They say trial production of new Nissan Micra begins next month in Chennai
Reports claim Nissan India will soon begin trial production of the much awaited next generation Nissan Micra in its Chennai plant. The Micra will be produced for domestic and international customers starting May 2010, employing about 1,500 people.
Reports claim Nissan plans to produce about 30 units in the trial run next month.
According to Nissan Motor India spokesperson, the Micra hatchback is based on the global compact car platform and will debut in the Geneva motor show in March 2010. Nissan would follow the Micra up with a sedan using its platform and later on, a MPV as well.
The factory, which is currently under construction, will be able to produce 200,000 units annually when complete. Cars built here will be put on a ship that sails to the European markets and UK.
Another piece of information about this project is that Unipress, Tenneco Exhaust India and Tacle India are going to be some of the suppliers for the Nissan small car project.
Though the variants they are talking about is still under study, the first vehicle to roll out of their under-construction Chennai plant will be a hatchback (Micra/March) and immediately followed by a sedan based on it.
At present, Nissan sells the Teana and the X-Trail which are fully imported vehicles that bumps up its prices. On the 16th of this month, revamped versions of both these cars will be launched in a bid to improve on the 120 vehicles they sold last year.
In our view, the rest of the variants could be hatchbacks and sedans – cars like the Versa could fit the bill, but only after detailed study can the demand for equipment, engines and features be understood.
On Friday, while I was commuting to my work place, I spotted two Chevrolet Cruzes being tested here in Chennai. Going by the number plates, the vehicles are test mules put together at the company’s plant in Halol.
As there was too much traffic and noise, I was unable to get anything from under the hood of these moving mules. Possibly one vehicle could have been petrol, while the other, a diesel.
The Chevrolet Cruze will be launched in India in October and according to sources, only a diesel engine with manual and automatic transmissions will be launched during this event. The powertrains are borrowed from the Captiva, which we had been driving the whole of last week, and it will soon be joined by petrol models with automatic transmission later this year, possibly at the Auto Expo.
The deteriorating sales of Logan hasn’t deterred Renault’s aggressive plans of producing cars at its Chennai plant by 2011. According to Mr Marc Nassif, Country General Manager, Renault India, Renault globally has small cars, sedans and sport-utility vehicles, its just that they have to select the right model that’s best for India.
Renault is expected to launch its first compact hatchback next year, followed by a notchback in 2011 (possibly the Sandero and its derivative). Renault has frozen investments in its JV plant with Nissan at Chennai, but it could use that facility.
Over the weekend just gone by, yet another Auto Show took place in our country, this time in the city of Chennai at the Nadambakkam Trade Center. It wasn’t International by any standards, only because a few of the foreign brands like Hyundai and VW had participated, it was named Chennai International Auto Show. The same show organizers were also responsible for the Bangalore Auto Show a few days back.
Entry posted on January 20, 2009 by
Vibs;
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Hyundai, which recently rolled out the second car from its ‘i’ series in India – the i20, has started claiming records already!
When the i10 was launched in late 2007, it quickly grabbed a spot in the the Top 10 sales chart, and now, same is the case with the Hyundai i20 after its late 2008 launch.
Indian Autos Blog wish to thank Arjun from Chennai for sending us these snaps. ING was one of the key sponsors for IIT Shaastra, an annual tech fest conducted by the students of IIT . The IITians were able to convince ING to bring the Renault R28 F1 car to their campus and put it on display for the visitors to see and relish. The tech fest happened earlier this [ Read More ]
They say trial production of new Nissan Micra begins next month in Chennai
