According to a report by Reuters, Renault Nissan is planning to downsize their Chennai plant by relieving around 1000 temporary workers. Currently, the plant has a total of 8000 workers – both permanent and contractual. While permanent staffs will be unaffected by this decision, the ones hit hard will be the contractual workers, apprentice and trainees. The company currently has a production rate of 40 cars per hour at this facility, which it is planning to halve and bring to 20 cars per hour.
The Chennai plant of Renault Nissan produces 4,80,000 cars annually and acts as an export hub for around 100 countries. The production and export figures from this plant are expected to come down substantially after this decision.
This decision comes in the midst of falling sales and piling up of stock at the dealership ends. Time of late hasn’t been very good for Nissan-Renault. Their hottest product, Renault Duster, have seen a slump of some sorts in its sales figure because of the onslaught from cars like Hyundai Creta and Maruti S-Cross. And not just the Duster, sales of other popular Nissan-Renault products viz. Lodgy and Terrano have also been affected. In the coming days Renault will launch a new hatchback named Kwid and the company is hoping that this car with its competitive sub 4 lakh price tag will revive its fortunes once again.