissan’s small SUV well and truly depleted long before the new-gen model’s arrival. 

The X-Trail has soldiered on, achieving respectable sales considering the age of the T32 generation (it launched way back in 2014), though with just 5224 sales to the end of August it’s still well behind its typical volume – as well as the rest of the mainstream medium SUV market.

Adam Paterson

On track for a Q4 launch this year, the new-generation T33 X-Trail also lags around two years behind other global markets, with North America being the first to receive the T33 as the Nissan Rogue. 

It is a similar story for the Qashqai, which launched in Europe last year. It also has to wait until the final quarter of 2022 for its all-new replacement. Alongside those two, a mostly-new Pathfinder will arrive before the year is out to replace the nine year-old R52 generation.

Nissan Australia is hurting for some new metal, but rather than wait for boatloads of new cars to arrive before commencing its sales push, Nissan has attempted to get a head start by mobilising the handful of pilot-build T33 X-Trails, J12 Qashqais and R53 Pathfinders it has on hand and putting them to work.

Nissan Australia managing director Adam Paterson told GoAutoNews Premium: “We’ve got production trial units, or PTs, of X-Trail, Qashqai and Pathfinder in the country, running VIP sales type events in two waves.

“We sent a group of vehicles out to Perth and they’re working their way back to Melbourne through Western Australia and South Australia, and we have another group of vehicles that we started in Victoria. They’re currently in New South Wales, they’ve done many of the major metro Sydney dealers, and are moving up to Queensland.

“We’re running these vehicles for VIP type night events, and we’re having hundreds of people turn out on a weeknight, for one night at their local dealer to come see Pathfinder, Qashqai or X-Trail.  They get to sit in it, feel it and touch it. These are prototypes so they’re not drivable for the customers, but we’re taking 15, 20, 30 orders (at each) event for cars that customers haven’t even driven.

“They’ve seen specs and tech and price on the website, but they have now been able to sit in and touch and close the doors, make sure that the boot has the right space for their stroller or whatever it may be. 

“Based on that, they are willing to put down dollars and wait. We’re starting to take deposits on cars that they have not driven yet,” Mr Paterson said.

X-Trail

The reaction to these events is a level of buyer interest that is normally reserved for sports cars – one of which Nissan has just launched in the form of the new Z, which has accumulated over 1200 deposits since it was revealed in production form. 

But while sports car hype can easily generate massive pre-launch sales activity without much effort, what’s converting Qashqai, X-Trail and Pathfinder prospects into paying customers? 

According to Mr Paterson, simply being able to appreciate the size and scale of the cars with their own eyes – as well as the ability to get hands-on with in-car tech – is the magic ingredient.

“It’s tough to tell the scale of a vehicle when you’re just looking at a picture, so when you can come out and see: ‘Okay, this is the size of the Qashqai’, you can really understand the proportions. 

“It’s also the tactile touch and feel of the interiors, which you definitely cannot get from a PowerPoint presentation or a website – you can actually get in it and are able to touch and feel and see what a 12.3-inch screen looks like as opposed to just reading numbers. I think that’s where customers are really connecting better,” he said.

This kind of pre-launch sales roadshow is a strategy that Nissan has done in some other global markets, but is new to the company’s Australian operation. 

Asked if it was going to become a more permanent part of Nissan Australia’s sales playbook, Mr Paterson indicated that Nissan’s dealer community has reacted positively to the VIP sales events – but it is not without challenges

“Most of the dealers are extremely enthused about these events. When we started talking about this we were still in [COVID-related] restrictions.  The situation was: ‘How am I going to invite customers into my showroom?’.

Qashqai

“Where we’re at right now is a little bit more free than we thought we’d be when we started planning the process, but the challenge now is a logistical one. 

“We have 180 dealers and Australia is a big place, so unfortunately we’re not able to cover every dealership. So it’s major metros just based on the geography of it. Then there’s scheduling – why do this store on a Tuesday, and this one on a Friday?

“But I’ve participated in a tour like this in another market, and they can be extremely successful as a sales tactic. You want to secure those customers and make sure that they’re willing to stay with the brand, with the purchase, and I think actually getting out and being able to get them into the car… we’ve seen that customers that have put down a tentative deposit are converting once they get a chance to sit in the car.” 

Nissan Australia is covering the cost of trucking the PT vehicles from dealer to dealer but Mr Paterson indicated that some dealers are backing the VIP events with significant capital spends of their own too.

“Some of the dealers are getting behind it really aggressively. 

“I saw this initiative myself: I was coming back from somewhere on the way back from Melbourne Airport, and Essendon Nissan had taken two or three digital billboards all the way down the highway from the airport, right past their dealership. 

“I guess what that demonstrated to me was, wow, they’re right behind it. It’s not just us asking them to do this, they see it as a great opportunity to secure customers.”

Mr Paterson wouldn’t be drawn on precisely how many paid-up deposits had been generated by the prototype roadshow – which is still ongoing – but the indicative per-event numbers suggest a healthy latent demand for Nissan’s new-generation SUV product.

What remains to be seen is how quickly Nissan will be able to deliver cars against those deposits, and whether that strong pre-launch interest will translate into sustained demand once the J12 Qashqai, T33 X-Trail and R53 Pathfinder start arriving in showrooms in volume. 

“I think the dealer body recognises the challenges that we are having in securing inventory, and they’re working with us to ensure that we’ve got the right customer order banks so that when vehicles arrive, they are rolling right off the lot again.”

By Tony O’kane