Nissan Motor on Monday (15 July) revived the Datsun brand – defunct since early 1986 – with a new, Indian-made five door hatchback called the Go, which shares wheelbase and platform with the locally-made Micra [March] and a Renault badged derivative called the Pulse.
Sales begin in India and three other markets early in 2014. According to just-auto’s Production Life Database (PLDB) the B-segment model eventually will be built also in Cikampek, West Java, Indonesia and by AvtoVAZ in Togliatti, Russia as well as the launch plant of Oragadam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, in India.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Nissan announced Datsun’s revival in March 2012. In the launch market of India, the car will be a key rival for the redesigned Hyundai i10 which is also made there.
The automaker will also start building the Go at the expanded Cikampek plant in Indonesia during 2014.
In May 2012, Renault-Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn said Datsun vehicles would eventually become available in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
Last January, Nissan confirmed Indonesia, India and Russia as the brand’s first three markets. A month later, South Africa was named as a fourth but the automaker did not say where the cars would be made.
“The Datsun Go is the realisation of the commitment made by Nissan Motor in March 2012 to return the Datsun brand to the marketplace,” the automaker said in a statement on Monday. It added the brand would “play an important role in the Nissan Power 88 mid-term business plan”.
“This is an historic day for Nissan Motor Company and for our customers and partners in some of the world’s fastest-growing markets. It’s also an exciting moment for many women and men here in India who – today – come one step closer to realising the dream of purchasing a car,” Ghosn said while unveiling the car.
The five-door, front-wheel drive hatchback will come with a 1.2 litre petrol engine and five-speed manual transmission.
It is 1,635mm wide, 1,485mm tall, 3,785mm long on a 2,450mm wheelbase and, its maker said, “offers ample headroom and an expanded front seating configuration. It will be a reliable partner for families, providing comfort to five occupants and agility in congested traffic”.
Features will include a mobile docking station for smartphones.
The Go [the name is also used for a line of TomTom portable satellite navigators – ed] is expected to be “a category up” in its price range, “attractively priced below INR400,000 [US$6,700]”, according to Nissan.
As often with Japanese automakers, there is a long-winded explanation for how the new car got its name.
“This all new car has been built to meet the needs of recent rising group of optimistic customers in high growth markets who seek better value propositions. These are people who want transportation that supports their everyday needs, but that also fulfills their dreams and ambitions for a better tomorrow. They are literally ‘on the move’. They want to GO further, so the name of the car reflects this aspiration,” the statement said.
The name is also said to have been inspired by the first Datsun, the DAT-GO, launched almost a century ago in Japan.
“Back then the cars brought mobility to people who had never dreamed of car ownership before. The reignited Datsun brand and the Go will bring a similar combination of aspiration and trustworthiness,” Nissan said.
“When a customer buys his first new car in countries like India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa, first he dreams about it. To realise the dream, customers need to have access, feel a sense of belonging towards the brand. Also, as this purchase will represent a significant part of their disposal income, it is important for them to have full trust in the brand and the product. So ‘dream, access and trust’ are key values for which the Datsun brand stands now,” said brand head Vincent Cobee.
The brand’s models will be developed individually for different markets but the concept will follow a common idea. Two more models will be launched later in 2014 as the range is also rolled out in Indonesia, Russia and South Africa.
Nissan Motor’s global design centre in Japan was responsible for the styling but R&D and engineering development were assigned to local engineers and suppliers to ensure the cars would suit local market conditions, preferences, tastes and needs, as well as meeting price and supply criteria.
