Nissan firm but cautious on India plan

Market slump is forcing global carmakers to add caution in their India centric approach. Japanese carmaker Nissan is the latest to fall in line. The Renault-Nissan's ultra-low cost car project in partnership with Bajaj Auto is on but delayed by at least a year.

According to Kiminobu Tokuyama, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, "Nissan Motor India, "The ultra-low cost was planned for a 2010-11 debut but now it has been delayed to 2011-12 tentatively. It is however still too early to reveal anything else on this project."

Meanwhile, Nissan is sticking to its original plan to start production of its small car Micra from the Chennai plant in May 2010. The carmaker will now reduce the number of planned production lines at its under-construction plant in Chennai, India. Earlier it planned to have only two production lines.

Tokuyama adds, "The Chennai plant has a plant capacity of 400,000 a month. There is no change in the SOP plan. Though right now we cannot divulge how much will we produce by 2010. We are also trying to achieve 80 percent localization." The altered plan implies that the plant will now be able to produce 200,000 vehicles on a single assembly line.