Indian Autos blog

Japanese automakers Nissan and Mitsubishi announced their partnership that will see them working together on a small car project. The joint venture sees the financially troubled Mitsubishi and the highly successful Nissan brand joining forces, not for the first time however. This plan kicked off with the appointment of Nissan’s Junichi Endo as the CEO of the joint-venture, while Mitsubishi’s Senior Executive Officer will be his counterpart on the other  [ Read More ]

According to a recent report on a popular auto magazine, Nissan is working on two small cars below the Micra. IAB had reported last year about Nissan mulling a sub-Micra mini hatchback, but Autocar India has spilled the beans on the second model as well. The first car (codename – K2) is going to sit right under the Micra when it comes out in December 2012. It will use a  [ Read More ]

Unable to price the Micra aggressively, Nissan has understood that the only way to penetrate the Indian market is by developing another inexpensive compact car.

Nissan is working on this small car and the Indian wing is helping them complete the task. Earlier this year, Nissan held talks with Ashok Leyland for a car between the Bajaj-Nissan-Renault ULC and the Micra, but no headway was made.

As wheelosphere.org points out, Nissan could develop this mini car with another objective – Pixo replacement for Europe. The Pixo is the Maruti Suzuki A-Star wearing a Nissan badge. Maruti Suzuki agreed to supply Nissan Pixos till 2013. Beyond this point, Nissan might fill that void by manufacturing the next generation Pixo at its Oragadam plant in Chennai where the Micra is manufactured.

Mr. Kiminobu Tokuyama, Managing Director & CEO, Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd. (NMIPL) to Business Standard -

We plan to have a car below the Micra. We have a significant demand for this segment and we have been studying it. We are, at present, in the concept stage and studying customers

Rumor has it that Volkswagen expressed interest in cosmetically altering the A-Star to fill the product gap under the Polo for India. This might be another reason why Nissan could have chosen to look beyond the A-Star and its partnership with Maruti Suzuki for the future of the Pixo. Recently there were reports of a possible tie-up between Malaysian car maker Proton and Nissan, where the latter would provide its V-Platform to Proton for developing its small car for India.

In 2013, Nissan will manufacture the V-Platform MPV at Oragadam which might not be suited for the Indian market. Nissan will however introduce the NV200 MPV in India by 2012 under the Ashok Leyland-Nissan alliance.

Nissan’s third product for India, from Oragadam, instead of the V-platform MPV, could be the sub-Micra mini car which will serve dual purpose – take on the likes of the Maruti Alto and Hyundai HA here in India, and serve as the Pixo replacement in Europe and other parts of the world.

Nissan has plans to develop a low-cost, economical, small, city car for the Indian market. The car will be developed from the grounds up and will be a made-in-India product. Nissan is currently looking for partners for forming a joint venture to develop this small car. Currently, Ashok Leyland seems to be the fore runner in becoming Nissan’s partner for this project.

Andy Palmer, Nissan’s Senior Vice-President -

We are yet to decide on a partner for the car, though the favorite is Ashok Leyland

But, the spokespersons of both Nissan and Ashok Leyland are not ready to confirm Andy Palmer’s comment. They say that nothing has been finalized as of now and that talks and discussions are currently ongoing.

Ashok Leyland’s Official Spokesperson -

As we have said at our previous press meet, Ashok Leyland is just weighing options to develop a small car. No plans have been firmed up on that. All the reports pertaining to the Nissan-Ashok Leyland tie-up are purely speculative

Nissan India’s Spokesperson -

With regards to the small car project, we have already made it clear during the press conference held on June 1, 2010 that we are in the conceptual phase, talking with several partners. Our approach is customer lead, so we will adopt different configurations in different markets. We are in discussion with ALL (Ashok Leyland Limited), since we have a good relationship, but nothing is finalized. In this market, we are discussing with ALL and others, in other markets, we will discuss with other potential partners. We do not have any other guidance to share at this point of time

From the above quotes, one thing for clear is that Nissan is indeed planning to develop a small car with an Indian partner, but who will that partner be is the big question waiting to be answered. Watch this space.

Nissan Motor India announced that their much hyped small car project is on track despite the economic slowdown. The small car based on the next generation Nissan Micra/March will be here in 2010 as per their schedule. Nissan has also planned to make Chennai as its small car hub for global exports.