As Nissan's Chief Performance Officer, I am responsible for the company's overall performance and results. I spend a lot of time traveling to our regions and meeting with them to hear about the challenges they face but also the trends and opportunities in their markets. This is especially true of China, where I also have the honor of serving as Chairman of the Management Committee for the critical China market.
More than 28.5 million cars were sold in China in 2017, making it the world's largest automobile market. By 2022, we expect to see 32 million units sold in the market. This fast growing and very competitive environment presents some unique challenges and many important opportunities for Nissan.
To seize all of these opportunities in China and ensure sustainable growth in China, we are implementing the DFL "TRIPLE ONE Plan." The goals of this plan are to increase annual sales by 1 million units by 2022, become the No.1 company for intelligent mobility technologies, and become the most trusted brand in China.
Recently, we also celebrated a major milestone with the debut of the all-new Nissan Altima for China at the Guangzhou Motor Show. This global sedan features the world's first mass-production VC-Turbo engine and the ProPILOT driver assistance system, which is a cornerstone technology of Nissan Intelligent Mobility.
So we continue making progress in China, especially through our partnership with Dongfeng Motors. But there is also another ingredient in the mix that people may not be as familiar with. Yet, it is an important force helping to drive the Nissan Group to our successful results in China: the China Acceleration Office.
What is the role of the Acceleration Offices?
We first launched the Acceleration Office concept when I was at Nissan North America. Since then, we have expanded the concept and structure to other regions.
The Acceleration Office is about growing the business. It helps us to see emerging trends and opportunities in each market before they materialize so we can put the right resources in the right areas. We must allow the front line operations to run the business, and then have dedicated resources to build capabilities for tomorrow. That is what the Acceleration Office helps us to achieve.
What are the key challenges and performance projects in China?
During the previous six years, China's automotive market quickly matured and transformed from a supply market to a demand market. This presented many new challenges for Nissan's business. In addition, the Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) business and the local brands segment, in which Venucia competes, were rapidly gaining relevance, representing up to 40% of our business opportunity.
Today Nissan's China business is growing. In 2017, we sold 1.52M units (+12.2%), market share grew by 0.6% to 5.6% and revenue grew 15.2%. But we still have a huge range of opportunities, especially in electric vehicles and LCVs. We need to catch up with evolving market conditions to tap the full potential of the market. That is where the China Acceleration Office comes in.
In addition to helping us identify emerging trends in the market, it helps us keep a focus on managing the business by addressing key challenges early on, and then puts the right infrastructure in place to maximize our many opportunities in this fast-changing and fast-growing market. It helps to keep our resources focused in the growth areas and creates an accountability to ensure that we achieve all of our business objectives in China.
Given the size of the China market, what happens there will have a substantial impact on Nissan's global business performance. So, the China Acceleration Office is an important driver of our growth in this market, and worldwide. Given the complexities and competitiveness of the market, it creates important learnings for other Acceleration Offices focused on driving sustainable growth around the world.
Thanks to the China Acceleration Office, we have seen significant progress for our business in the market. We are already seeing results on initiatives that will impact the business for years to come. Now we must keep it going to help ensure sustainable and lasting growth in China.
I look forward to seeing even more progress for the Nissan Group on my trips to China in the coming months. I have no doubt that there is a great future ahead for Nissan in China.