Nissan has launched its new, locally-built Micra here in India but, though a sedan version was promised for next year, officials declined to comment on progress on the separate, low cost global small car project with Ashok Leyland.
“We are still conducting the feasibility study on the low cost project,” Nissan India MD and CEO Kiminobu Tokuyama told just-auto at the launch event in New Delhi.
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“The study is in the initial stages, we will share the findings on the conclusion of the study,” he added, declining to elaborate.
When asked if Nissan was talking to any other company besides Ashok Leyland for the global small car project, Tokuyama declined to comment.
Nissan said it would launch a diesel version of the Micra later this year. “After the diesel version, the sedan will come on the same platform next year,” Tokuyama said.
The automaker plans nine model launches in India in the next couple of years. Tokuyama said five of the nine would be made locally at the company’s Chennai factory with three on the newly-developed ‘V’ compact car platform.
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By GlobalDataThe first is the redesigned Micra hatchback, followed by the sedan in 2011, while the third model is yet to be finalised, Tokuyama said. The remaining four models will be imported completely built up (CBU) from Japan.
The Micra, called March in Japan, was previously built there and in the UK but, as just-auto has reported previously, the new, fourth generation model is to be built in four new countries and sold in 160.
Production has already started in Thailand and India (at the end of May) – the line will also be made in China and Mexico.
Nissan executives in Thailand have previously said the Micra sedan would be 4.4 metres long and not sold in western Europe while the third vehicle Nissan India’s Tokuyama said had ‘not been finalised’ was described by executives at the Thai Micra launch as ‘a new compact MPV to replace the current Note’ (which is also currently built in Japan and the UK).
Nissan is expecting global sales of up to 1m units a year of the three new V-platform cars – roughly 300,000-400,000 of each.
The V-platform was developed by Nissan, rather than the Renault-Nissan alliance, but is available for the French to use and under consideration for a future Renault, Nissan executives have said.
For Indian Micra build, Nissan has already chosen 96 local suppliers so local content was around 85% from Job One.
“[Half] of the supplier base is in Chennai and the rest from various parts of India,” Tokuyama told just-auto. Local parts such as pistons, clutch discs and starter motors will also be exported.
Indian produced Micras will exported to over 100 countries including Europe, the Middle-East and Africa. The model will join the Indian-built Pixo (made on an OEM basis by Maruti Suzuki as a variant of that automaker’s Alto/A-Star) in export markets and compete with locally-made Hyundai models shipped from the Korean automaker’s Indian ‘export production hub’.
The Indian Micra is built at the Renault-Nissan alliance joint venture called Renault Nissan Automotive India in Chennai after an INR45bn investment in the new plantwhich will has initial annual capacity of up to 400,000 units. In the first year, 80,000 units will be produced for domestic and export sales.
