Nissan Indian is getting aggressive in the Indian market and now plans to launch an affordable car for India which will be part of the sub-Rs 3 lakh category, according to Mr Andy Palmer, Executive Vice-President.
“We will look at an affordable car without a doubt. There are several sub-segments (under the Rs 3-lakh space) and we have ambitions to traverse as many of those as practically possible.”
“The vision is more than mature but what I cannot tell you is the time of launch. We have a very competent engineering capability in Chennai and will be foolish not to use it,” Mr Palmer added.
The small car from Nissan will not be a Nano competitor but will largely be in tune with the Maruti Alto and Hyundai Eon.
Nissan’s partner for the light commercial vehicle business, Ashok Leyland, has already made it known that it is not interested in the car space. The company will, therefore, either execute the project on its own or through the alliance with Renault which already rolls out products from the ‘V’ platform in Chennai.
Renault is also working on an affordable car in an identical price category. The JV will certainly benefit from economies of scale if the product is manufactured jointly and also sold in other global markets.
