Nissan Motor and Mahindra & Mahindra reportedly are close to announcing a joint project that would pave the way for the Japanese automaker to enter the booming Indian market in earnest.
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Reuters noted that Nissan said last November it would decide within four months whether to join a partnership between Mahindra and Renault there after a planned manufacturing project with Suzuki Motor fell through.
Nissan chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga on Monday told the news agency the three-way talks were proceeding “faster than expected”, and indicated that a plan was being drawn up since any announcement “would likely be made jointly by the three companies.”
Nissan currently sells only the imported X-Trail sport utility vehicle in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy, with sales of just 190 units last year, Reuters noted.
With India’s total passenger car sales forecast to double to 2m units by 2010, global auto makers are all scrambling to increase their slice of the market, the report added.
Shiga also said Nissan had no immediate plans to set up its own car factory in India, Reuters reported, noting that the Nikkei business daily said earlier this month that, in addition to the possible project with Renault and Mahindra, Nissan would build its own 200,000 unit-a-year car plant with an initial investment of 50 to 60bn yen ($US420-500m).
“(An independent plant) is not under consideration right now,” Shiga told Reuters on the sidelines of an event to launch the new Pino minicar in Japan.
The report said that Renault, which holds 44% of Nissan, and Mahindra, India’s top utility vehicle and tractor maker, are due to build a plant to assemble 500,000 cars a year from mid-2009.
Shiga reportedly declined to go into details about Nissan’s plans, including the type of car it would bring to India where cheap, small cars with specifications unique to the country make up roughly 70% of the market.
Nissan does, however, have a separate, ongoing agreement with Suzuki under which the mini-vehicle maker will build a new small car in India under Nissan’s badge, mostly for export to Europe starting in 2008, the report said.
Suzuki dominates the Indian market through its majority ownership of national auto maker Maruti Udyog, Reuters noted.
The news agency also noted that Nissan and Suzuki have agreed to supply each other with vehicles under an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreement and share manufacturing facilities around the world. Suzuki, which builds Nissan’s new Pino car, said separately on Monday that it would begin selling a minivan in Japan manufactured by Nissan under the Suzuki badge.
