Japanese car maker Nissan and Renault shares Oragadam plant near Chennai for manufacturing vehicles for Indian market. The recent news is that the duo is planning to increase the production capacity of their plant to about 7 lakh units per year by 2015 to comprehend with the rise in demand of their vehicles in domestic and international market (vehicles that are exported for India). Furthermore the alliance is also planning to launch few more models into the Indian market for which too they need to expand the production capacity of their plant.
The final decision about the same will be out by the second half of the 2013. The company has already started negotiations with the several state governments including Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Close sources have revealed that the company is planning to launch about 15 to 17 models in the Indian market by 2016-17. The mass production models like Datsun from Nissan and the Entry from the Renault is also on the board and will be revealed in a couple of years. The duo will need additional capacity with the launch of new models. Most likely the Oragadam plant near Chennai will be expanded as it is already an established setup but news is that company is also exploring Gujarat which also provides good port facilities for exports.
MD of Renault and Nissan automotive India, Mr. Toshihiko Sano has not revealed much of the details but has said that they have already setup two lines for their existing products and company will be establishing new lines for the entry level cars and the decision on the same will arrive by later this year. last year the French-Japanese alliance increased the production capacity by 2 lakh units per year enhancing the total capacity to about 4 lakh units per year.
The firm will also be establishing casting and machining shop that will help company to manufacture engines in India rather than assembling them over here. This will also help company to increase the local content in the production up to 75 percent. Company has also invited vendors to establish their shops near Chennai so as to reduce the logistic cost. Already about 40 key vendors have setup their shops in Chennai and helped company to reduce costs by 5 to 15 percent.