Japanese car major Nissan will enter the Indian mid-size car market in October with its Sunny. Production of the car will start from the end of this month. The car will initially be launched with a 1.5 litre petrol engine and a diesel variant is likely to be introduced in early 2012. It will compete with the likes of Volkswagen Vento and the Toyota Etios, and is expected to be priced between Rs. 7-9 lakh.

The 10th generation Nissan Sunny is based on Nissan’s V (Versatile) platform, the one being used in the Nissan Micra. Nissan says the car has been designed and fine-tuned to meet different tastes and needs of customers beyond its market segmentation in both developed markets and emerging markets like US, China and India.

The Sunny will be sold in 170 countries globally, some of which will import the car from Nissan’s Oragadam plant, near Chennai.