Nissan is ready for local tie-ups to develop more low-priced vehicles,placed orders for 35,000 units of Suzuki car
Nissan is ready for local tie-ups to develop more low-priced vehicles,placed orders for 35,000 units of Suzuki car
Nissan Motor Co. said Tuesday it plans to launch a small car in India in July and is ready for local tie-ups to develop more low-priced vehicles, as the company tries to be a major player in the country’s fast-growing, but price-sensitive, automobile market.
“The challenge for Nissan is not to sell more of its expensive cars in the country, but to sell more low-priced small cars,” Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn told a press conference on the eve of the inauguration of a manufacturing plant the company developed jointly with French partner Renault SA in Chennai. “Pricing has to be extremely competitive.”
Nissan, like its global peers, is investing to develop India as a hub for manufacturing small cars, a segment that accounts for two-thirds of the country’s car sales. Market leaders Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. and the local unit of Hyundai Motor Co. sell several small-car models and use India as the base for exporting.
Nissan currently sells a few hundred units of its vehicles such as the X-Trail sport-utility vehicle in India by importing them.
The company wants the Micra, which it plans to launch in July, to be a mass product. It will have an engine capacity of 1.2 liters and will be manufactured at the Chennai facility.
The company also has a joint venture already with Renault and Indian two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto Ltd. for developing a small car, which is likely to be pitted against Tata Motors Ltd.’s Nano, currently the world’s cheapest car with the base model costing INR115,000.
Nissan is likely to price Micra between INR400,000 ($8,695) and INR600,000 ($13,043) in most Indian cities, while the pricing of the low-cost car it plans to market with Bajaj Auto hasn’t yet been decided, a company executive said.
“We plan to bring more small cars in India at (price) segments below Micra,” Ghosn said.
Ghosn said so far Nissan’s car sales in India have been low as it didn’t have a manufacturing facility. “You can’t sell many cars in India by importing them as customs duty is high. You can only remain a niche player. Local manufacturing and local sourcing of auto parts are needed for success in India
Maruti Suzuki to supply 35,000 units of A-Star (Suzuki Alto) to Nissan in 2010-11
The country’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India, today said that Japanese auto giant Nissan has placed orders for 35,000 units of
its small car A- Star (Suzuki Alto) for 2010-11 to sell in the European market.
“As of now, we have a contract for three years and they (Nissan) have agreed to buy 35,000 units from us annually. It will be 35,000 units which could be revised upward depending on the demand and market situation,” Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chairman R C Bhargava told reporters on the sidelines of Hero Group’s Mindmine Summit here.
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- Nissan Says Its $3,000 India Car to Boost Profits
- Nissan India aims to sell 200,000 cars by 2012
- Maruti Suzuki plans to scale up its production by at least 70,000 units in this year
- For next small car, Nissan gets inputs from Alto buyers
- Nissan will launch Nissan Mirca/March in India in April 2010
- VW’s deal not to affect Nissan-Suzuki drive
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