Nissan treads softly on ULC route

Japanese carmaker Nissan is taking a cautious approach for its India plan. The Renault-Nissan’s ultra-low cost car project in partnership with Bajaj Auto is now delayed by at least a year.

According to Kiminobu Tokuyama, managing director and chief operating officer, Nissan Motor India, “The ultra-low cost car was planned for a 2010-11 debut but now it has been delayed to 2011-12 tentatively. It is too early to reveal more on this project.”

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

Tokuyama said, “The Chennai plant has a production capacity of 400,000 units a year. There is no change in the Start of Production plan, though at present we cannot divulge how much will we produce by 2010. We are also trying to achieve 80 percent localisation.” The altered plan implies that the plant will now be able to produce 200,000 vehicles on a single assembly line.

The road ahead

In 2010 Nissan plans to manufacture nine new models at its Chennai plant. Five of these will be for the Indian market. Nissan already markets the X-Trail and the Teana in India. The company plans to launch the newer versions of these two models later this year.

“Besides launching new models, we have an aggressive plan to expand our current dealer network. By 2010 we will have at least 30 more dealers, rising to 55 dealers by 2012. Also, we have a tie-up with Hover Automotive India to help us with our distribution network,” said Tokuyama.