Nissan Motor India, which had been a fringe player till the launch of their Micra car in India, has quite a few big plans for the Indian auto market with Renault, its current alliance partner. The company is reportedly planning to release a small new car in the price bracket of INR 2 to 4 lakhs.
According to reports, the new car will likely compete with Hyundai Santro, Chevrolet Spark, and the Maruti Alto. The company’s CEO and MD, Kiminobu Tokuyama, was quoted as saying that they are seriously considering launching a new car that will be positioned below the Micra. They see a lot of opportunity in the segment of small cars.
Nissan is also separately working with JV associate Ashok Leyland, on an MPV project. The MPV, which is scheduled for launch in 2012, will rival with the Innova from Toyota. The Japanese car maker is presently ready to launch their fifth car in India, the SUNNY, which the maker recently unveiled.
The new sedan, which will be available with dealers in October, will be offered with 1 1.5l petrol engine in the beginning. The car that is based on the V platform, similar to the Micra, will also be available in a diesel version.
Tokuyama said that the company wants to triple its sales to 40,000 vehicles by this fiscal year end as they expand their dealer outlets and both SUNNY and Micra increase their sales volumes. He added that they will also be exporting the SUNNY to Africa and the Middle East. Since October 2010, they have exported around 90,000 vehicles of the Micra, with 18,000 Micra being sold in the domestic market.