Nissan Motor has said it may need to find a new partner to manufacture its European small cars following Volkswagen’s move to take a stake in Suzuki Motor, which supplies Nissan’s Pixo for European markets.
Nissan executive vice president Colin Dodge said the company was still considering the future of the relationship between the two Japanese carmakers.
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The Pixo, an OEM version of Maruti Suzuki’s Indian-made Alto model, has plugged a gap at the bottom of Nissan’s European lineup since being introduced last April. Maruti currently supplies around 30,000 cars a year to Nissan.
Halting the deal would leave Nissan without a small, low-cost European model.
Neither Suzuki or VW made any comment regarding the future of the relationship.
Dodge told Bloomberg News Nissan hoped the supply deal would continue because it does not have the volume or vehicle designs to make European city cars profitably on its own.
VW has previously indicated that it plans to make use of Suzuki’s small car designs for its own future models and has drawn up 35 cooperative projects.
