Nissan Brand Heading to Korea

Nissan today announced that it has expanded its coverage to Korea by launching several models on the local markets in combination with four new showrooms supposed to help the Japanese company gain a more important share of the market. The first Nissan models to arrive in Korea are the Murano premium mid-size crossover and the Rogue compact crossover while the Altima sedan is due to launch in the first months of 2009. In addition, Nissan aims to bring the high-performance GT-R supercar in Korea in 2009, but no launching date has been provided for the time being.

"The introduction of the Nissan brand in Korea represents an important part of the company's continuing focus on our global business growth," said Gilles Normand, corporate vice president in charge of the Korean market business at NML. "Korea is in fact, one of the last major global automotive markets not served by the Nissan brand, and so today has special significance for the company."

Nissan also opened four showrooms in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Busan with a new Nissan outlet due to open next year in Incheon.

"With the arrival of the Nissan brand to the Korean market today, we now have two distinctive brands to meet our customers' diverse needs, and we are the first Japanese automotive company to introduce both the luxury and the premium brand in the market," said Greg Phillips, President of Nissan Korea Co.

The Korean version of Nissan Murano is priced at 48.9 million won (all taxes included) while the Roque comes in three configurations, 2WD, 4WD Deluxe and 4WD Premium, costing 29.9 million won, 34.6 million won and 35.9 million won, including VAT, respectively. No price details for the upcoming models are available at the time of writing this article.