Nissan eyes to launch a new small car in India

Nissan, Japan based one of world's largest car makers, may set-up a new plant in India to prepare a base to roll-out an entry level small car which will be priced in the range of Rs 2.5 lakh. The car will be launched in a joint venture with its Indian partners.

According to Kiminobu Tokuyama, MD and CEO of Nissan India, the company is expecting to sell high volume of this new car which will compete with the most popular car in India, Maruti Alto. Nissan is in talks with Ashok Leyland, its India partner for light commercial vehicles, to manufacture this small car here.

Nissan is also in the process of launching its much awaited compact car Nissan Micra in India from its Chennai factory by mid of this year. The Nissan Micra will be launched in partnership with Renault India which will be providing its manufacturing set-up for it. After the launch the Micra will compete with some of the most popular cars in India including Maruti Swift, Maruti Ritz, Maruti A-Star, Hyundai i10, Hyundai i20, Ford Figo, Chevrolet Beat, Volkswagen Polo. Many upcoming cars in India will also fall in this segment like Toyota Etios (by end of 2010), a new small car from Honda, a new car from Fiat (by year 2011).

Besides this the Nissan-Renault joint venture has also started the process of manufacturing an Ultra Low Cost (ULC) car in India in partnership with country's second largest two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto. Bajaj Auto will be providing the spare parts for the car from its two and three wheeler facilities in the country. The new Rs 2.5 lakh car will be placed between Nissan Micra and the ULC car in its India portfolio.

Both Nissan and Renault have invested heavily in the Chennai plant which has a capacity of manufacturing 4 lakh units per year. Besides Micra the company is also looking to use this large capacity to manufacture its upcoming sedan (by 2011) and a MUV.