Nissan aims to make India small car hub

Nissan Motor, Japan's car maker, wants to make India one of its key manufacturing locations for its small cars, which include products such as Nissan Micra, a senior official said. “Low operational costs and the growing importance of India in compact car manufacturing makes it an attractive proposition to make India a hub,” said K Tokuyama, MD & CEO, Nissan Motor India. When Nissan, which has a partnership with France’s Mahindra Renault, does it, it would be following the footsteps of Suzuki Motor, its rival in home country, and South Korea’s Hyundai Motor, which have benefitted from the massive plants they have set up here. The low-cost, but trained manpower, thousands of component makers and easy access to growing markets make India an attractive destination for small cars. Nissan has said it will invest close to 350 billion yen this year across the globe and India may get a “major chunk” of the investments, Mr Tokuyama said. India will be an export hub for compact cars for many countries, especially for Europe from the second half of 2010. Nissan which is scheduled to showcase its enhanced Nissan Micra in March of 2010 at the Geneva Motor show, plans to launch the same in India in May 2010. It will be followed up with five more models in three years, including an entry-level car, commercial vehicles to high-end sports cars and sedans, an official said. Nissan may also set up massive plants in Russia and Brazil to cash in on the prosperity in those resource-rich nations as part of its five low-cost plants across the globe, a person familiar with the plans said. “We still have not taken a decision on the other two countries,” said Mr Tokuyama. Nissan has also been juggling with its production sites across the world. Recently, it announced plans to shift the production of Micra compact car from UK to India and from Japan to Thailand. India and Thailand will be the markets from where it will source Nissan Micra from 2010. The company is building a plant in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, with an investment of Rs 4,500 crore that will have a capacity to produce four lakh cars. Depending on the decision, the fourth model will be imported for the Indian market, Mr Tokuyama said. Hyundai i10 and Ford Fiesta are popular cars in India.

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