It is far too early yet to assess the consequences of the tragic events that struck Japan recently. How this might affect the Japanese automotive sector is a small consideration for those who are trying to reconstruct their lives in the country at present, but interruptions to the supply chain are inevitable.

We spoke to Bernard Loire in the week before the earthquake set off such a devastating sequence of events. He had every reason to be optimistic. Nissan sold three million vehicles globally in the first nine months of 2010; up 20.5% compared with the same period in 2009. In cash terms, the company earned €710 million in the third quarter of the company’s 2010 financial year; a 44% increase on the same period in 2009. Ordinary profit was €1.26 billion. For the whole year, which ends in March 2011, the company is forecasting an ordinary profit of €4.71 billion.

With the LEAF due for its European launch in the coming months and Juke having just arrived, we asked Bernard Loire how the company’s European fleet business is progressing.

Europe in Nissan’s terms covers 44 countries from Western Europe to Kazakhstan. Nissan’s Western European fleet business accounts for around 30% of its total business in the EU, compared with an average of 40% cent for all manufacturers.

‘In percentage terms the biggest markets are the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium, while a country such as Italy is lower than the European average. From 25% to 50% is the magnitude of the fleet market in Western Europe,’ says Mr Loire.

Not surprisingly, Qashqai is Nissan’s strongest European fleet performer and also its strongest retail model. ‘Our LCVs are also quite successful in fleet,’ Mr Loire continues, ‘and we are just launching the new Micra and we expect it to be a successful company car.’

Fleet business will be important for the introduction of the LEAF: ‘Today, when we look at the pre-orders on LEAF, half of that is fleet,’ explains Mr Loire. ‘It’s true that the list price of the LEAF is a bit higher than the average for the C-segment, but then you have to deduct some incentives given by governments and then you have to look at the running costs. For an electric car, in terms of maintenance, these are quite significantly below conventional cars, while to recharge the battery costs one or two euros. So for a company, which is definitely driven by the cost of ownership of a car, LEAF represents a good solution.’

Nissan will package the LEAF and batteries together. ‘To us, the battery is part of the car and we are not dissociating the two,’ says Mr Loire. ‘We are obviously offering finance solutions – you can buy the car or lease it, but it’s one product: the car plus the battery.’

Nissan has announced that it wants to be the number one Asian brand in Europe and we asked Mr Loire how he sees fleet business developing in Europe in the coming years,

‘We have been growing our market share over the last two years,’ he said. ‘We used to be a 2.5% player in Europe, today we are already at 3.5% and I believe we can reach between 3.5 and 4.0% in 2011. We will go further if we are performing well in fleet. I said before that we are basically underperforming currently in fleet. We want to get a fleet market share that is in line with our retail market share. So that means that fleet will represent for me, the biggest opportunity for Nissan in the two or three years ahead.

‘Russia is the biggest market in Europe for Nissan and the fleet segment is linked to locally-built cars, again a matter of taxation. We’re strong in retail sales, but not so strong in fleet. So basically, even in the eastern countries, fleet is not for Nissan the entry ticket, but we need to go there.’

He added: ‘I don’t see how we cannot do it since we have the right product offer. Once you have the right product, you have to build a strategy around that.’