Brian Carolin, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Nissan Europe, said the brand had an established presence in the mature Western markets but it would now consolidate and expand on the continent. The manufacturer plans to enter the growing Russian market along with other Eastern European markets and Turkey.

“We plan to further reinforce our position in those markets and improve our performance in the rest of Europe by introducing competitive new products and enhancing our dealer network,” said Carolin. Nissan plans to strengthen its dealer network by creating a dedicated sales channel for light-duty trucks and will continue to promote network partnerships - such as the one it has with Volvo Trucks - in markets where the Nissan truck network is not sufficiently developed. LCV sales have been targeted by the manufacturer as a key growth area in its Nissan Value-Up business plan that was introduced in 2005. Nissan sold 489,579 lcvs globally last year.