Will Nissan PH Bring in the All-New Nissan Livina?

If you've been living under a rock or hibernating in a cave for the past three years, Mitsubishi joined the Renault-Nissan Alliance in 2016 to create the, well, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance. Closer to home, the most immediate effect the triumvirate has on the market was the recent unveiling of the all-new Nissan Livina, which is in fact a Mitsubishi Xpander compact MPV all the way down to the engine but dressed up with Nissan's signature design cues like the V-Motion grille and boomerang-shaped LED headlights.

As it so happens, we were with Nissan Philippines, Inc. (NPI) recently as participants in its Nissan Terra media test drive in Legazpi City in Albay when the all-new Nissan Livina was launched in Indonesia. Given NPI's success for 2018 as one of only two mass-market brands to actually register a growth in sales in the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN)-burdened year, it was only natural for CARMUDI PHILIPPINES to ask company President and Managing Director Ramesh Narasimhan if NPI will bring in the all-new Livina.

"Everyone of us are waiting for it. Let's wait and see," said Narasimhan.

So there. It looks like NPI still has to wait and see for the Indonesian market's reception to the all-new Nissan Livina.

It's only natural considering how the Xpander was such a hot-ticket item in its home production market of Indonesia that it nearly took a year from its global debut at the Indonesia International Motor Show in August 2017 before customer deliveries began in the Philippines in May 2018, with the delay ostensibly caused by customer demand in Indonesia that Mitsubishi had to appease the Xpander's home market first before it could be exported globally.

With additional reporting by Ruben Manahan IV