The Renault-Nissan alliance will start selling the redesigned Micra hatchback in India from July and has targeted sales of 80,000 units for the financial year ending March 2011, an official said on Tuesday.
“Exports, which will be a major portion of sales, will start in the second half of 2010,” Akira Sakurai, chief operating officer of Renault Nissan Automotive India, told Reuters.
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The Micra, sold as the March in Japan and several export markets, was unveiled earlier this month at the Geneva motor show and launched last week in Thailand, where executives said the company would produce 90,000 of the five-door hatchbacks, built on new ‘versatile platform’ architecture at the suburban Bangkok plant in the 2010/11 fiscal year starting 1 April, of which 70,000 would be for export. The Thai plant already exports other models widely throughout the region, including Australia and New Zealand.
Nissan Motor chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga said at the global launch the compact would be sold in more than 160 countries, with Thailand one of four main manufacturing and export hubs along with China, India and Mexico. The outgoing March/Micra was built in Japan and the UK. The new Juke compact crossover will soon take its place on the British assembly line.
