Nissan issues teaser of compact SUV for India, ahead of global reveal on July 16

Nissan India has issued a teaser of the its upcoming B-SUV for India, called the Magnite. The teaser gives a glimpse of only the headlights and grille, ahead of the Magnite's global reveal on July 16, 2020 at Nissan's global headquarters. The compact B-SUV is scheduled to be introduced in the second half of FY2021.

The compact SUV is part of Nissan’s new 4-year business plan for the AMI region. The B-SUV is essentially the Magnite, whose launch has been delayed and is now slated for January 2021.

According to Nissan, the upcoming compact SUV is "designed for tomorrow’s journey as a feature-rich premium offering with stylish design for a strong and dynamic road presence."

The Magnite is a make-or-break model for the Japanese carmaker in India and it simply cannot afford to get it wrong. Till such time the Magnite makes it to showrooms, the updated Kicks will be the only Nissan-badged car on sale in India. With a likely starting price of Rs 525,000, multiple engine-gearbox options and a few segment-best features, the Nissan Magnite is expected to shake up the segment.

However, the Renault Kiger, the Nissan Magnite's cousin, will make it to market first and is slated for an october 2020 launch...

Nissan and Renault get ‘joint status’ in India
On June 24, Nissan announced a new 4-year business plan for the Africa, Middle East and India regions under the broader Global Transformation Plan, which confirms a different approach for India. Renault and Nissan will enjoy ‘joint status in India’. In effect, the global leader-follower model will not be adopted in India and both brands will continue to enjoy a degree of freedom with respect to product development for our market.  

As before, the two carmakers will continue to share product platforms and engines in India but will not take the additional step of sharing vehicle bodies. Renault and Nissan have had badge-engineered cars in India (such as the Nissan Sunny and Renault Scala) in the past but had opted to move away from the approach. 

In terms of product, Nissan will roll out 8 new models, with SUVs and B-sedans (Sunny) being the focus segments. At the same time, the product line-up will also be rationalised by 20 percent, suggesting the withdrawal of slow-selling models. 

Read more: Eight new models in Nissan’s 4-year plan for Africa, Middle East and India