Nissan Pulsar will return with SSS badge

Nissan Australia managing director Bill Peffer Jr last week confirmed performance variants are high on the agenda as the importer looks to resurrect the Pulsar name - and the company's share of the small car class - but refused to give details.

“The sedan will arrive early 2013 and the hatch versions will follow about 90 days after,” Peffer says. “We will offer vehicles across the price range that will be hot hatches.” Just as Pulsar is instantly identified with Nissan and small cars, so is the SSS moniker seen as the performance variant.

Both badges will be pivotal in regaining sales lost when Nissan was forced to adopt the Tiida name. The Tiida was introduced in Australia in 2006 and was an instant dud. Nissan's share of the small car segment dived from around 10 per cent in the Pulsars final years to about1.5 per cent last year.

Nissan has sold fewer than 2000 Tiidas to the end of July this year, which is less than the monthly sales of the Mazda3, Toyota Corolla, Holden Cruze and Hyundai i30. Nissan is claiming a “product renaissance” over the next 18 months and the revived Pulsar plate will do most of the heavy lifting as the company looks to step up from being the sixth most popular brand in the country.

“Pulsar - our 500-pound gorilla as I call it - 82 per cent of our plan for growth next year comes on the back of these two cars: sedan and hatch,” Peffer says. The Pulsar will be joined by a new Patrol four-wheel drive and the mid-sized Altima sedan, which will replace the Maxima. A new Pathfinder will follow in 2014.

Nissan has already launched the Almera light sedan - based on its popular Micra hatch - and is aiming for 250 sales a month. “We won't get a lot of sales out of Almera, it's not one of our core models and around 80 per cent of the light car segment are hatches,” Peffer notes.

“The Accent and Barina (sedans) are doing 3000-4000 a year and we think we can do around that number. “It's part of our strategy to compete in any segment where there is growth and the light car market is one area we need to be.”