Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Japan'€™s second-largest automaker, marked the return of its iconic Datsun brand in Indonesia with the world premiere launch of its fuel efficient multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) the GO+.

The release of the seven-seater, which has a 1,200 cc engine and gets more than 20 kilometers to the liter, would allow Nissan to tap into the growing middle-class market and take part in the government'€™s initiative of developing affordable eco-friendly cars, said chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn on Tuesday.

'€œGO+ is an Indonesian product. It has been designed with Indonesian consumers in mind. Even though it might be sold in other markets, it was mainly made, tailored and designed for Indonesian consumers,'€ he said at a press briefing after the launch.

Datsun'€™s GO+ is so far the first MPV to join the low cost green car (LCGC) program. All other affordable eco-friendly vehicles, which are made by Toyota, Daihatsu and Honda, fall into the city car category. It will also become the first MPV sold at a price below Rp 100 million (US$8,943).

This '€œaccessible price'€ is made possible because the vehicle, which will go on the market next year, is produced locally, said Ghosn.

Nissan has invested $400 million to boost production capacity at its plant in Cikampek, West Java, aiming to gradually increase output by 150,000 units to 250,000 units in 2014. The first 80,000-unit-capacity upgrade has been realized this year.

On the same day, Nissan also introduced its hatchback, the Datsun GO, which was earlier unveiled in India.

The arrival of Datsun models in Indonesia would help Nissan achieve its goal of 15 percent market share in the domestic automobile market by 2016, up from around 6 percent at present, Ghosn said.

With its fast-growing local automobile market, Indonesia'€™s contribution to Nissan'€™s global sales will increase in the future, as will that from other key emerging markets '€” Brazil, China, India and Russia '€” he added.

These high-growth emerging markets are expected to constitute 60 percent of Nissan'€™s sales worldwide by 2016, up from 20 percent at present.

Indonesia, the world'€™s fourth-most populous nation with more than 240 million people '€” half of which are middle class '€” has turned into a very lucrative market for cars as well as motorcycles, both key indicators of consumption in Southeast Asia'€™s largest economy.

Nissan'€™s local unit, PT Nissan Motor Indonesia (NMI), sold 67,143 cars last year, up by 19.6 percent from 2011. From January to August this year, however, NMI sales declined by 9.33 percent to 41,782 units.

Indri Hadiwijaya, the general manager of Datsun Business Unit Indonesia, said that by 2016, Datsun aimed to account for half of all domestic Nissan sales.

To achieve the target, Datsun would invest heavily in developing its sales and services network, aiming to run 150 outlets by 2016.

'€œWe are now building outlets in big cities, such as Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Semarang and Medan,'€ she said.

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