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As part of an announcement about their profitable third quarter and fourth quarter sales expectation, a little bit of news about Nissan’s plans from the future started to take shape. According to Reuters, Nissan is planning on raising their profile globally come 2010 with the introduction of a new high-volume entry-level car. The car’s name or specifications weren’t available, but what we do know is that this next little gem has some big expectations to live up to.

The Chief Operating Officer for Nissan, Toshiyuki Shiga, commented that the “global compact car” would be introduced to the market place in three versions. These versions take the pretty usual shape of hatchback, sedan and compact multi-purpose vehicle (read a crossover). The current plans are for the car to be produced at first in Thailand; however, Shiga says that by mid-2010 production is planned for India and China. Nissan is targeting to sell 1 million units of this new “global compact car” on an annual basis.

Bottom line—China is giving Nissan a much need boost in the profit column and it seems to be paying off not only on their bottom line, but also in the development of new products. The real question is: How many of these “global compact cars” will make it to the US?