Nissan India feels comfortable in the Indian market with its plan to launch Indigenous car by next year. The company is on the roads with two of its imported cars and the time has come for it to start the Indian operations. Nissan sees the Indian hub as an ideal platform for the global operations. In its bid to strongly afoot in the Indian market Nissan has designed a small car model Micra (March) hatchback and it will be ready by next year. The car is set for production in the upcoming unit in Chennai, a joint venture with Renault’s sister concern. The company has set a target of 110000 units in a period of 12 months from its launch and an increase to 180000 units within 2014.
This operation will be the follow up of shutting down the UK plant and the Chennai unit will be the hub for exporting cars to the European market. The unit, at Rs4500 crore investment, is capable of making 400000 units in a 7year chart with nine different ranges of cars will be on the series. The small car segment will see Micra, a sedan and another one. Other cars in the procession will be Teana, X-Trail, 370 ZX sports and another CBU.
The Indian entry will see Nissan maintain its global hold of 5.7%, if not boost, along with Toyota and Volkswagen, with a back up of its two wings –NMIPL for marketing and distribution while RNAIPL for manufacturing. In addition, Nissan has its sway in the Joint venture between Renault and Bajaj in the low price car projects and another JV with Ashok Leyland for LCVs. The company has joined hands with Hover for launching dealerships and sales networking. Nissan is planning to have a stronghold in the small car segment in spite of Renault’s desire to withdraw from this segment. The business ratio of 50:50 has got no implication for the investment tune of Rs4500 crore.